THE HEADLINE IS: TAKE YOUR TIME

We all know the foxtrot cadence of slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. But when you are the declarer, go slow, slow, slow, slow, slow at trick one while you work out a plan of campaign.

In today’s deal, South is in five diamonds. What should he do after West leads the club king? Also, what do you think about the bidding?

To take the auction first, North’s redouble showed 10 points or more. (Yes, he might have responded one heart.) At this point, East was known to have a very weak hand. He could have passed, but as he had a definite preference among the three unbid suits, he expressed it by bidding one spade. South’s pass was forcing. Then, when North showed diamond support, South jumped straight to five diamonds. He might have chosen three no-trump, which would have made with at least one overtrick.

Declarer has three potential losers: two spades and one heart. He has only 10 sure tricks. Perhaps East has the spade ace ... but that is so unlikely, given the bidding. First, South should hope to find hearts 3-3 and to establish a long heart. However, if East gets on lead, he can shift to a spade, killing the contract.

How does declarer keep East from winning a trick?

He lets West take trick one! Then South wins the next trick with dummy’s club ace and discards a heart from hand. After drawing trumps, declarer cashes his heart ace, plays a heart to dummy’s king and ruffs a heart in hand.

When they do divide 3-3, South returns to dummy with a trump and discards a spade on the last heart.