DAILY BRIDGE CLUB
An optimist may view a glass as half-full, not half-empty. A real optimist is someone who assumes that a family-size bag of potato chips will be full. Card reading, my topic this week, often involves making assumptions about how the cards lie.
Today’s North might have bid 3NT, but best defense would beat that contract. Against four spades, West led the jack of hearts and shifted to a low diamond. South had to guess: Should he play low from dummy or play the king?
South reasoned that he was safe if West had the king of clubs: South might lose two diamonds and a heart. So South assumed the worst: that East had the king.
But East had passed as dealer and surely had the A-Q of hearts. So if he held the ace of diamonds, South would always succeed because the club finesse would win.
Assuming the most dangerous lie of the cards, South put up the king of diamonds. When it won, he drew trumps and finessed in clubs. He lost a club, a diamond and a heart but made game.
Daily question
You hold: ♠ K965 ♥ K752 ♦ K4 ♣ A Q 3. The dealer, at your right, opens one diamond. You double, and your partner bids one spade. What do you say?
Answer: Your hand is worth about 16 points. Your king of diamonds, located behind the opening bidder, amounts to an ace. Still, partner has promised no strength and may have none. Pass. It’s not so much that you might go down at two spades if you raise, but that partner might bid a lot more.
East dealer
Neither side vulnerable