DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“I’m up the creek in a boat with a hole.” — Archie Bunker in “All in the Family”

It takes only a moment to boot a good slam. Against today’s 6NT, West led a diamond, and when dummy hit with great trick-taking power, the contract looked easy. Dummy played the jack, East’s queen covered and South took the ace.

South next led the king of spades, and West won and led another diamond to the king.

Declarer cashed the ace of hearts, led a club to his ace and took the Q-J of spades and the king of hearts, discarding dummy’s low diamonds.

South then led the queen of clubs, and the slam began to take on water when West discarded. South couldn’t afford to overtake with the king, and he went down a few.

South’s slam was sunk without a trace but in fact was cold.

South must win the first diamond with the king. He takes the A-Q of clubs, leads a heart to the ace and runs the clubs, pitching two spades and two hearts. He can then lose a spade to the ace and claim. DAILY QUESTION You hold: S K Q J 5 2 H K J 9 3 D A 4 C A Q. You open one spade, your partner bids 1NT, you jump to three hearts and he tries three spades. What do you say?

ANSWER: Your jumpshift was forcing to game. You can bid four spades now, but partner is unlikely to have three-card support since he didn’t raise directly. Since your pattern is almost balanced and your high-card values are scattered, bid 3NT to give him the option of playing there.