DAILY BRIDGE CLUB:

“You still don’t believe me, child,” the Queen of Diamonds scolded Alice. “Losing a trick can be better than winning one.”

“That is not how I was taught, your majesty.”

“You’re as bad as my cousin the Queen of Hearts, who can’t abide losing a trick,” the Queen of Diamonds sighed.

The Mad Hatter played at four hearts, and West, the Dormouse, led the deuce of spades. Alice, East, took the ace and returned a spade. The Hatter won in dummy, led a trump to his 10 and returned a diamond to the ace. Alice was about to play her three when she felt the Queen of Diamonds’ intent gaze. So, Alice followed with the queen.

The Hatter picked up the trumps and threw a diamond from dummy on his king of spades, but when he led a diamond next, the Dormouse took the 10 and king, and Alice scored her king of clubs for down one.

“See?” said the Queen of Diamonds. “If you keep my card, the Hatter makes his game: You must win the second diamond and are endplayed.”

And so it was.

DAILY QUESTION: You hold: QJ J762 A64 2 A Q 3. Your partner opens one spade. The next player passes. What do you say?

ANSWER: A bid of 2NT is fine if it would show a balanced 13 to 15 points with stoppers in the unbid suits. But most pairs now treat that bid as an artificial forcing raise. They would respond two diamonds, or maybe 1NT forcing. Some theorists have begun to wonder whether the natural 2NT response is too valuable to abandon.