So the big day is finally here as the Charity Game kicks off the 2016 Bermuda Regional at the Fairmont Southampton.

Chairperson Kathy Keane and her committee, and Sol Weinstein and his team of Directors are, as always, ready and prepared to make this yet another unforgettable event.

I’ll be doing a couple of Panel Shows and emceeing the banquet but my only bridge involvement will be partnering Jean Johnson in the Charity Game where we have often come close but never won. Maybe this year!

Today’s hand has always been one of my personal favourites and comes from a time when I was so involved in this game (playing at least three times a week) that things that I now have to think about simply came to me as reflex — always nice that, as one can preserve the brain cells for the really tough stuff.

The hand came up at the bridge club some 20 years ago and I am sure our opponents were Bill Souster and John Burville and they were playing a 12-14 NT (a key aspect of the deal).

I am less sure who my partner was but I think it was Tony Saunders, though he said lately that we had never played together — but that may have just been a memory he was trying his best to erase!

The hand is multi-faceted so I will digress often as I go through it and hopefully the digression will help your bridge thinking.

I picked up S-1098753, H-J64 D- 6, C- AJ9 and heard my LHO (John) open a 12-14 NT, partner doubled and RHO (Bill) passed — over to me.

Opponents were not vulnerable, we were.

Some thoughts: I expected to beat this contract but the dreaded expected Diamond lead might allow declarer to scramble five or six tricks and that might not pay us enough if we had a Spade fit.

So I decided to bid, take the leap and bid 3 Spades and partner raised to game. West led the Heart Ace and this dummy appeared.

Dealer West, N/S Vul

S AQJ

H Q87

D AQ75

C K76

S 1098753

H J64

D 6

C AJ9

Quite a nice dummy and given that most of the high cards (but not all) are on my left, making ten tricks looked pretty easy, so the goal was to beat the field and make 11.

I had 24 points between the two hands so for West to have 12-14 points, East had to have either the Spade King, Diamond King or Club Queen but no more than one of those.

If the King of Spades was with RHO, then ten tricks was the limit of the hand but there were options if RHO had one of the other two cards — I just needed to know which one.

East followed with the Heart 2 to trick one, which showed three or five cards and since all weak no trumpers had mechanisms to run to a five-card suit with a weak hand after the double, it was clear that RHO was 2-3-4-4, there was really no other distribution that made sense after his pass.

West continued with the Heart King and I unblocked the Queen from dummy to create an entry to my hand where I won the third Heart.

The temptation is to immediately take the Diamond finesse, ruff a Diamond back to hand, spade finesse, ruff another Diamond, repeat the Spade finesse, throw the losing Club on the Diamond Ace and claim.

But that puts all eggs in one basket so I decided to explore a bit.

The play now went, Spade finesse, Ace of Diamonds (yes, giving up on the finesse), ruff a Diamond, another Spade, ruff a Diamond, another Spade, ruff the last Diamond noting with interest and delight that the Diamond finesse would have lost.

This meant that LHO (opener) had to have the Queen of Clubs in this position where everyone just had Clubs left.

C K76

C Q?? C ????

C AJ9

Given that West had to have the Queen the only hope was that East had the ten, so play the Club Jack and run it if LHO plays low. If LHO covers with the Queen win the King and now play a low Club to the 9 — 11 tricks and a great score.

The full deal:

S AQ7

H Q87

D AQ75

C K76

S K4 S 62

H AK53 H 1092

D J832 D K1094

C Q53 C 10842

S 1098753

H J64

D 6

C AJ9

A hard-earned and really satisfying score, which is why it has stuck with me for this long.

As you can well imagine, not every hand I played worked out this well but all of those are in unpublished chronicles hidden away in a dark room — you certainly will not be seeing them in this column!