FRANK STEWART BRIDGE

CY’S NEW YEAR’S LIST

Cy the Cynic showed me his list of New Year’s resolutions:

1. Stop making lists.

B. Be more consistent.

4. Learn to count.

That last item should be at the top of Cy’s list; he often neglects to count the defenders’ distribution. Cy played at today’s four spades after North opened a barren assortment of high cards. West led a heart: queen, king, ace. Cy drew trumps, shrugged, led a diamond to dummy’s king and returned a diamond. When East discarded, Cy had four losers.

“It was partner’s fault,” the Cynic grumbled, “for opening that junky hand.” Club Ruffs

Cy must try to get a count. He takes the king of trumps at Trick Two, then leads a club: three, jack, king. East wins the heart return and forces dummy to ruff a heart. Cy loses a second club to West, ruffs the club return, leads a trump to dummy and ruffs a club.

Then Cy knows that East had two trumps, six hearts and four clubs, so one diamond. Cy can take the ace and confidently lead to dummy’s nine.

Daily Question

You hold: A J987 A 32 A J 4♣ ♠ ♥ ♦ J 5. You open one spade, your partner responds two hearts, you raise to three hearts and he bids four clubs. What do you say?

Answer: Hearts is the agreed trump suit, so partner’s four clubs is an aceshowing cue-bid to show slam interest. If he can try for slam when you have three aces, you must cooperate. Cuebid four diamonds. Even if he signs off at four hearts, you can cue-bid four spades next.

North dealer

Both sides vulnerable