“My wife’s older sister is an environmentalist,” Unlucky Louie said to me in the club lounge. ‘She’s always on some kind of crusade. Now she’s concerned about smog and pollution.”
“What’s her battle cry?” I asked.
“She says the only thing we have to fear is the atmosphere itself.”
When I watched today’s deal, Louie was East, and West led the king of clubs against four spades. Declarer took dummy’s ace and led a low heart: four, queen, deuce. South then drew trumps with the A-K and led a second low heart from dummy.
MAKING FOUR
Louie frowned. Eventually, he put up his ace — and South made his contract with six spade tricks, two hearts, a diamond and a club.
“Duck the second heart and we beat it,” West growled.
“I was afraid declarer had the Q-J doubleton,” Louie shrugged.
South played on Louie’s fears, but Louie defeats the contract if he does a little counting. If South’s hand is AQJ654,QJ,654,94, the contract is unbeatable; South is sure of 10 tricks.
DAILY QUESTION
You hold: S A Q J 6 5 4 H Q 5 D 6 5 4 C 9 4. You deal and open two spades and your partner bids 3NT. The opponents pass. What do you say?
ANSWER: You are not being consulted. Partner will usually have one of two types of hands: a hand with help for your spades so that he expects to run your suit, or a hand such as 2,A7,Q103,AKQ10632 with his own source of tricks. Pass. It would be equally correct to pass if your hand were more distributional.
South dealer
Neither side vulnerable
NORTH
S K 10 9 7
H K 7 6 3
D K Q 3
C A 6
WEST
S 2
H J 9 2
D 10 9 8 2
C K Q J 5 2
EAST
S 8 3
H A 10 8 4
D A J 7
C 10 8 7 3
SOUTH
S A Q J 6 5 4
H Q 5
D 6 5 4
C 9 4
South West North East
2 S Pass 4 S All Pass
Opening lead — C K
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Originally published at Frank Stewart