"You can't trust anybody these days," Unlucky Louie said to me gloomily.

Louie had taken a broken VCR to a repair shop and had found this sign on the door: "We fix anything. Please knock. Doorbell doesn't work."

Back at the club, Louie was East in his penny Chicago game, and West led his singleton heart against South's contract of four spades. Dummy played low, Louie took the queen and South followed with ... the ten.

CLUB SHIFT

Louie pondered but was afraid South, not West, was out of hearts. So Louie shifted to a club, and South took the ace, led a diamond to dummy's ace, picked up the trumps and lost a club and two hearts.

"Nothing is as it seems," Louie sighed.

South would go down if he carelessly played the nine or jack of hearts at Trick One. Since West would have led the ten from 10-9-2 and the jack from J-10-2, Louie would have no trouble reading the lead of the deuce as a singleton. The defense would then get two hearts, a heart ruff and a club.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S Q 4 H A Q 8 6 4 D K J 7 5 C 9 2. You open one heart, your partner bids 1NT, and the next player overcalls two spades. After two passes, your partner tries three clubs. The opponents pass. What do you say?

ANSWER: Your partner lacked the strength to respond two clubs. He has long clubs but fewer than 10 points: He may hold 7 6 3, 3, A 6 4, K J 10 8 6 5.

Pass and hope for a plus. Incidentally, some players wouldn't have opened with your hand.