DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

I found Cy the Cynic in the club lounge, writing an alimony check — feeding hay to a dead horse, he says.

“Was your ex-wife a nice person?” I asked.

“Mean as a snake.”

“If you married her, she couldn’t have been so bad,” I said.

“If I had a dollar for every time someone told me how mean she was,” the Cynic growled, “I’d have stayed with her for the money.”

Cy’s partners don’t treat him with much empathy either — often for good reason. When Cy was declarer at four spades, he won the first diamond with the queen and led a trump: five, jack, queen. West led a second diamond, and Cy won and led another trump.

When West took the ace, he led a heart to East and ruffed the diamond return for down one, and North made a few mean-spirited comments about Cy’s play.

Cy saves himself some grief and some money if he leads the king of hearts at Trick Two, a play that is clearly right. If East has a hand such asA,J1074,J9652,

Q 10 3, Cy still makes his game.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold:

ner opens one spade. The next player passes. What do you say?

ANSWER : This hand once called for a natural and forcing 2NT response, showing 12 to 14 points, balanced. Now, many pairs use that call as a conventional majorsuit raise; they would be obliged to temporize with a response of 1NT (forcing) or two clubs. But the natural 2NT response is descriptive — and maybe too useful to give up.

North dealer

Both sides vulnerable