DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“I made the mistake of telling my wife that I was tired of her having a monopoly on being right,” a reader writes. “Now she has a monopoly on sleeping in our bed, plus what we watch on TV.”

My fan says he was today’s East. He intervened over North’s 1NT, but South zoomed into a slam.

“My wife led the queen of spades,” my fan writes, “I took the ace, and declarer dropped the king. I mulled that over and led a club. If South held K,AQ9763,KJ1053, 5, we wouldn’t get the ace of clubs if we didn’t cash it. But South ruffed and claimed.”

“I guess it could have been worse. The contract could have been six hearts doubled. But my wife said my defense was horrible, and I’m still sleeping on the couch.”

East’s winning defense was indicated. If South held a hand with two black singletons, as East envisioned, he would have found a way to use an ace-asking bid to make sure two aces weren’t missing. South’s actual leap to slam suggested a void somewhere — almost surely in clubs. DAILY QUESTION

You hold:

Your partner opens one club, you respond one heart and he bids one spade. What do you say?

ANSWER: Your hand is a little too heavy to jump to 3NT. Your partner would pass with a hand such as K Q 9 4,

when six clubs would be quite a good contract. You can jump to three clubs if that bid would be forcing. Many experts would stall with a “fourthsuit” bid of two diamonds to get more information from partner.

North dealer Neither side vulnerable