A delicate refinement of play
The bidding: South West North East 1 [H] Pass 2 [C] Pass 3 [C] Pass 3 [H] Pass

4 [H]

Opening lead -- queen of diamonds.

The need for a delicate refinement in the play occasionally arises in bridge, and the mark of the master is that he recognizes these situations and takes whatever subtle steps may be called for.

Take this case where South was declarer in four hearts. He won the diamond lead, played the queen of hearts and finessed, West dropping the nine. He then led the jack. East covered with the king and South took the ace, on which West showed out.

Declarer now held the 10-7- 3 of trumps and East the 8-6. To avoid the loss of a trump trick, South led a low club to the jack and returned the four of hearts. East played the six, gobbled up by the seven, and the ten then drew East's last trump.

Everything would have been fine except that when declarer next cashed the ace of clubs, East showed out, and there was now no way to run dummy's club suit. So declarer led the queen and overtook it with the king in order to lead a spade from dummy. This proved to be of no avail because West had the A-Q, and South finished down one.

Yet, declarer should have made four hearts. He did not give himself the maximum chance for the contract. After the trump situation became exposed, he should have realized that a 4-1 club break might defeat him and taken measures to guard against it.

Instead of leading the six of clubs to the jack at trick four, he should have led the queen to the king. Then, after picking up East's trumps, he would cash the ace of clubs. When East showed out, it would be a simple matter to finesse against West's ten on the next trick, and South would have finished with 11 tricks instead of nine The Pensacola

Bridge Center,

a not-for-profit

organization, will be

sponsoring a bridge course for beginners, starting Feb. 2. at the Bridge Center on the

corner of 12th Ave. and Brainerd Street,

four blocks north of Cervantes. The first

four two-hour lessons are free of

charge, with each

lesson thereafter

costing only $3.

Easybridge books are also available for

$10. For more

information, call 712-5856.