DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“I thought my dryer was shrinking my clothes. The problem was actually my refrigerator.” — graffiti

Today’s West leads the queen of diamonds against four hearts, and South faces four losers: a trump and three spades. If he draws trumps, leaving none in dummy, he surely loses three spades. If he doesn’t draw any trumps and tries to ruff a spade in dummy, East overruffs. And if South takes the A-K of trumps and attacks the spades, West will get in to cash his queen of trumps. Down one regardless.

Can South shrink four losers into three?

Four hearts is cold. South takes the ace of diamonds, ruffs a diamond and cashes the A-K of trumps. When East-West follow low, South leads a club to dummy, ruffs a diamond, leads a club to dummy and ruffs a diamond.

If West overruffs, South still wins three more tricks: another club, the ace of spades and dummy’s remaining trump. If instead West discards, South scores the ace of spades plus either a club or a trump in dummy.

Daily question

You hold: ♠ A62 ♥ 853

♦ A964 ♣ A J 10. You open one diamond, your partner responds one heart, you bid 1NT and he next tries three clubs. What do you say?

Answer: Your partner surely has five or more hearts and probably has four clubs. Bid three hearts, showing three-card support for his first suit, which he may want to hear about. To persist to 3NT would be undisciplined. Partner can always go back to notrump if he deems it wise. North dealer

N-S vulnerable