Bridge
My summer tour of Ireland began in Dublin, where I played at the outstanding Regent Bridge Club. In today’s deal, my partner slipped on defense. To see if you can do better, cover the West/South cards. Defend as East.
Against five clubs, West leads the jack of hearts: king, ace, deuce. What next?
To beat this contract -- and since not every North-South will reach game, you may need to beat it to avoid disaster -West must hold the ace of spades, but unless you have a diamond or trump trick coming (unlikely), you will need two spades.
If declarer has enough entries to set up and run the diamonds, you are sunk. But if West had a singleton diamond, he might have led it. If South has one and can’t use the diamonds, he may have unavoidable spade losers.
At Trick Two, return a passive heart. As the cards lay, South must lose two spades. At my table, East shifted to the jack of spades: seven, five, king. Declarer later led a spade to his nine and made his game.
Daily Question: You hold: A54 J 10865 ( K6 $ 9 6 2. Your partner opens one diamond, you respond one heart and he bids one spade. What do you say?
Answer: You have no good call. To pass is possible -- partner’s one spade is not forcing -- but he could have 18 points, and you might miss a game. A rebid of two hearts would require a longer or much stronger suit. As the lesser evil, try 1NT despite the lack of a club trick. At least your pattern is balanced.