Daily Bridge Club

Competitive bridge

To find out how good a player you are, make new friends and share a common interest, contact your local duplicate club. (See acbl.org.) Duplicate bridge is for everyone to try; it’s a competition as well as a sociable pastime. However, the strategies may be counterintuitive to a social player.

At 3NT, East takes the ace of hearts and shifts to the deuce of diamonds. At IMPs or Chicago, South might save time by claiming 10 tricks. But at duplicate, he must try for overtricks. The contract is “normal” — every North-South will bid 3NT — so South must win as many tricks as possible.

SECOND CLUB

South takes the ace of diamonds, leads a spade to dummy and returns a club to his ten. West wins and leads a second diamond, and South wins, takes the K-Q of hearts and runs the spades. At the end, he leads a second club to his jack, making five.

If the second club finesse lost, South might make only three, but his play would be mandatory at duplicate.

Tomorrow: accepting down one.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: ♠ Q4 ♥ KQ93 ♦ AK5 ♣ A J 10 4. You open one club, and your partner responds one spade. South in today’s deal then bid 2NT with this hand. Do you agree with that action?

ANSWER: South’s bid was correct. South described a hand with balanced pattern and about 19 points. A bid of two hearts would have been a strength-showing call but would have been a misbid: It’s a principle that a “reverse” by opener suggests greater length in his first suit. South dealer N-S vulnerable