“Last week I was asking whether things could get any worse,” Unlucky Louie told me in the club lounge. “I meant it as a rhetorical question, but life took it as a challenge.”

Louie blames his bad results on bad luck despite all the evidence to the contrary. Louie was South in a penny game. When he opened one spade, North might have raised to two spades with anyone else but chose a conservative 1NT with Louie.

West led the ten of clubs, and Louie promptly finessed with dummy’s queen. East took the king and led a low trump.

LAST TRUMP

Louie won with the king, led a club to the ace and tried a heart to his queen. West won and led his last trump, and when East took the ace and led a third trump, Louie lost a diamond and two more hearts. Down one.

Over-finessing is one of Louie’s problems. To assure eight tricks, he wins the first club with the ace and finesses in hearts. He is sure of one heart ruff in dummy to make the contract.

This week: those darned finesses.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S A 6 5 H 10 8 2 D Q 10 8 C K J 7 6. Your partner opens one heart. The next player passes. What do you say?

ANSWER: This is a judgment call. With perfectly flat pattern, I would settle for a conservative raise to two hearts. Some pairs use “constructive” major-suit raises, and the hand would be quite suitable for a single raise. An aggressive option would be to temporize with a two-club response or, in some systems, a forcing 1NT response.

South dealer

E-W vulnerable

NORTH

S 10 3 2

H 6 4

D 9 4 3 2

C A Q 5 3

WEST

S 7 4

H K J 9 7

D K J 7 5

C 10 9 8

EAST

S A 6 5

H 10 8 2

D Q 10 8

C K J 7 6

SOUTH

S K Q J 9 8

H A Q 5 3

D A 6

C 4 2

South West North East
1 S Pass 1 NT Pass
2 H Pass 2 S All Pass

Opening lead — C 10

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