10 8 A K Q 10 5 A 10 5 3 9 3
	Q 7 9 4 K Q J 8 7 4 2 K 10

W	N	E	S
	1	P	2
P	3	P	3NT
P	P	P

I play low from dummy and East wins with the Ace. On the return on the 6, I play the Queen. Here comes the deluge.

But wait! West goes into the tank! What could he be thinking? While he hesitates, it occurs to me that maybe he can’t believe I really bid 3NT on Qx! Crediting me with some shred of sanity, West must be imagining that I have QJx. If that’s true, he might want to duck this trick so as to keep communications open with his partner. Could the bad bidders be rewarded after all?

And sure enough, after a long pause West comes up with the 2! After checking that hearts don’t break, I gratefully claim eleven tricks. (Why not play it out for a possible 12, you ask? If you were playing with my partner, you would understand the need to catch up when you can.)

No, I didn’t do anything clever on this hand, unless you count bidding 3NT. But at least I avoided one possible blunder: saying anything but “Thank you, partner” when dummy went down. Never let the opponents know that you’re in trouble. If I had said “uh, oh” or “we’re in trouble now” West could hardly have failed to take his K, and then we’re down for sure. So when things look bad, keep that stiff upper lip.

(P.S.: Actually, a close look at the hand diagram reveals that spades were blocked – opponents can only get 4 spades tricks. But ducking the Q doesn’t solve that problem, and 4 spades and the A still set the contract.)

The full deal was:

	10 8 A K Q 10 5 A 10 5 3 9 3
K 5 4 3 2 7 9 6 Q J 8 7 4		A J 9 6 J 8 6 4 2 — A 6 5 2
	Q 7 9 4 K Q J 8 7 4 2 K 10

[WBL Unit Game, 5-12-2005]