The dummy took the winning course

Robert Benchley, who was a humorous newspaper columnist and occasional film actor, said, “I can’t seem to bring myself to say, ‘Well, I guess I’ll be toddling along.’ It isn’t that I can’t toddle. It’s that I can’t guess I’ll toddle.”

At the bridge table, sometimes you guess to do something different. If it works, partner will be impressed. If it fails dismally, you might be looking for a new partner!

If you were North in today’s deal, what would you rebid after partner opens one club, you respond one spade, and partner rebids one notrump?

Suppose you pass. East makes a penalty double asking for a spade lead. After two passes, would you pass or retreat to two clubs or two hearts?

Over one no-trump, rebidding two hearts is normal, showing a weak hand with 5=4 or 5-5 in the majors. Here, South would give preference to two spades, and East would double for down two.

At the table, North passed throughout. What was the result in one no-trump doubled?

West searched high and low but could not find a spade to lead. Instead, he chose his fourth-highest diamond.

Declarer took East’s king with his ace and cashed four heart tricks. What happened next?

South knew the distribution and was confident that West had the club honors because otherwise East might well have overcalled one no- trump. Declarer cashed dummy’s club ace and played a club to his queen. West took his three winners there and the diamond queen but then had to concede a trick to the diamond jack, which was South’s seventh winner.