DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“I’d say he’s done more than that.” — the late Yogi Berra, asked by a reporter whether a player on his team had exceeded expectations.

We all want a good partner — preferably someone who plays better than we do. We expect good bidding judgment and sound play. Nobody expects, or should expect, a partner who fills the sky with brilliancies.

In today’s deal from a duplicate event, the auction began the same way at most tables: South opened one spade, West bid two hearts and North tried 2NT. At some tables, South raised to 3NT, passed out. East led a heart, and North made three or four depending on West’s defense.

Other Souths jumped to four spades over 2NT. Against that contract, West led the king of hearts. If he continued with the ace, South got a diamond discard on the queen and lost two hearts and a club, making four.

At a few tables, West shifted to a low diamond at Trick Two, and declarer finessed with dummy’s 10. When East took the queen, he had no winning return. If he led a heart to West’s ace, declarer could finesse with the jack of diamonds and discard clubs on the ace of diamonds and queen of hearts, making four. If instead East shifted to a club, South could take the ace, finesse in diamonds, pitch his last heart on the ace and lose one club.

Was four spades unbeatable? At one table, West produced a brilliancy: At the second trick, he led the KING of diamonds, and South was sunk. No matter what he did, he would lose four tricks.