Rose, whose courtesy and kindness toward her fellow club players is admirable, took on Unlucky Louie as a project.
“He’s better than his results indicate,” Rose insists. “He plays too fast.”
Louie was today’s declarer. A diamond lead would have sunk his slam for sure, but West led a heart. Louie promptly put up dummy’s king, and East won and shifted to the king of diamonds. Louie won and drew trumps. He threw a diamond on the queen of hearts, but East’s remaining J-10-5 were enough to stop Louie from winning a second heart trick. He lost a diamond.
“The more I talk,” Rose sighs, “the faster he plays.”
FIRST HEART
Rose patiently explained to Louie that he must play dummy’s deuce on the first heart. East’s ten wins, but Louie wins the diamond shift, draws trumps and leads the king of hearts: ace, ruff.
Louie then leads a club to dummy, throws a diamond on the queen of hearts and leads the eight through East’s J-5. Dummy’s six becomes high for a second diamond discard.
DAILY QUESTION
You hold: S Q 10 9 4 H K Q 8 6 2 D 7 6 C A K. Your partner opens one heart, you respond 2NT as a conventional forcing raise, and he bids three spades. What do you say?
ANSWER: In conjunction with your 2NT, partner’s three spades shows a singleton spade. The idea is to let you judge whether you have useful or “wasted” honors opposite his singleton. Your queen of spades is wasted, but the rest of your hand is encouraging. Cue-bid four clubs.
East dealer
N-S vulnerable
NORTH
S Q 10 9 4
H K Q 8 6 2
D 7 6
C A K
WEST
S 7
H 7 3
D J 9 5 3
C J 9 8 6 3 2
EAST
S 8 5
H A J 10 5 4
D K Q 10 4
C Q 10
SOUTH
S A K J 6 3 2
H 9
D A 8 2
C 7 5 4
East South West North
1 H 1 S Pass 2 H
Pass 4 S Pass 6 S
All Pass
Opening lead — H 7
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