DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

At matchpoint duplicate, the aim is to outscore the other pairs who hold your cards. By just 10 points is enough. As declarer, your goal may not be to make your contract; you only want to do better than your competitors.

Today’s North- South have 25 points, and North has an establishable six- card suit. The 3NT contract is “normal”; every North- South will be there.

West leads a heart, East takes the ace and returns the nine, and West wins and leads the deuce to the queen. South is sure that if he forces out the ace of clubs, West will take two hearts for down one.

If West has Q- x or Q- x- x in diamonds and East has the queen of spades, South can make his game. But all that is improbable, and if South loses a finesse in either suit, he will go down two.

At matchpoints, South should lead a club and accept down one. His goal is not to make the contract ( as it would be at IMPs or Chicago scoring) but to beat the other Souths at 3NT. Tomorrow: playing safe. DAILY QUESTION You hold: partner opens one club, you respond one heart and he bids 1NT. What do you say?

ANSWER: This problem is difficult. To bid two spades would be wrong. Your partner does not have four cards in spades, and you would suggest much more strength. To pass will often be a winning call. Since hands with some 5- - 2- 2 pattern often play well with the five- card suit as trumps, I would consider rebidding two hearts. South dealer Neither side vulnerable