YOU MUST OCCASIONALLY TRUST AN OPPONENT

.K. Rowling, in "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," wrote, "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain."

At least a bridge player knows where his opponent's brain is kept. The difference comes in how efficiently it works at the game. The better it is, the more it can be trusted. (If you do not trust your partner, get a new one immediately -- do not wait another trick!)

However, when you are the declarer, you must be wary of the defenders. Sometimes, though, they can be trusted to supply the right clue.

North's three-heart rebid showed a game-invitational hand (eight losers) with three-card support.

Against four hearts,

West guessed well to start with his singleton diamond. (It is rarely best to lead a suit bid by an opponent.) East, after winning with his ace, returned the diamond eight, a suit-preference signal for spades. So, West ruffed and shifted to the spade three. East took dummy's queen with his ace and returned the spade 10 to dummy's king.

Declarer played a heart to his ace and cashed the heart king, groaning when West discarded: down one.

"Sorry, partner," said South. "I misguessed."

"No, you didn't," replied North. "You mistrusted. First, probably West wouldn't lead a singleton with queen-third of hearts. But more important is that if West had the heart queen, East would have led another diamond when in with the spade ace, aiming for a trump promotion. When he returned a spade, East could be trusted to have the trump queen."