By Phillip Alder

Friedrich Nietzsche claimed that "every man has his price" is wrong. He said that there is bait for every man that he cannot resist swallowing.

You must resist temptation in today's deal. How would you play in four hearts after West leads the club king?

North's best rebid would have been three-and-a-half hearts! If he had settled for three hearts, you might have passed after devaluing your spade king.

It looks so tempting to take the trump finesse. Given West's overcall, surely it has a better than 50-50 chance of success. However, first, you should realize that if you lose a heart trick to West, your contract is safe. You will concede at most two spades and one heart. Second, if you try the heart finesse and it loses, you will put your contract in jeopardy. East will shift to the spade eight, West will take two tricks in the suit, then give East a spade ruff: down one.

At trick two, play a heart to dummy's ace and continue with a second heart. You will go down only if East started with king-third of hearts, when nothing would have worked. Phillip Alder is teaching during the American Contract Bridge League's Sectional at Sea from July 19 to 26 aboard Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. The cruise starts and ends in Southampton, England, and goes to the Norwegian fjords and the North Cape. Details are at www.phillipalderbridge.com

Copyright 2011, United Feature Syndicate