Daily Bridge Club

Until next time

“My wife has this delightful habit,” a fan’s email reads, “of storing away my mistakes, like canned goods in a pantry, and bringing them up three years later. After a deal in last night’s duplicate, she wasn’t happy.”

My fan was East, and his wife led the jack of spades against 3NT. South won with the queen, led the ten of diamonds and let it ride.

“I took the jack,” my fan writes, “and returned a spade. Declarer won in his hand and led a second diamond to dummy’s eight. I won and led another spade, but he won in dummy and ran the diamonds, making an overtrick.”

PLATTER

“My wife said I had handed South his contract on a platter. I insisted that she had lost her mind. And she said, ‘We won’t discuss this again — until the next time I bring it up.’”

I’m afraid my fan’s wife was right. East must let South’s ten of diamonds win. South can lead another diamond, but no matter how he proceeds, he can’t set up and cash the long diamonds. He wins only eight tricks.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: K 8 3 8 5 3 K 9 8 6 5 10 4. Your partner opens one heart, you raise to two hearts and he bids 3NT. What do you say?

ANSWER: This problem is agonizing. Your paucity of strength and weak heart support suggest that you should let partner try for nine tricks rather than 10. He will have something in diamonds, so your long diamonds may produce some winners. Still, because of the weak doubleton in clubs, I would not criticize a return to four hearts. South dealer Both sides vulnerable