Weighty matters

Cy the Cynic continues to battle his weight — with limited success.

“I heard you got a calorie-counting app for your iPhone,” I told Cy as we had a sandwich in the club lounge.

Cy could only nod; his mouth was full.

“It’s true,” Rose said. “He goes for a new high score every day.”

I hope Cy counts calories better than he counts points and distribution at the bridge table. When I watched today’s deal, the Cynic was East, and West led the deuce of hearts against 3NT: three, king, ace. South next led the jack of diamonds: nine from West, seven from dummy. Cy took his king and returned ... a heart.

Declarer won with the queen, unblocked dummy’s A-Q of diamonds and took the A-K-Q of spades. He still had the ten of diamonds and jack of hearts for nine tricks.

“When you led the deuce,” Cy told West, “I thought your hearts would be stronger.”

“You forgot to count,” West retorted.

Cy was at fault. He knows from the opening lead that West had four hearts, and West’s nine of diamonds signaled that he had a singleton or doubleton in that suit. But if West had held five spades, he would have led a spade against 3NT.

Cy can place South with 4-4-4-1 distribution. When Cy takes the king of diamonds, he must shift to the deuce of clubs — the queen won’t do — and the defense can take four club tricks for down one.

I expect South would have preferred not to bid 2NT when his pattern was unbalanced, but he had no other attractive action. At least his club singleton was an honor. South dealer N-S vulnerable