DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“Didja hear about that new superhero, Aluminum Man?” Cy the Cynic asked me. “Yesterday he foiled a robbery.”

Declarers have been known to engage in trickery, so defenders must be careful. Today’s West led the king of clubs against South’s game, and South falsecarded with his eight, hiding his three and deuce in an effort to make East’s six look like an encouraging signal. But West figured that East could have spared a higher club if he wanted a club continuation, so West shifted to the queen of diamonds: deuce, six, three!

Say West leads another diamond. South can win, lead a trump to dummy, pitch his queen of spades on the king of diamonds, and take a ruffing spade finesse against East’s ace to get two club discards.

Luckily for the defense, West was on the ball. He noted that East’s six was his lowest diamond. So West trusted his partner and foiled South’s plot by leading a spade. East took the ace and led a club, and South lost two more clubs. Down two. DAILY QUESTION You hold: ♠A9853 ♥J ♦ 9 8 7 6 ♣ 10 9 6.Your partner opens one heart, you respond one spade and he jumps to three diamonds. The opponents pass. What do you say?

ANSWER: Your partner’s jump-shift is forcing — in fact, forcing to game. You might yearn to pass, but that action would be undisciplined and a system violation. Some players would raise to four diamonds, others would rebid three spades to give partner a chance to try 3NT.