Daily Bridge Club

Useless defense

Today’s West was the dreaded Grapefruit, my club’s sourpuss member. He berates his partners mercilessly.

Against six diamonds, Grapefruit led the queen of spades. South took the ace, drew trumps, led a heart to dummy’s ace and ruffed the last spade. He took the king of hearts and ruffed a heart.

Declarer next led a club to dummy’s jack. East won but was end-played. He could return a club to dummy, concede a ruff-sluff by leading a spade, or lead his last heart, setting up dummy’s fifth heart. So South made his slam, and Grapefruit told East that he was as useless as the “p” and “h” in “psycho.”

COMPLAINT

“What did I do?” East complained. “Even a doofus would double North’s five-club cue bid for the lead,” Grapefruit growled. “Then I’ll lead a club and break up the end play.”

South could still succeed with a club lead. He could duck it to East, win the spade return, take the ace of clubs and run his trumps. At the end, East would be squeezed in hearts and clubs.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ K9 8 7 5 QJ 8 2 ♥ 5 ♣ K Q 6. Your partner opens ♦ one diamond, you respond one spade and he bids 1NT. What do you say?

ANSWER: This is a problem in “Standard” methods. A bid of three hearts would be forcing. Two hearts would not be forcing or encouraging. No bid exists for in-between hands. The solution for many pairs is to treat a bid of two clubs as conventional, suggesting invitational values and asking opener to make a further descriptive bid. North dealer N-S vulnerable