DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

A fan sent me today’s deal and suggested that his partner is a few french fries short of a Happy Meal.

“He’s fixated on preempting the opponents,” my fan writes. “When we’re not vulnerable, he thinks he’s invulnerable. He opened three hearts as South on a suit headed by the nine! Fool that I was, I bid six hearts. If partner had a typical preempt, I thought he would have a chance for 12 tricks.”

My fan’s partner went down. West led a trump, and South took the A-K, learning that he had a trump loser. When he let the jack of clubs ride later, East produced the king.

“My partner roasted me for bidding slam. He insists that when he preempts, I need to give him all kinds of room.”

My preference is for textbook-style preempts. Nobody can predict the effect of a preempt. It may push the opponents into a bad contract. It may push them into one that they wouldn’t have reached otherwise and then help them make it. But I am absolutely certain that if your partner has no idea what you have when you preempt, you might as well not have a partner.

Be that as it may, South could have made six hearts. He wins the first trump, discards a club on the ace of spades, ruffs a spade and leads a trump to dummy. When East discards, declarer ruffs a spade, leads a diamond to the king and ruffs another spade. South can then concede a trump, win West’s club return with the ace and discard his last two clubs on the good spades.

Setting up the long spades offers a much better chance than relying on the club finesse.