“The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.” - Thomas Merton

In six spades declarer deduced that taking two club finesses had a 75 percent chance of success. He was right up to a point, but he had not seen the whole picture.

Winning the opening lead of the heart queen in hand, South cashed his second top heart, then ruffed the heart two with dummy’s low spade. Next, he finessed the club 10, losing to West’s jack. Winning the trump return in dummy, South took a second club finesse. He suffered a further indignity when West, on capturing the club queen with the king, returned his third club, which East ruffed. Two down, and no joy in Muddville.

There was another, and better, line available. After winning the heart lead, cash the diamond ace before playing the heart king and ruffing the third heart low in dummy.

Now comes the diamond queen. If it is covered, ruff, then re-enter dummy with the spade queen for a club discard on the established diamond jack. You will lose just one trick (a club).

Should the diamond king not appear from East when the queen is led, discard the club 10. The spade queen is once again the entry to dummy, and the diamond jack is the card on which the club queen goes away. Only then are the rest of the trumps drawn, with the club ace as the route back to hand. This line fails only if diamonds break very badly.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: If your first reaction was to pass, I hope you thought better of it. In context you have a marvelous hand (almost worth a drive to game., facing a partner with spades and diamonds who was happy to compete knowing that you had five or fewer points. I might consider bidding four diamonds now to invite game, but maybe it would be better to cuebid three clubs, in case four spades is our best spot.