Bridge Play

You’re serving on a grand jury, investigating the result of today’s deal. Hear the facts and decide whether to issue any indictments.

South opened four hearts as dealer, passed out. West led the deuce of spades: ten, king, ruff. South led a club to dummy’s king, winning, and returned a trump: ten, king ... and West played low smoothly. South pondered and led ... a low trump. East’s jack scored, and West got his two aces and a diamond.

Anything meriting a true bill?

PLUS SCORE

East-West should have bid four spades in theory — East would go down only one — but I can’t fault them for not entering the auction, and they did go plus on defense.

Indict South. After his king of trumps wins, he knows East had A-Kx-x-x in spades and at least one diamond honor, else West would have

led a high diamond. If East had the ace of trumps also, he might well have acted over four hearts.

South should continue with the queen of trumps. He loses one trump, one club and one diamond.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ AK753 ♥ J10 ♦ AJ8 ♣ 8 5 2. You open one spade, your partner bids two hearts, you rebid two spades and he tries three diamonds. What do you say?

ANSWER: Partner’s three diamonds is forcing. You cannot try 3NT, rebid spades again or raise his second suit with only three-card support. Bid three hearts. You would have raised directly on many hands with three-card support, and your J-10 doubleton is as good as three-card support anyway.hould cue-bid five clubs, then cue-bid five spades over your five hearts.