DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

Unlucky Louie attributes his losses to bad luck, but he is no more or less lucky than anyone else in my club. Luck is largely a matter of paying attention, and Louie doesn’t.

Louie was today’s South. Against his five diamonds doubled, West led the king of clubs. Louie ruffed, drew trumps, took the ace of spades and led a second spade: eight, 10, king.

East led another club, and Louie ruffed. He took the queen of spades but eventually lost two hearts to go down.

Louie wasn’t paying attention: His play could never work.

After Louie ruffs the first club, he can reach dummy with trumps to ruff two more clubs. Louie then draws the missing trump, takes the ace of spades and leads a second spade, playing low from dummy. (At that point, Louie can place East with 2-7-1-3 pattern.)

When East wins, he has only hearts left. If he leads a low heart, Louie wins in dummy, gets to his hand by ruffing a club, leads a spade to the 10 and wins his 11th trick with the queen.

Daily question

You hold: ♠ Q1064 ♥ KJ7 ♦ Q9 ♣ J 8 7 2. Your partner opens one spade, you bid two spades and he tries three hearts. What do you say?

Answer: Partner’s three hearts is a try for game and asks you to pay special attention to your holding in his second suit. If you have a double fit, you may make game with fewer than 26 high-card points. Though your minor-suit honors may be worthless, bid four spades. Partner may hold AKJ53, AQ632, 75, 4. North dealer Both sides vulnerable