Lose the right trick at the right time

John Hay, who was the 37th Secretary of State from Sept. 30, 1898 to July 1, 1905, said, “True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home.”

That isn’t luck — it is skill. Getting home in four hearts after West leads the club queen takes care. What should South do?

After North raised hearts, South understandably took a shot at game. It was a slight overbid, but he bought a decent dummy.

The South hand seems to have four losers: two spades, one diamond and one club. But since the third club can presumably be ruffed on the board, what’s the problem?

As you can see, it is the 4-1 trump break. How can declarer survive that?

If you win 10 tricks, it doesn’t matter how many apparent losers you have. After taking the first trick (probably with dummy’s king, the honor from the shorter side first), declarer should duck a diamond, the “lucky” play.

Suppose West takes that trick and leads another club. South wins with his ace and draws two rounds of trumps to get the bad news. Then he cashes the spade ace, plays a diamond to the ace, ruffs a diamond in his hand, trumps his third club on the board and leads the last diamond. How can East defend?

If he discards, South ruffs and has 10 tricks: one spade, three hearts, one diamond, two clubs and the three ruffs. Or, if East ruffs, declarer discards a spade loser and concedes only one spade, one heart and one diamond.