DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

Unlucky Louie gave me a ride to the club, and we stopped at a red light.

“I’ll give you the definition of impatience,” Louie said. “It’s the interval from the time the light turns green until the car behind you honks.” And Louie was proved right. Honk!

Louie was absent when they passed out patience. When he played at today’s six spades, a minor-suit lead would have been fatal, but West led a heart. Louie took dummy’s ace and cashed six rounds of trumps. East-West discarded carefully, and Louie lost two diamonds at the end.

“Unmakeable,” Louie sighed. “We should have stopped at game.”

Patience!

Instead of the ace of hearts, Louie should play a low heart from dummy, using the power of his eight. East wins with the ten and shifts to a club.

Louie wins and leads the jack of hearts: king, ruff. He takes the A-K of trumps and leads the nine of hearts: queen, ruff. Louie can then go to dummy with a high club to take the high six of hearts for his 12th trick. DAILY QUESTION Youhold:S8 HKQ10 52DK1095CQJ5.Your partner opens one spade, you bid two hearts, he rebids two spades and you try 2NT. Partner then bids three diamonds. What do you say?

ANSWER: Partner suggests six spades, four diamonds and minimum opening values. If he had a hand with, say, 16 high-card points and the same shape, his second bid would have been three spades or a more flexible two diamonds. Pass. Your game chances are shaky at best.