“The woman and her glasses treated me to another touch of the high life,” Cy the Cynic fumed to me.

Minnie Bottoms, my club’s senior member, wears old bifocals that make her mix up kings and jacks, often to her opponents’s dismay. Cy has been Minnie’s chief victim.

“In a team match,” Cy said, “the contract was 3NT at both tables. West led a heart, and East won and returned a heart to dummy’s king.

“At one table,” the Cynic went on, “South came to his ace of diamonds and led a club: deuce, jack, queen. He won the diamond return, took the ace of clubs, and had four clubs, two diamonds, two spades and a heart.”

“When I was declarer,” Cy said, “Minnie was East. When I led a club to dummy’s jack at Trick Four, she played low!”

“She thought the jack was the king,” I laughed.

“I got only three club tricks and went down,” Cy growled.

“Quite a spectacle,”I said.

Cy could have made 3NT with double-dummy play. He would have made it easily against most Easts.

Daily question: You hold: ? Q 10 6 ? A 6 ? 10 9 8 4 ? Q 10 7 3. Your partner opens one heart, and the next player overcalls one spade. What do you say?

Answer: You have two options. One is a negative double, showing enough strength to respond plus length in (usually) both minors. I would prefer a bid of 1NT, showing a balanced seven to nine points with a spade stopper. Your partner can bid a minor next if he wants. An action I would not support is a raise to two hearts.

North dealer

N-S vulnerable

Tribune Content Agency