DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

Among “famous last words” are those of a Union general at Gettysburg: “Nonsense. They couldn’t hit an elephant at this ra...” In my experience, bridge has two FLWs: One is seven, the second is a suit or notrump.

At seven clubs, South won the first diamond with dummy’s ace and led a trump to his king. When West discarded, South took the king of spades, led to the ace of hearts and threw his last heart on the ace of spades. He ruffed a heart, led a trump to the queen and ruffed a heart. When West discarded, South lacked the dummy entries to ruff a fourth heart and return to the good heart, nor could he ruff two diamonds in dummy. Down one.

DUMMY ENTRY

A heart lead would beat seven clubs. On a diamond lead, South succeeds by winning with the king. Dummy’s ace is the extra entry he needs to use the fifth heart.

Don’t bid seven of anything unless you can count 13 tricks in the bidding. Too many things can go wrong. You risk losing a game bonus as well as a small-slam bonus.

DAILY QUESTION You hold: S A 6 H A Q 7 4 2 D A 6 C Q 5 3 2. You open one heart, your partner responds 1NT, you bid two clubs and he tries two diamonds. What do you say?

ANSWER: If partner has a poor hand with long diamonds — which might be the case — you should pass. If he has 8 7 4, 8, K Q J 9 7 4, J 7 6, a winning heart finesse would give you nine tricks at notrump.

Since partner might hold a somewhat better hand than that, bid 2NT and let him judge.