FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

HARD TO PLEASE

“My partner is seriously hard to please,” a club player told me. “If he’d been present at the Feeding of the 5,000, he would have complained about no butter for the loaves or tartar sauce for the fish.”

My friend was declarer at today’s four hearts. West led the queen of clubs. “I took the ace,” he said, “cashed the ace of trumps and next took the ace of diamonds and led a diamond from dummy. West took the ten and queen and led the king. When dummy ruffed, East overruffed, and also West got a trump trick. Down one.”

Upset

“My partner was upset. He said if there was a way to make four hearts, I wasn’t up to finding it.”

South can ruff a club at Trick Two and take the A-K of trumps. When East-West follow, South leads a spade to dummy’s king, ruffs a club, takes the A-Q of spades and ruffs the last club. If West discards, South has won nine tricks and still has the ace of diamonds. If instead West overruffs on the fourth club, dummy’s third trump is a winner.

Daily Question

You hold: ♠ A J 9 ♥ A K 7 5 2 ♦ J874

♣ 6. Your partner opens one diamond, you bid one heart and he jumps to three diamonds. What do you say?

Answer: Partner’s jump-rebid shows a good six-card suit with about 16 points. If he has 6 5, Q 3, A K 10 9 5 3, A K 5, you can make seven diamonds. You might just bid six diamonds or 4NT, but to try for a grand slam and involve partner, bid three spades, then support diamonds to paint a picture of your distribution.

South dealer

Both sides vulnerable