Dear Mr. Rigal: You hear the auction start with two passes to your right-hand opponent, who opens one spade. What would you say with ? K-10, ? A-10-6-3, ? K-7-3-2, ? K-Q-10?

Answer: I would double because king-doubleton is not an ideal stopper, plus I have support for all the other suits. I would not be opposed to a one-no-trump overcall, though, in order to describe the hand in one fell swoop.

Dear Mr. Rigal: Do you attach a special meaning to an overcall of four clubs or four diamonds after the opponents bid and raise a major to the two-level?

Answer: Some pairs play this as leaping Michaels (much the same as after a weak two opening), showing at least 5-5 in the bid minor and the other major. That can be a useful treatment, but if you like to bid three of a minor here on very little, perhaps to direct the lead or compete the part-score, then you may need a way of seriously suggesting a sacrifice to partner when you have a single-suiter.

Dear Mr. Rigal: What is the best way to handle a suit of ace-king-nine-eight-small, facing J-x-x in dummy, for no losers?

Answer: The odds favor playing the suit from the top, hoping for queen-doubleton, but it might be better to lead the jack in practice. The next hand may not cover from queen-third, hoping to force you to guess, or simply to avoid crashing their partner’s honor, and that is all the edge you need. If the jack is covered by the queen, cross back and finesse the eight. Technically speaking, this is not much worse than playing for the drop anyway.

Dear Mr. Rigal: I recently picked up ? 10-8-7-4-3-2, ? —-, ? K-8-6-5-3, ? J-8 at game all. My partner opened one club, the next hand overcalled one heart and I bid one spade. My left-hand opponent’s raise to four hearts was passed out, just making when we could have made four spades (albeit luckily). Should I have done differently?

Answer: I think there are two courses of action here, given that a jump raise in hearts is expected. You can bid two or three spades, weak, and then leave the rest to partner, which at least brings him in on any later decisions, or you can start with one spade in the hope of showing diamonds later. However, I cannot stomach bidding five diamonds or four spades at my second turn, so what you did was completely reasonable.

Dear Mr. Rigal: Someone revoked against me while I was declaring. They did not win any subsequent tricks, so there was no trick transfer, but the infraction did cause me to miscount the hand. Did I have any recourse?

Answer: I would have asked the director to take a look, since it does seem as though you were damaged. Besides the confusion the revoke caused, it might make things hard for you on a technical level, as appears to have been the case here. I would explain the problem to the director and leave it to them to sort it out.

Contact Barry Rigal, email him at barryrigal@hotmail.com