Bridge Play

Another sign beside a church in my town: “Don’t shout ‘Amen’ any louder than you can live it.”

Or in bridge terms, don’t expect your partner to play perfectly. Don’t hold him to a higher standard than you expect of yourself.

In today’s deal, South’s play at seven hearts left something to be desired: namely, two tricks. West led a trump, and South drew trumps and took the top spades. When East discarded, South ruffed a spade in dummy, setting up his fifth spade, and took the A-K of clubs. When the queen didn’t fall, he lost a diamond finesse with dummy’s queen and also lost a club.

DECENT TRY

South dealer N-S vulnerable

North was unforgiving, but South gave the slam a decent try. I wonder if North would have found the winning play: ace of trumps, ace of diamonds, diamond ruff, trump to dummy, diamond ruff, ace of clubs, draw the missing trump, three high spades, spade ruff, king of clubs, good fifth spade.

Don’t be a player who talks a good game. None of us are perfect. To that I can say “Amen.”

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ 32 ♥ K983

♦ AQ5 ♣ A 7 4 2. The dealer, at your right, opens one spade. You double, and your partner bids three hearts. What do you say?

ANSWER: Partner’s jump is invitational to game, not forcing. He has a hand worth 10 to 12 points and may have only four hearts. He had to jump to show game interest; he would bid two hearts with 8 7 4,

A 7 6 2, J 4 3, 9 5 3. Since you have nothing beyond what your double promised, pass.

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