“Let me show you a game I invented,” the Serpent told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. “I call it ‘bridge.’”

After recruiting a fourth from the Land of Nod, the Serpent became declarer at four spades. Adam led the king of hearts as West, and the Serpent took dummy’s ace and deviously led ... the ten of trumps.

“I can resist anything except temptation,” Eve muttered, and she covered with her jack.

The Serpent took the ace, noting the fall of Adam’s queen (Adam’s Fall, as it were). He next led the three of trumps to dummy’s six.

Eve won with the eight, and the defense cashed a heart, but the Serpent ruffed the next heart, led a diamond to dummy, returned a trump to his seven and took the king. When the diamond finesse won, he had 10 tricks.

Eve was tempted — and succumbed. When declarer leads the ten of trumps, he must be trying to induce a cover. If East plays low, the Serpent won’t have a leg to stand on. He will lose two trumps, a heart and a club.

Daily question: You hold: ? Q ? K Q J 2 ? Q 8 2 ? A J 9 6 5. You are the dealer. What is your opening call?

Answer: You have 15 high-card points and a decent five-card suit. Some experts would advocate opening 1NT despite the unbalanced distribution, but I can’t go along with that. I would prefer to underbid slightly by opening one club, intending to bid 1NT over a response of one spade. An alternative, which is also imperfect, would be to open one heart.

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