Daily Bridge Club

Spectacular play

I got to the club and found Cy the Cynic sitting alone at a corner table in the lounge. He appeared morose.

“Minnie and her spectacles nailed him again,” Rose told me. “But this time he could have foiled her.”

Minnie Bottoms, my club’s senior member, wears old bifocals that make her mix up kings and jacks, often to her opponents’ dismay. Cy has been Minnie’s chief victim.

“I was West,” Rose told me, “and led the seven of spades against Cy’s 3NT. He played low from dummy, and Minnie, East, followed with the jack.”

“Thinking it was the king, no doubt,” I said.

EIGHT TRICKS

Cy took the queen and led a heart to the jack, and Minnie won and returned the king of spades. Cy had only seven tricks to cash, and when he led a diamond, Minnie won and led her last spade. Down one!

“Cy is safe if Minnie wins the first spade,” I remarked. “You would never get your long spades.”

“True,” she said, “but all Cy had to do was put up the ace at Trick One. Then 3NT is unbeatable.”

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: A 10 Q J 8 7 6 5 3 A Q 5 2. Your partner opens one club, you respond one heart and he bids one spade. What do you say?

ANSWER: If a jump to three clubs would be forcing in your partnership, that call is perfect. But if three clubs would be invitational (what would you bid with A 10, Q J 8 7, 6 5, A 8 5 3 2?), bid two diamonds. In modern bidding, such a “fourth suit” bid doesn’t promise diamonds but asks partner to describe his hand further. North dealer N-S vulnerable