Make the right play.
Bridge Column for July 15, 2001, By HARVEY BERNSTEIN
Both sides vulnerable.  South deals.
                              NORTH
                              S: J 2              
                              H: K 7 3       
                              D: K J 9 8 7   
                              C: A 6 3   
            WEST                             EAST
            S: K 7 3                         S: 6 5 4        
            H: Q 10 4                        H: 5 2        
            D: 6 4 2                         D: A Q 10 3          
            C: J 10 9 8                      C: K 5 4 2     
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: A Q 10 9 8 
                              H: A J 9 8 6  
                              D: 5         
                              C: Q 7      
          The Bidding://
                  SOUTH    WEST    NORTH    EAST                  
                   1S      Pass     2D      Pass
                   2H      Pass     2NT     Pass
                   3H      Pass     4H      Pass
                   Pass    Pass
     If you look at today's hand it appears that declarer must
suffer a loser in each suit and be defeated, and yet, when the
hand came up at a local duplicate game, the most common score was
+620!
     The player in the West seat had a natural lead of the jack
of clubs.  Declarer played low from dummy and East won the king. 
A spade was returned and declarer took charge.  He won the ace of
spades, cashed the queen of clubs, entered dummy with the king of
hearts and cashed the ace of clubs, discarding the singleton
diamond from the South hand.
     In order to defeat this hand, East must cash the ace of
diamonds at trick two.  How does he possibly figure this out?
     From the bidding it is very likely that South has five
spades and five hearts.  From the opening lead it is certain that
South still has the queen on clubs.  From his own hand it is a
sure thing that if declarer is missing any cards in the majors,
they are in the West hand.  So, there is nothing to be gained by
not attempting to cash the ace of diamonds.
     Force yourself to think about your play on defense as well
as on offense.  Your partner will certainly appreciate it.  
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon.