FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

TEST YOUR DEFENSE

We all know that partners are a necessary evil; they tend to do the wrong thing. This week’s deals have treated saving partner from error. Cover today’s West/South cards and defend as East. In a pairs event, West leads a spade against 3NT. Declarer wins with dummy’s king, leads a diamond to his ace and returns a diamond to dummy’s jack and your queen. How do you defend? A spade return won’t beat 3NT. South does not have A-J-2; he would have won the first spade with the jack. If West has A-109-8-4, you can set up his suit with a spade return, but if he has the ace, he can’t have another ace as an entry. Your best chance is to find West with good hearts.

Unclear

In real life, East shifted to the five of hearts. South played low, but when West took the jack, the position was unclear: South might have held K-8-4. So West led another spade, and South took 10 tricks.

To prevent West from going wrong, East should lead the king of hearts at Trick Four, then a low heart. Daily Question

You hold: A Q J 2 Q 10 4 A 7 4 A7

♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ 2. Your partner opens one heart, you bid one spade and he rebids two hearts. What do you say?

Answer: Partner has at least six cards in hearts; he would never have to rebid a five-card suit here. Bid six hearts. A perfect minimum such as K 4, A K J 9 7

3, K 3, 6 5 3 will make a grand slam, but partners seldom have exactly the right cards, and a slower approach could help to guide the opening leader.

South dealer N-S vulnerable