Will Rogers said, “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”

Yesterday, we learned that if a defender has a chance to ruff one of declarer’s winners, he normally should do it. Even if it costs a trump trick, perhaps the defenders will break even.

Is today’s deal related to that one or from a different family? South is in four spades. West leads the club ace: three, nine, seven. West cashes the club king: four, two, eight. What should happen after that?

In the bidding, North is right to open one club, not one diamond. Open one diamond on a three-card suit only with 4-4-3-2 distribution: two four-card majors. Note also West’s two-club overcall. Nowadays, top pairs use a two-level overcall in a minor bid by an opponent or in responder’s major as natural. With 5-5 in the unbid suits, they jump to two notrump. Also, North was right to raise to two spades with four-card support.

West should check out the high-card points. (Doing this on every deal would significantly improve your results.) He has 13, dummy has 13, and South had enough to jump to game. East surely does not have a high heart honor. And if East does not, West can see only three tricks: one spade and two clubs. Rather than worry too much about where the fourth trick might come from, West should immediately lead a third club so that East can ruff away dummy’s queen.

Here, this works better than West could have hoped, because East ruffs with his spade queen. This effects an uppercut that gives the defenders two trump tricks.