The plays the thing. Bridge Column for April 22, 2006, Harvey Bernstein Special To The Plain Dealer East-West vulnerable. West deals. North S: A 10 7 3 H: K 10 8 D: A 5 4 2 C: A 8 West East S: J 5 2 S: Q 9 H: Q 4 H: J 6 5 3 2 D: Q 7 D: J 10 8 C: K Q 9 7 5 4 C: 10 6 3 South S: K 8 6 4 H: A 9 7 D: K 9 6 3 C: J 2 The Bidding: West North East South 3C Dbl Pass 4S Pass Pass Pass Opening lead: KC John Carruthers of Toronto, Canada wrote about this hand from the Bermuda Regional Bridge Tournament which was held this past February. If you have never had the chance to attend this annual event you should try to put it on your schedule. Players still dress up for the evening sessions and a beautiful banquet is held at the end where the winners receive valuable prizes. The first point that must be addressed with regard to this hand is the opening bid. When you are vulnerable, do not make silly pre-emptive bids in first or second seat. Actually, don't do it in third seat either! What can be gained? In this case, North has a very reasonable take out double and if South just leaves it in, you are going to be down three for a score of -800. South, however, saves West by bidding four spades. West starts with the king of clubs and it appears that a trick must be lost in each suit which would result in down one. Here is the second point. You will often be faced with the potential for down one. Don't give up. There is usually a way to get around the inevitable - you just have to be open to the possibility. South starts off by cashing the ace and king of spades. When both opponents follow and the queen appears, there is a good chance that West started with three spades to the jack. If he only had six clubs to start with he just may have two red suit doubletons. To play for that, South cashes the top two hearts and the top two diamonds. Both opponents follow to all four tricks. So far, so good. Declarer now played a club, putting West on lead. If West held the jack of spades he could cash it, but then he would have to lead another club. This allows declarer to trump on the table and discard his losing heart from hand. He then concedes a diamond and scores up his game for +420. This is a good score, but setting three clubs, doubled, only two tricks would be worth +500, and down three was more likely. Sometimes it is right to leave the double in and defend. "Knowing when" is the hard part. Andy Halpern of Orange Village is restarting his Monday afternoon duplicate bridge game for players with less than 300 master points. The game will meet at Temple Bethaynu, 27900 Gates Mills Boulevard, Pepper Pike, at 12:15 p.m. commencing May 1st. The scores from these games will be available at the clubs web site: http://andysdbc.eiffet.com Call (216) 464-3553 for any other information. The Cleveland Whist Club, Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League, is holding a Master/Future Master team of four game May 3 at 7:15 p.m. at St. Michael's Woodside, 5035 Mill Road, Broadview Heights. Call (440) 564-5363 for reservations or partnership assistance. The Cleveland Whist Club will hold its annual dinner meeting on May 7 at 1:30 p. m. at St. Michael's Woodside, 5035 Mill Road, Broadview Heights. A short meeting will be followed by dinner and an afternoon of bridge. The Ace of Clubs, Mini-McKenney, and new Life Master awards will be presented at the meeting. The cost is $18 per person. Call (330) 722-8214 for reservations and meal selection. Information about unit events is available at the web site: http://www.whistclub.org _______________________________________________________ Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon. To reach Harvey Bernstein: hjb0416@yahoo.com