DO YOU TURN THIS WAY OR THAT?

Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr., known as Gallagher, is an American comedian. He said, “Don’t you wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There’s one marked ‘Brightness,’ but it doesn’t work.”

It would be nice at the bridge table to have something that tells you which way to turn when you are uncertain.

In today’s deal, for example, how should South, in six spades, turn over the cards to try to end with 12 tricks?

In the auction, two hearts was natural and game-forcing, so three spades was also forcing. When South control-bid his diamond ace, North pushed his partner into six spades.

West’s diamond-king lead left South facing two diamond losers, along with a potential problem in trumps and a thirdround club loser.

The best chance to avoid a spade loser is a second-round finesse of his jack. But declarer realized that this immediately put the contract on the line. Since East would have queen doubleton or queen-third of spades only some 34 percent of the time, declarer wondered if there was something better.

Looking at dummy’s hearts, South saw some discards coming. So, he played the spade king and ace (maybe the queen would drop), then he shifted to hearts, discarding his two diamond losers. When that passed off safely, declarer ruffed a heart. West overruffed and tried to cash the diamond queen, but South trumped, played a club to the ace and pitched his club loser on the heart seven. That is the best line.