Bridge Play

My friend the English professor is in the habit of inventing new words. He defines “intaxication” as the feeling you get when your refund check arrives — until you realize it’s only your money.

When I watched today’s deal at my club, West led an unfortunate ten of diamonds against 3NT. Cy the Cynic was declarer, and when dummy’s queen held, he was euphoric.

“Minnie Bottoms and her spectacles would have led the king,” Cy whispered to me.

EIGHT TRICKS

The Cynic next let the queen of hearts ride, and West took the king and led another diamond, forcing out the ace. Cy next took the A-J of hearts, but East threw a spade; and when Cy tried to run dummy’s clubs and found East with J-5-4-2, Cy took only eight tricks.

Cy made a common error: He was so enthralled at winning the first trick that he forgot about assuring eight more. Cy can lead a spade to his ace at Trick Two and return a club to dummy’s ten. He is sure of at least five clubs, a heart, a spade and two diamonds.

DAILY QUESTION

South dealer N-S vulnerable

NORTH Q962

Q6

Q AKQ1098

WEST

1085 K1042 K10953 6

SOUTH A43 AJ983 A76 73

You hold: ♠ A43 ♥ AJ983 ♦ A76 ♣ 7 3. You open one heart, and your partner bids one spade. What do you say?

ANSWER: You must find a second bid. Partner’s hand is unlimited and he may intend to bid a lot more. Some players would bid 1NT to show a minimum balanced hand. I believe a raise to two spades will be best in the long run, though you would prefer four-card support. If partner has a poor hand, no better contract may be available.