In today’s deal, John Holland (a regular medalist for England in Open and Senior teams events) was declarer at six no-trump, against which West led a heart. Holland optimistically inserted the jack; if that had held and diamonds had broken 3-2, that would have been 12 tricks, and any pedagogical interest in the deal would have vanished. But when East covered the jack with the queen, Holland won his ace.

When diamonds broke, Holland cashed them all, discarding a heart and spade from hand. (Since five tricks are impossible against the 5-0 break, it is right to lead the diamond ace or queen first, in case East has a bare jack or 10. Then a low diamond to hand reveals whether a finesse of the nine is necessary.)

On the run of the diamonds, East discarded two clubs and a heart. When declarer cashed the club king and led to dummy’s queen, East pitched a small spade. Since it now appeared East had begun with four cards in each major, how should declarer continue?

It looked as if declarer would need a successful finesse of the spade queen to bring his trick total to 12. But Holland spotted a small extra chance when he led a low spade from dummy; after East contributed the five, he put in his eight. This play would guard against East holding both the jack and nine, and Holland’s foresight gave him his slam. An alternative would have been to run the spade 10, and if that were covered, later to finesse the eight.

When West’s opening bid of one diamond is passed around to South, he should reopen the bidding with a double, planning to bid spades over a one-heart response. North has just enough to raise one spade to two, persuading South to bid game.

When West leads the diamond king, South sees he will lose two diamonds and must therefore hold his trump losers to one.

If there had been no bidding, South would plan to enter dummy with a club or a heart in order to lead a trump for a finesse of the queen at some point. Here, however, the finesse will surely lose since West is likely to have the spade king with that opening bid.

After trumping the third diamond, on which East shows up with the queen, South can definitely mark West with the spade king. If East had 5 points in high cards, his partner would not have been able to open the bidding.

So South leads the spade ace, planning to lead a low spade if no honor appears, in the hopes that West was dealt the singleton or doubleton spade king. Luck is with South, since West follows with the spade king on the first round of trumps.

Now the focus shifts to picking up the trump jack-10. The simplest way forward is to unblock the top hearts and lead a low spade to the eight and 10.

South easily regains the lead and crosses to the club ace to pitch his fourth club on the heart queen. Then he draws East’s remaining trumps with the aid of the marked finesse.

“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” is terrible advice. Clearly, you should never put off until tomorrow something you can do today. (Ignore everything I said yesterday; I was obviously mistaken.)

When you play four hearts on the lead of the spade nine, you cover with the 10 and win East’s jack in hand to play a diamond. However, West will win his ace and return a spade. The best you can do is win dummy’s ace and try to cash two diamonds. However, East will ruff away your diamond winner, leaving you with a loser in each suit. A trump at trick two works no better against accurate defense.

So, what can declarer do to avoid this fate? If he delays focusing on obtaining his diamond discard and instead tries to cut the defenders’ communications in clubs, he can come home via an indirect route.

Let’s say declarer wins the spade lead in hand and ducks a club. As the cards lie, the best West can win his queen and ace and play a second spade. Declarer takes that in dummy and ruffs a club to hand to lead a diamond to dummy. When West ducks, declarer wins in dummy, ruffs a club and must now lead a heart. West can do no better than win the ace and return the suit. South ruffs the fourth club, exhausting both opponents of clubs, and finally leads a second diamond toward dummy. When West wins, he has only diamonds left to lead, so declarer’s spade loser goes away.

The man who decided that one should “never put off until tomorrow something you can do today” was off target. In the Sermon on the Mount, the aphorism that “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” is far closer to the truth.

There are occasions when you need to rush at bridge, to take or set up discards, or, more frequently, to draw trumps before something bad happens. But when it comes to guesses in a side suit, it is often the case that the more information you have, the more likely you are to guess well.

Take today’s deal, for example, where you play four spades on repeated heart leads. The first critical issue is to remember to ruff with a trump intermediate, preserving the six. Then cross with another trump intermediate to dummy’s ace and play a second trump. The good news is that you have been able to hold your trump losers to one. When a top club comes back, you duck, then take the club ace, ruff a club and trump a heart high. At this point, you almost have a complete count of the West hand. That player has seven hearts, two spades and at least three clubs, so no more than one diamond.

When you cross to a top diamond in dummy and lead a small diamond from the board, East must split his J-10; unless you were careful enough to preserve the spade six in hand and the seven in dummy, you will be unable to cross to the board to repeat the diamond finesse. But you were careful … weren’t you?

At the Dyspeptics Club, the regular rubber players are of vastly different temperaments. South and West are both congenital optimists, laboring under the delusion that they are experts. South believes it isn’t that he holds great cards; he just makes the most of what he has. West believes that if he ever picked up an opening bid he could move mountains.

By contrast, North and East are better players but confirmed pessimists, each convinced that if only they could find partners worthy of them, the world would be their oyster.

Today’s deal was a case in point. West led out the three top spades against four hearts. Declarer ruffed, then cashed the heart king and ace. Now the contract could no longer be made. Declarer had to lose a trump and a club for down one.

South might have concluded that he was unlikely to be able to make the hand if trumps were 5-0; but if trumps were 3-2, the hand was a pianola. So he should have concentrated on negotiating a 4-1 break. Ten tricks are available whenever trumps are 4-1, as long as declarer cashes the ace and queen of trumps first.

If everyone follows, South can draw trumps and run diamonds. If either player shows out, as East does here, South can play on diamonds. West can ruff in and play a fourth round of spades, but declarer simply throws a club from dummy and ruffs in hand. A trump to dummy’s ace sees South emerge with five trump tricks, four diamonds and a club.

When Rita Oldroyd died, Great Britain lost one of the backbones of their women’s team through the 1970s. Her team won two European Championships and a silver at the World Championships. She was also England’s first woman Grand Master.

Although she was almost blind toward the end of her life, she won a big pairs event two weeks before her death, and the Las Palmas pairs in the Canary Islands shortly before that.

Oldroyd was both an outspoken and entertaining character, never afraid to speak her mind, but capable of subtle and sophisticated play, as shown in today’s deal from a teams event.

Where Oldroyd’s teammates were East-West, their opponents reached three no-trump on a diamond lead. Declarer ducked twice, took the third, cashed the heart king, then played the club ace and king. When the queen failed to drop, South could not afford to cash dummy’s heart ace, so played a third club, stranding the winner in dummy. West won, cashed the last diamond, then got off lead with a spade, and declarer had to go one down.

In the other room, Oldroyd was partnering Alan Hiron, and they also reached three no-trump. After the same opening lead, Oldroyd also won the third diamond and cashed her heart king, but then played the ace, followed by a low club.

She had set up the game-going tricks, but, unlike the other declarer, was able to access her winners, since she had a club entry to dummy and spade entries to hand that could not be disrupted.

In today’s deal, South initially decided to play for penalties against one heart, but West naturally introduced his spades. North might have complete with a call of two clubs, but he was not enthusiastic about his wasted major-suit honors. However, South had enough to balance into clubs, and when West repeated his spades, North produced a strong raise, after which South could not reasonably stay out of game.

If West had led the spade ace and given his partner a ruff, declarer would have gone down, but the heart opening lead seemed more obvious. When dummy won the first trick with the heart queen, South took a little time before making the obvious move of playing on trump.

East’s double could have been based simply on a diamond stack, but what if he had a singleton spade? It could cost virtually nothing to take precautions. Accordingly, declarer cashed the diamond ace (since surely nobody could have a diamond void) and ruffed a diamond to get to his hand. Then he led the heart ace, planning to discard a spade from dummy.

West sensibly ruffed in, and dummy had to overruff. South returned to his hand again by ruffing a diamond and led the heart king. West could not trump this, so dummy was able to discard a spade. Now nothing could set the contract.

If declarer had carelessly led trumps at the second trick, East would have put up the club ace, led to the spade ace, and then ruffed a spade to defeat the game.

South elects to rebid one no-trump over one heart, since if he rebids one spade it would tend to suggest real clubs. North no longer has any interest in a grand slam. His jump to five no-trump offers a choice of slam, and South can see no advantage in playing hearts as opposed to no-trump, so he re-raises to six no-trump.

After West leads the spade jack, South starts by counting his tricks. He expects to win two spades, three diamonds and three clubs. This means that he needs only four heart tricks to make the slam.

South can almost guarantee his slam if he plays the hearts correctly. He wins the first trick with the spade king and leads a heart to dummy’s king. The next step is to return a low heart from dummy.

The logic here is that South does not mind surrendering a heart trick to the doubleton queen. After all, four heart tricks will be enough to bring home the slam. But South’s real concern is to guard against a bad break in hearts. His chosen line is safe, no matter which opponent may have started with four hearts to the Q-10.

When East discards a spade, South plays the jack and West wins his queen. South can win the next trick with the spade ace and take the proven finesse in hearts against West.

Note that if East had the length in hearts, he would not be able to stop South’s heart jack from winning a trick sooner or later. Either way, therefore, South has guaranteed the success of the slam.