THIRD HAND GETS A SIXTH CHANCE

In the deck, a king outranks a queen, but in this deal, a queen defeats a king -- sort of. For our last look at third-hand play this week, East is defending against three no-trump. How should he plan the defense after West leads a fourth-highest spade four?

Although five diamonds would make here, if North always heads for a minorsuit game with that type of hand, he will be a big loser in the long run. When you have minor-suit length with no singletons or voids, think three notrump unless it is a slam deal.

There are three reasons why experts play better than the rest of us: They count more, and they count more, and they count more. (The book that most improved my game, "Killing Defense at Bridge" by Hugh Kelsey, has "count" or "counting" in five of the 12 chapter titles.) In my view, even more important than tracking trumps is tallying high-card points. (If you wish to be an expert, you must count both.)

Here, East has 9 points, dummy contains 14, and declarer holds 15-17. This means that West owns a miserable 0-2 points. So, he cannot have the spade king. If East wins trick one with the spade ace and continues with the spade queen, declarer will calmly duck. South will win the third spade, take the diamond finesse and collect an overtrick.

Instead, East must play the spade queen at trick one, preferably in tempo. Declarer can hardly duck; he may instantly lose five spade tricks, or four fast spades and a later diamond. But if South wins trick one, he can no longer succeed. When East gets in with the diamond king, he continues with the ace and another spade to defeat the contract.