Josh Billings, whose real name was Henry Wheeler Shaw, said, "As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth, hear both sides and believe neither."

Then what do you do? Take half of each? Weird!

Bridge is full of "truisms," but there always seem to be exceptions to these adages. However, this deal features one with a remarkable record of reliability. What is it?

South is in three no-trump. West leads the diamond king. What should happen, assuming West keeps plugging away at diamonds?

North's takeout double was very light. South's three no-trump promised 13-15 points with diamonds held and, in principle, denied a four-card major; it was a realistic choice.

After South ducked the first two rounds of diamonds, West could have shifted to clubs to defeat the contract. But that was hardly obvious. It was normal to continue with the diamond four, his lowest being a suit-preference signal for clubs. After declarer discarded a club from the dummy, what should East have thrown?

At the table, East pitched a heart. Now South ran the heart 10 and cashed her four heart winners. What should East have thrown this time?

East broke a key rule for a second time when she discarded a spade. That allowed South to take four spade tricks and nine in all.

East forgot to keep equal length with the dummy. While the board retained four cards in each major, East had to do the same, discarding clubs. Then three no-trump would have failed.

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