Daily Bridge Club

Cy’s hasty play

Cy the Cynic’s apartment is a glorious disaster. Cy’s housekeeping style is best described as “There appears to have been a struggle.” Cy’s dummy play is similar. He plays on impulse to the first trick — and then has to struggle. Against his six spades, West led a diamond, and Cy threw a heart on dummy’s ace. He led a heart from dummy, and East took his ace and led a club. The Cynic won, led a trump to dummy, pitched a club on the king of hearts and ruffed a heart. When the suit failed to break 3-3, he had only 11 tricks.

LOW HEART

Cy lost his slam at Trick One. He can play dummy’s jack of diamonds and ruff East’s queen. Cy leads a trump to dummy and returns a low heart. If East plays low, Cy takes the queen, leads a trump to dummy and discards his last heart on the ace of diamonds. He loses a club and ruffs his last club in dummy. If instead East grabs his ace of hearts, Cy succeeds by pitching his low clubs on the ace of diamonds and king of hearts.

DAILY QUESTION

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

ANSWER: You have enough strength to invite game but lack a descriptive call. A bid of 2NT with no sign of a club trick is unattractive. A meaningless “fourth-suit” bid of two clubs is possible, but not if your partner will treat it as game-forcing. My uncomfortable recommendation is a raise to two spades. South dealer Both sides vulnerable