Burning questions

If Unlucky Louie bought a suit with two pairs of pants, he would burn a hole in the coat. Louie blames his bad results at bridge on unfailing bad luck, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Louie was declarer at today’s four spades after a “transfer” auction. East had doubled North’s four hearts to direct a lead. West duly led the ten of hearts, and East took the ace and returned the nine. Louie played the king, and West ruffed and led a club.

Louie finessed with dummy’s queen, but East won. Later, Louie also lost a diamond finesse to West’s queen and went down.

SEVEN HEARTS

“Why did the man have to hold seven hearts for his double?” Louie asked sourly.

Louie erred. He should let East’s nine of hearts win, not letting West get in for a damaging club shift through dummy. If East leads a third heart, West can ruff, but Louie overruffs in dummy, draws trumps and finesses in diamonds. The finesse loses, but Louie can discard the queen of clubs on his fourth diamond. vulnerable. The dealer, at your right, opens one club. What do you say?

ANSWER: I am sure that almost all experts would double. True, the distribution is imperfect; you would rather hold an ideal hand such as K Q J 2, K 8 5 2, A K 7 6, 3. But the key factor is that you have no “wasted” honors in clubs that might be useful for defense. If you pass, you may miss a makable game. South dealer Both sides vulnerable