To lose early may mean to win late

T.S. Matthews, who was the editor of Time magazine from 1949 to 1953, wrote, “Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words.”

Communication between a partnership’s hands is usually important for one side or the other during the play of a contract. In today’s deal, for example, what should happen in three no-trump after West leads the heart queen?

It was a simple Stayman auction.

South starts with seven top tricks (immediate winners): one spade, two hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. He might be able to get one more trick from spades if he finds a lucky 3-3 break. However, aiming to get four diamond tricks is more sensible. Declarer could cash his diamond king and follow with a finesse of dummy’s jack. That will work fine if the missing diamonds are 3-2, but if West has four including the queen, this won’t work well. South won’t be able to cash the 13th diamond. Instead, he should take the diamond king and then duck the second round to keep communication with the dummy. Here, West wins the trick and leads another heart, but South takes that, plays a diamond to the jack and claims.

Finally, did you spot West’s best defense? On the second round of diamonds, he should play his queen! This will probably lull declarer into a false sense of security, thinking that West had started with queen-doubleton. Seeing an easy overtrick, South will most likely win with dummy’s ace and go down! To make this defense harder to find, South should duck the first round of diamonds.