IF YOU GET HELP, TAKE ADVANTAGE

Henry Carey, who was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, wrote, "Confound their (something), Frustrate their knavish tricks." Confound their what?

When an opponent makes a mistake at the bridge table, it is frustrating if you fail to take advantage. In today's deal, South finished in five spades. After the heartking lead and a heart to the ace, East shifted to the diamond jack. He was hoping that South had queen-third and West acefourth. How should South have proceeded?

West, despite the unfavorable vulnerability, was tempted to bid six diamonds on the third round. Theoretically, though, pass was right because six hearts doubled could have cost 500, making it more expensive than five spades making.

East's diamond-jack lead at trick three was ill-conceived. To defeat five spades, East had to shift to a trump, removing a key dummy entry before the club jack was established.

South won with his diamond ace, played a club to dummy's ace, ruffed a club with the spade two, led a trump to dummy's 10, ruffed another club, played a spade to dummy's ace and ruffed a third club. The club jack was high, but South couldn't get into the dummy. If only he had ruffed all three clubs with high spades, at trick 10 he could have led the spade two to dummy's three and discarded his diamond loser on the club jack. As it was, South had to concede down one.

Carey wrote, "Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks." How enjoyable it would be to confound any government's politics. Almost as much fun as winning a knavish trick at the bridge table!