Hilo Bridge Club

You are East in a contract of four hearts.

This is a contract you are unlikely to make, given the discovery that South started with five hearts to the king 10 9 7 6. You would have to hold your club losers to zero, your spade losers to one, and your heart losers to one.

Don’t panic. All the good pairs will be in a similar situation. Plan to end play South whenever you can. For example, when you take the club finesse and it loses, South will be unable to attack spades or trumps without giving you a sure trick. If South ruffs later in the hand, leave her on lead while pitching a loser from dummy. Make sure you go down one rather than two, resulting in more matchpoints than those who were not so careful.