Looking up a quotation including "fourth," I came upon this comment by James Bryce, an English diplomat and author who died in 1922: "Three-fourths of the mistakes a man makes are made because he does not really know what he thinks he knows." That gave me pause. What's the problem?

No Englishman would say "three-fourths," he would say "three-quarters." The quotation has been "translated." How is that relevant to this deal? All will be revealed.

Look at the South hand and bidding sequence. What should South rebid?

He has no clear-cut call. He wants to get to game, but has no idea which one. He solves the problem by rebidding two diamonds, fourth-suit game-forcing. It is artificial and asks partner to do something descriptive. Usually, responder wants to get to three no-trump, but does not have a stopper in the fourth suit; or he hopes partner can show three-card support for his five-card major; or both.

Here, North continues with two spades, and South jumps to four spades. (Yes, North might have rebid two spades, not two clubs.)

West leads the diamond king, then shifts to a low club. How should South continue?

Declarer should take trick two with his ace, ruff a diamond, play a spade to his ace (getting the bad news), and ruff his last diamond. He then plays off dummy's top hearts and top clubs. East ruffs the last top club and leads a diamond, but South ruffs low and exits with a low spade to get two more trump tricks with his king and jack over East's queen. He takes four spades, two hearts, two clubs and two diamond ruffs.

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