Learning to make the right play.
Bridge Column for December 6, 2002, Harvey Bernstein
East-West vulnerable.  South deals.
                              North
                              S: 10 7 3           
                              H: Q 8 7 4 2   
                              D: A J 7 3     
                              C: 8       
            West                             East
            S: Void                          S: Q J 8 6 5 4  
            H: K 10 6 5 3                    H: A 9        
            D: Void                          D: Q 10 9            
            C: K Q 10 9 6 5 4 3              C: 7 2         
                              South                         
                              S: A K 9 2 
                              H: J          
                              D: K 8 6 5 4 2
                              C: A J      
          The Bidding:  
                  South    West    North    East                  
                   1D       2C      2D       2S 
                   3D       5C      Pass    Pass
                   5D      Pass     Pass    Pass
     There are a lot of complaints about the hands at tournaments
that are dealt by a computer.  This hand was dealt by a real
person at a regular session of the Beachwood Duplicate Bridge
Club at the Beachwood Recreation Center on a recent Saturday
afternoon.  I held the South cards and after the auction shown
above, West led the king of clubs.
     I mis-played this hand for down one and a bad matchpoint
result as most of the North-South pairs were going plus by
defeating five clubs.  Afterwards, I spent a great deal of time
trying to figure out where I went wrong. 
     When West's five club bid came around to me I had three
choices:  I could pass, double, or bid five diamonds.  Since I
was pretty sure that five clubs could not make, it appears
correct to double, and that is what most of the players in the
North seat did.  I knew, however, that my partner and I had a ten
or eleven card diamond fit and no more than one heart loser.  I
also held the ace of both black suits.  My final decision was
that I should be able to make five diamonds, so my bid was not a
sacrafice.
     When the dummy appeared I thought that I could play the hand
to lose one heart and one spade, making five.  I won the first
trick and played a diamond to the ace.  West showed out and I had
a sure diamond loser to go along with the heart that I already
knew about.  
     I played a small heart to my singleton jack and all of a
sudden there was no way to recover.  West won the king of hearts
and played a second heart.  I played low from dummy.  East played
the ace and I trumped.
     I trumped the jack of clubs in dummy and tried to cash the
queen of hearts.  East trumped with the ten of diamonds.  I
played the king of diamonds and exited with a diamond.  East won
the queen and played the queen of spades.  I won the ace, played
a trump to the dummy and led the seven of spades.  East covered
with the eight.  I won with the nine and wound up losing a spade
trick for down one.
     The key to this hand is very simple.  Trying to set up
hearts for spade discards will not work.  With even the best
distribution, one of the defenders will have four hearts.  
     At trick three I must make the best use of my entries to the
dummy and lead a small spade.  If East plays low I should insert
the nine.  If East splits his honors I must win and re-enter the
dummy by trumping the jack of clubs.  Another spade lead allows
me to win the nine and the king and then trump a spade in the
dummy.  
     It is possible that West has the singleton queen or jack of
spades, but the odds are against that holding.  As the cards lie,
the defense is able to win one diamond trick and one heart trick. 
Plus 400 would have been a very good score. 
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.