Contract Bridge

1. Pass. East’s spade overcall relieves you of the obligation to respond to partner’s heart bid, and by far the simplest way of letting him know you have no clear-cut action at this point is to pass. To bid one notrump would tend to indicate something more than a dead-minimum opening and/ or better spades, while to bid two clubs would show a stronger suit than you have.

2. Four hearts. You certainly aren’t going to play this hand in less than game, so you bid four hearts to show the expectation of making 10 tricks even if partner has only six points. Three hearts -- a nonforcing bid -- would be altogether inadequate.

3. Two hearts. Admittedly, you’d like to have four trumps for the single raise, but three is all they dealt you. Raising with three-card support is surely better than passing and running the risk that partner will allow East to play in one spade.

4. Double. With six probable defensive tricks in your hand, and a partner likely to contribute one or two more, the best contract would seem to be one spade doubled played by East. Some of the biggest profits in bridge are collected on hands where opponents bite off more than they can chew.

5. Three hearts. Game prospects are good, but not good enough to ensure 10 tricks. All you can properly do at this point is make a jump-raise to invite partner to carry on to game. If he passes, which he might do with a bad hand, he may struggle to make even nine tricks. The raise to three hearts shows 16 to 18 points, including distributional values.

6. Three notrump. It would be wrong to bid only two notrump or three clubs at this stage, either of which partner could pass with minimum strength for his one-heart bid. You should feel confident of making nine tricks in notrump and disregard the relatively few hands partner might have that would not produce a good play for game.

Tomorrow: A synthetic trump finesse.