SUPERSTITIONS RULE ONLY ONCE THIS YEAR

George Bernard Shaw was a cynical cove. He wrote, “A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.”

This is the only Friday the 13th this year — some people’s chance to be superstitious. In today’s deal, the key play involves a black suit, not a black cat. How should South plan the play in six clubs after West cashes a high diamond before shifting to the heart nine?

After North supported clubs, a few control-bids led to the optimistic contract of six clubs. Five diamonds in particular looks excessive, but South probably would have bid six clubs anyway. The auction almost ran on momentum.

West led the diamond king, king from ace-king against contracts above four no-trump. East would usually give count.

Declarer won trick two with his heart king, drew trumps and cashed his heart winners, discarding a spade from the dummy.

Now the spade suit had to be played without loss. Normally, South would have led a spade toward his jack, hoping East had the king-singleton or -doubleton. But could that work here? West was known to have started with three hearts, one club and, presumably, seven diamonds. East couldn’t have only two spades. So, declarer entered dummy with a trump and called for the spade queen. After taking East’s king with his ace, South cashed the spade jack. When West contributed the 10, South claimed his slam.

True, that was lucky, but good players who count are always “luckier” than those who do not.