DAILY BRIDGE CLUB:

“The man told me he had a beard, but he was a bald-faced liar.” — graffiti

As a defender, you rarely want to tell lies to your partner. Defenders tend to lead and signal honestly. But declarer is fair game. Mislead him if you can.

In a matchpoint duplicate event, West led a club against four spades, and East won and shifted to a diamond. West took the ace and led a second diamond to dummy. Then declarer’s only problem was to play the trumps to best advantage.

South led a trump to his ace. If West had played the deuce, South would have taken the king next. He would have lost one trump, making four. But West followed with the 10!

Now South could survive if West had no more spades or make an overtrick if he had the 10-9 doubleton. So South led a heart to dummy and returned the jack of trumps. Alas, East showed out, and South lost two trumps and went down.

If you think South was naive, I agree. But that doesn’t detract from West’s falsecard.

DAILY QUESTION: You hold: ♠ J765 ♥ AKJ5

◆ Q7 ♣ Q 7 6. Your partner opens 1NT. North in today’s deal bid two clubs with this hand. Do you agree with that action?

ANSWER: Most players would agree at matchpoints, where playing in a 4-4 fit at a major might produce a valuable extra trick.

At IMPs or party bridge, a case exists for raising to 3NT. You have the high-card strength to make that, and a bad trump break might beat a major-suit game.