DAILY BRIDGE CLUB:

“What chance have I got?” Unlucky Louie grumbled. “The man’s luck is as good as mine is terrible.”

Louie meant the player we call Harlow the Halo. While Louie labors under a cloud of misfortune, Harlow’s finesses always work and his errors never cost.

In a team match, both Louie and Harlow played at 3NT. West led a heart, and dummy’s jack won.

Louie carefully took his three spade tricks next and saw West discard a diamond. Louie next tried the diamond finesse. When West took the king and led the nine of clubs, Louie knew he needed the club finesse for nine tricks. He played dummy’s queen and made his contract.

“What happened in the replay?” I asked.

“The Halo finessed in diamonds at Trick Two,” Louie said bitterly. “When West won and led a club, Harlow had to guess: He couldn’t both finesse in clubs and try for four spade tricks. He took the club finesse — and made game.”

Poor Louie. He played correctly and gained nothing.

DAILY QUESTION: You hold: 107 AQ942◆ K63 K 9 3. Your partner opens one spade, you bid two hearts and rebids two spades. What do you say?

ANSWER: This is a borderline decision, and much depends on your partner. If his opening bids tend to be rock-solid, you can jump to 3NT. If he tends to open distributional hands that are light in high cards, you probably should settle for an invitational bid of 2NT.