DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

I fear that if Moses lived today, the Ten Commandments would be the Ten Best Practices, about which he would make a PowerPoint presentation, and then would come 40 years of status meetings.

Bridge has commandments: “rules” better viewed as tendencies. In today’s deal, West led the king of diamonds against four hearts, and dummy played low. When East signaled with the deuce, West led a club.

South took the ace, drew trumps and led dummy’s five of spades. East played “second hand low,” and that was the end of the defense.

West captured South’s jack and led a club, but South ruffed in dummy and led the queen of spades to East’s king. He won the diamond return, threw his last diamond on the ten of spades and claimed.

The defense prevails if East ignores a rule. He must rise with the king on the first spade to return a diamond, setting up a second diamond trick for West. West probably has the ace of spades, and if South has it, four hearts must be unbeatable.

Daily question

You hold: ♠ A763 ♥ 4 ♦ KQ10 ♣ K J 9 6 3. You open one club, your partner responds one diamond, you bid one spade and he tries two hearts. What do you say?

Answer: Partner has a good hand. His “reverse” as responder commits you to game and suggests longer diamonds. If he has a hand such as 5,AJ76,AJ9752,A2withjust14 high-card points, you may make a grand slam. Jump to four diamonds to show a promising hand with strong diamond support. South dealer

Neither side vulnerable