During a secret session of the House of Commons on June 25, 1941, Winston Churchill said, “If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.”

I think everyone except the British electorate cared. They voted Churchill out of the Prime Minister’s office on July 26, 1945.

At the bridge table, if you are the declarer and make your contract, your partner will certainly care, even more so if it is a slam.

In today’s deal, how should South play in seven hearts after West leads the diamond king?

The auction was textbook Jacoby Forcing Raise. North’s two-no-trump response showed at least 13 support points and four or more hearts. South’s four-club rebid guaranteed a five-card suit headed by at least two of the top three honors.

When in a grand slam, there is not much point counting losers, because you cannot afford any. Instead, count winners.

Here, declarer has seven winners outside trumps: one spade, one diamond and five clubs. So he needs six trump tricks, which can come from four winners and two spade ruffs in the South hand, a mini dummy reversal.

Declarer wins with the diamond ace, plays a heart to his ace (seeing the 4-0 break), leads a spade to dummy’s ace, ruffs a spade low in his hand, plays a heart to dummy’s nine, ruffs the last spade with his heart jack, leads a heart to the queen, and discards his second diamond on the heart king. Then he claims the last five tricks with his clubs.