DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

It was a cold day, and when I got to the club, the power was off.

“Somebody forgot to pay the bill,” Unlucky Louie groaned.

“Absolute power corrupts — but we need the electricity,” Cy the Cynic muttered.

It wasn’t too frigid for the penny game, and Louie, South, picked up a powerful hand. He had — count ’em — 32 points. When he got over the shock, he bid 6NT by himself, and North figured he had enough to raise. West led a heart, and Louie won and took the A-K of clubs. West showed out; down one.

“My suits never break,” Louie despaired.

“Pardon,” North said, “but the slam was as cold as this room if you’d gotten a count of East-west’s distribution. Cash your high spades and hearts. East throws two diamonds. Then take the A-Q of diamonds.

“When West follows, you know he had one club at most. Lead a club to the queen and return the ten. When East’s jack covers, you win and get back with the king of diamonds to pick up the clubs.” DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S J 10 4 H J 5 3 D K 10 5 C Q 10 3 2. Your partner opens one spade, you bid two spades and he tries 2NT.

Answer: Partner thinks you may have a game, and it may be at 3NT; if he wanted to play at a partscore, he’d have passed two spades. Since you have minimum values for your single raise, you can’t bid game, nor do you have any reason to return to three spades with your balanced pattern and scattered values. Pass.