Planning the play of the hand. Bridge Column for December 31, 2004, Harvey Bernstein Special To The Plain Dealer Neither side vulnerable. East deals. North S: Q J 7 3 H: Q 5 D: Q 10 2 C: A K 6 3 West East S: A 9 5 S: 10 6 4 H: K 9 6 3 H: J 8 7 2 D: 7 5 4 D: A 9 6 3 C: 8 4 2 C: Q 5 South S: K 8 2 H: A 10 4 D: K J 8 C: J 10 9 6 The Bidding: East South West North Pass 1C Pass 1S Pass 1NT Pass 3NT Pass Pass Pass Thanks to Fred Eberlin of Lyndhurst for the interesting hand from a Friday afternoon duplicate game at the Orange Senior Community Center, 32205 Chagrin Blvd, Orange. Eberlin directs a game at that location that is open to all players on Wednesdays and Fridays starting at 12:30 p.m. He also has an open game at the Solon Senior Center, 35000 Portz Parkway, Solon, on Thursday evenings at 6:45 p.m. After a very normal auction, West started things off by leading the three of hearts. Declarer played small from the dummy and the jack forced the ace. Cover the East and West hands and decide how you would continue. This hand was played nine times at the duplicate game and four of the declarer's were down one while the other five made this contract. The difference was the play to trick two. The four who were defeated all played the jack of clubs and let it ride to the queen. A heart return knocked out declarer's last heart stopper and in the fullness of time, the defense was able to score two more hearts to go along with the ace of spades and the ace of diamonds. The winning play is to start on spades at trick two. Once the ace is driven out the defense will play hearts, removing declarer's last stopper. When declarer then plays on diamonds, the defense can take two hearts and the two aces that it was always going to get, but if the outstanding spades divide three- three, declarer will score three spades, two hearts, two diamonds, and two clubs for a total of nine. Finesses can be deceiving. It is usually better to look for other lines of play and save the potential finesse for the "last chance". Many times, the defense will break the suit for you, or you will find that you don't have to take the finesse at all. If you have friends that you would like to get started playing bridge, have them contact Eberlin who will be teaching Introduction To Bridge at the Jewish Community Center, 26001 S. Woodland Road, Beachwood, on Mondays from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. The six week long class starts on January 10, 2005 and the cost is $75.00. For questions regarding the games or lessons, call 440-461-4963. _______________________________________________________ Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.