Do not rush to draw careless conclusions

Cornelius Tacitus, a senator and historian of ancient Rome, said, “Keen at the start, but careless at the end.”

In this deal, it is easy to be careless at the start, and at the end keen to do better the next time one is declarer.

How should South play in three notrump after West leads a fourth-highest heart three?

Note that West chose a major, not a minor, even though the clubs were stronger than the hearts. If North had major-suit length, he probably would have used Stayman or a transfer; but with minor-suit length, he would have just plunged into three no-trump.

This deal is much harder for those who play regularly in matchpointed duplicates, where overtricks can be extremely valuable. In this deal, for example, in a pairs event, you would play low from the board at trick one, hoping that at least one of the finesses in hearts, spades or diamonds will win. In theory, at least one will succeed 87.5 percent of the time.

However, if you only care about making the contract and also wish to accommodate the other 12.5 percent, you should win the first trick with dummy’s heart ace, cross to your hand with a club and take the diamond finesse. Even though it loses, you have nine tricks via one spade, one heart, four diamonds and three clubs.

Note that with this layout, if you finesse at trick one, you ought to go down two. East should win with his heart king and shift to the spade jack. Your queen loses to West’s king, and West returns a spade. Then when the diamond finesse also fails, East runs his spades.