DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

Rose, our club member whose courtesy and kindness toward her fellow players are exemplary, has taken on Unlucky Louie as a project.

“He’s not as bad as his results suggest,” Rose insists. “He just plays too fast.”

Louie was declarer at today’s four hearts, and when West led the king of clubs, Louie sagely and smoothly played low. But East’s five was discouraging, so West shifted to the jack of diamonds. Louie won, drew trumps and led a spade from dummy to his king, and West took the ace and led another diamond. Then the defense got the queen of spades and a diamond for down one.

“I don’t know what to do with him,” Rose told me. “Maybe I should impose a mandatory 30-second pause on him after he sees dummy.”

Louie must win the first club, draw trumps and lead a spade to his king. If West wins and shifts to a diamond, Louie takes the king and leads a second spade. Even if West plays low, Louie should guess right and put up dummy’s jack because of West’s double. DAILY QUESTION

You hold:

heart, your partner responds one spade and you jump to hearts. What do you say?

ANSWER: A bid of three hearts — or any bid, in the absence of special methods — would have been forcing, so most experts would treat partner’s jump to four hearts as a slam suggestion. Since you have prime values, bid six hearts. He should hold a hand