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Duplicate Club players started out the week on Tuesday with four full tables, at the Mower County Senior Center in Austin, start time of 11:30 a.m.

Winners were:

• First place, Jim Fisher and Mike Leidal

• Second place, Camilla Sparks and Paul Hanson

• Third place, Barb and Orrion Roisen

• Fourth place, Vandy Newman and Lorraine Quinlivan

Wednesday’s group played five full tables. Winners were:

• First place (tie): Tom Flaherty and Stan Schultz and Dave Ring and Gail Schmidt

• Third place, Vandy Newman and Ron Peters

• Fourth place, Joyce Crowe and Mike Leidal

• Fifth place, Barb Rofshus and Paul Hanson

Players come from Mason City, Albert Lea, Rose Creek, and Austin. We invite all bridge players to join us either day.

Adam Parrish wrote a column for the Bridge Bulletin this month and it gives us some insight into hand evaluation. It’s about 9’s and 10’s. Who knew!

It’s a tool that all the experts use to increase hand evaluation. He is actually talking about qualitative not quantitative evaluation, ie start with high card points, and decide to upgrade or downgrade our hand and by how much. Your partner wants to know exactly how many points you have above the 14 HCP. With a distribution of five clubs, and 3 tens and two 9’s, adds a point to his valuation of the hand. Players can either bid clubs or not. Smart players play the hand in 3 nt. Knowing the true evaluation of a teammate’s hand is paramount to a great partnership.