DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“I wish somebody would tell me,” Cy the Cynic grumbled, “why some people know everything — except when to keep it to themselves.”

Cy was today’s West in a duplicate event, and every North-South pair got to six hearts.

“I led the king of clubs, of course,” Cy told me. “South ruffed, led a trump to dummy, ruffed a club, led a diamond to dummy’s nine and ruffed a club. He went to the king of diamonds and took dummy’s three remaining high trumps, pitching spades, and won the last four tricks with the ace of spades and high diamonds, making seven. We got a bottom score. Every other South made only six.”

“Well played,” I observed.

“My know-it-all partner savaged my opening lead,” the Cynic growled. “He said that if I lead a trump or diamond, I hold South to 12 tricks.”

On the bidding, South was likely to have a club void, and a club lead might help him pull off a dummy reversal. Still, I think only a professional fault-finder would criticize Cy’s lead.

Daily question

You hold: ♠ K8763 ♥ 72 ♦ 86 ♣ A K J 6. Your partner opens one heart, you bid one spade and he raises to three spades. What do you say?

Answer: Partner has a hand worth about 17 points with four-card support. A typical minimum such as AJ52,AK654,A3,74willmake six spades a good contract, so you can make one try to get there. Cuebid four clubs. If partner cue-bids four diamonds, try again with a cue bid of five clubs.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable