DAILY BRIDGE CLUB:

To start the week, test your defense. You are West in a team match. When today’s deal arose, your teammates bid and made six hearts. Can you beat it?

You lead the 10 of clubs, and declarer wins with the queen in his hand, ponders and leads a low trump. You take your queen, and East follows low.

Clearly, declarer has played as safe as possible in trumps, guarding against your actual holding. So what do you lead next?

At the other table, in the same position, West led the nine of diamonds. South won in dummy and cashed the jack of trumps. He led to his ace of spades, drew trumps with the

A-K and ran the clubs, making six.

To beat the slam, you must remove declarer’s only entry to his hand before he can unblock the jack of trumps and get back to draw your trumps. You must shift to the king of spades. South takes the ace and leads a trump to the jack, but if he tries to return by ruffing a minor-suit card, you will overruff.

DAILY QUESTION: You hold: ♠ A93 ♥ AK8652 ◆ 73 ♣ Q 2. You open one heart, and your partner bids one spade. What do you say?

ANSWER: I suspect that most players would routinely rebid two hearts. That action is certainly reasonable, but a case exists for a raise to two spades, which might be best opposite, say, K8765,3,A642,654. If you raise to two spades and he tries 2NT next, you can bid three hearts and describe your hand well.