Daily Bridge Club

“I’m hanging a map of the world on my wall with colored pins to show all the places I’ve visited. But first I have to visit Alaska, the North Pole and Greenland — so I can hang the map.” — graffiti

Test your own timing in today’s deal. West leads the ten of hearts against your 3NT, and you win and cash the A-K of diamonds. Alas, the queen doesn’t fall. Indeed, West discards a heart. What next?

The actual South led a club to dummy’s ace and a spade to his queen. The finesse won, and when he continued with the ace and a low spade, the suit broke 3-3.

DOWN TWO

But South still went down: East led the jack of clubs, and the defense took three clubs, West’s ace of hearts and East’s queen of diamonds.

At Trick Four, South must lead a low spade. Say East wins and leads the jack of clubs: four, six, ace. South then leads a spade to his queen and takes the ace. He forces out the ace of hearts and has four spades and nine tricks in all, and Eastwest can take only four tricks.

Questions and comments: Email Stewart at frs1016@centurylink.net