PHILIP ALDER

Are you experiencing a sense of deja vu? If so, don’t worry. The West and North hands in today’s deal are exactly the same as in yesterday’s, and the auction is identical — though this time South has overbid a tad.

After West led the heart jack, South thought he had to find East with the club ace. Then he saw a way to put up a smokescreen.

After winning trick one with dummy’s heart queen, declarer drew two rounds of trumps, cashed the diamond ace, played a diamond to dummy’s king and ruffed the diamond seven in hand. Then, South led his heart king to dummy’s ace. Finally, South played a club to his king.

West paused to count out declarer’s hand. South was “known” to have started with six spades, two hearts and two diamonds. Therefore, he held three clubs. West saw that if South had the club queen and he, West, won this trick, the contract would make. A club lead away from the jack would be won by dummy’s 10, and a heart return would concede a ruffand-sluff. So West played his club eight.

Trying hard not to smile, South showed his cards, claiming the slam.

How should West have known? By watching East’s signals. On yesterday’s deal, when East held 9-7-5 of clubs, he played the five the first time: his lowest card to show an odd number. Here, though, his first play was the nine, a high card to show an even number. This should have alerted West. But he had been hoodwinked by South’s clever play. West agreed that J.M. Barrie summed it up well when he wrote, “Life is a long lesson in humility.”