Creativity at the bridge table.
Bridge Column for October 7, 2001, Harvey Bernstein
Both sides vulnerable.  East deals.
                              North
                              S: 9 5                
                              H: A 6         
                              D: K J 7 2     
                              C: A 9 6 4 3 
            West                             East
            S: Q 10 7 6 3                    S: A K J 4      
            H: J 10 5 4 2                    H: Q 9 7      
            D: 6                             D: 9                 
            C: 10 5                          C: K Q J 8 2   
                              South                         
                              S: 8 2  
                              H: K 8 3      
                              D: A Q 10 8 5 4 3
                              C: 7        
          The Bidding:  
                   East   South     West   North                  
                    1C     3D       Pass    Pass
                    Dbl    Pass      4D     Pass
                    4S     Pass     Pass     5D 
                    Dbl    Pass     Pass    Pass
     During a session of on-line bridge I picked up the North
cards and found myself faced with an interesting situation.  The
scoring was matchpoint duplicate style, and we had been playing
for about an hour.  I had determined that the opponents were
fairly aggressive players.
     East opened one club and partner made a pre-emptive call of
three diamonds.  West passed and I wanted to find a way to
maximize my potential for a good score.  If my partner had as
little as seven diamonds to the ace and nothing else, three
diamonds would make, but it was unlikely that he would go to the
three level, vulnerable, with only the ace of diamonds.  I
suspected that he had at least one outside honor card.  This made
a four or five level diamond contract a good possibility.
     I did not feel any reason to rush, however.  If the
opponents felt that I was "pushing" or "taking a sacrifice", they
might be inclined to double.  This appeared to be one of those
times that I should welcome a double.
     After my pass, East reopened the bidding with a double. 
West bid four diamonds which asks East to pick his best major at
the game level.  East bid four spades as requested and after two
passes, I bid five diamonds which was doubled as expected.
     The opening lead was the ten of clubs and partner made short
work of the play, losing only two spade tricks and earning +750
for making the doubled contract.  This proved to be a very good
score, although some pairs made an overtrick for an even better
result.  Interestingly, those pairs who played five diamonds,
undoubled, for +600, received a below average result.
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Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.