Be more circumspect with balanced hands

When was this said? “The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn’t want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” When you are bidding a slam with a balanced hand, be circumspect because losers tend to stay losers. With two balanced hands, go with the recommended point-count guidelines: 33 for a small slam and 37 for a grand (if the three missing points are not a king). In this deal, North started with two diamonds to find out about his partner’s hand. (With fewerpoints,say,8-10,North would have responded two no-trump.)Then,whenSouth jumped to three no-trump to show 25-27 points, North plunged into seven no-trump, unable to ask for aces and kings. How did South play after a club lead? South started with fourspades,threediamonds and two clubs, so needed four heart tricks. The finesse had to be working. But declarer might have had to take that finesse three times. If so, he needed three dummy entries, which had to come from spades. He won the first trick, cashed the spade queen and led his spade three to dummy’s king. When both opponents followed, declarer played a heart to his queen.Then,heovertookthe spade jack with dummy’s ace and repeated the heart finesse. Finally, he led the spade four to dummy’s six and took the third heart finesse. The original comment was made by Cicero in 55 BC.