As I’ve gotten older, I’ve begun to tell myself that if I couldn’t remember something, it probably wasn’t important anyway. But declarers can fail if they forget the bidding (or lack thereof).

At four spades, South took the ace of clubs, drew trumps and led a diamond to dummy’s ... jack. East took the queen, cashed a high club and led a diamond to West’s ace. When West shifted to a heart, South lost the finesse and was down one.

Should South make his game?

East, who passed as dealer, wouldn’t have 13 points or 12 good points. If he had the K-Q of clubs, he couldn’t hold both the ace of diamonds and the king of hearts, so South should lead a diamond to dummy’s king. If East has the ace, the heart finesse will win, and South loses only two diamonds and one club.

What if West had led the jack of clubs from K-J-10-x? Then he would be likely to have the ace of diamonds, else his opening lead might have been a diamond (or a heart or trump), not a risky club.

Daily question: You hold: ? 10 9 6 5 2 ? A Q 6 2 ? K J ? 5 3. Your partner opens one diamond, you bid one spade and he rebids two diamonds. What do you say?

Answer: Partner has minimum opening values and will usually have a six-card suit. Pass. You can’t bid two hearts, which would be forcing and might induce partner to bid too much. Don’t worry about missing a possible 5-3 spade fit; partner would have raised to two spades on many minimum hands with three-card support.

East dealer

Neither side vulnerable

Tribune Content Agency