Making a difficult decision.
Bridge Column for August 8, 2003, Harvey Bernstein
Neither side vulnerable.  North deals.
                              North
                              S: Q 4 3            
                              H: Q 4         
                              D: 8           
                              C: K Q J 9 7 5 3
            West                             East
            S: J 9 7 2                       S: 10 8 5       
            H: K 8 6                         H: 10 7 2     
            D: A 7 2                         D: J 10 4 3          
            C: 10 8 2                        C: A 6 4      
                              South                         
                              S: A K 6
                              H: A J 9 5 3  
                              D: K Q 9 6 5 
                              C: Void     
          The Bidding:  
                  North    East    South    West                  
                   3C      Pass     3NT     Pass
                   Pass    Pass
     Today's hand presents a couple of situations that are not
unusual and cause a lot of anguish.  
     First, look at the North hand.  If you are in first or
second seat, you have a much different problem than if you are in
third seat.  In third seat, after two passes, you know that your
partner does not have an opening bid and it is probably correct
to preempt the bidding with a three club opening call.  In first
or second seat you are probably better off starting with a Pass.
     Second, if you do decide to bid in front of an unpassed
partner, you should have some agreement on what kind of hand the
preemptive bid will show.  The suit that is bid should be fairly
self sufficient.  But if that is all you have, with not even a
hint of an outside entry, than I would suggest bidding at the
four level instead of the three level.  When you open at the
three level you should have some possible outside entry so that
you partner can bid three no trump (with the right hand) without
a great deal of discomfort.
     This North-South partnership had never discussed the
situation when this hand came up.  South took a chance that his
partner would have something outside the club suit.  The opening
lead was the nine of spades.  Declarer won in hand and led a
small heart towards the queen.  West played low and the queen
held.  The king of clubs fetched the ace and a spade was
returned.  The queen won in dummy and when the smoke cleared,
declarer made eleven tricks for an excellent score.
     These are the types of situations that a partnership should
talk about so that they have some idea of what to expect.
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Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.