William Shakespeare, in “Henry IV, Part I,” wrote, “Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.”

When you are in any contract, but especially a slam, play as safely as possible (unless you are in a duplicate pair event, where over-tricks can be so valuable). In today’s deal, South is in six spades. What should he do after West leads the diamond queen?

The bidding had a modern slant. North’s two-no-trump response was the Jacoby Forcing Raise, promising four or more spades and at least game-going values. South’s three-spade rebid denied a singleton or a void and indicated a maximum one-level opening, some 17-19 points. After North made a four-diamond control-bid (showing the diamond ace and denying the club ace), South used Roman Key Card Blackwood to learn that his partner had two key cards (one ace and the spade king, or two aces) and the spade queen. Since a key card was missing, South signed off in six spades.

Declarer saw that, with no losers outside the trump suit, he could afford one spade loser, but not two. What should he have done?

If the suit was 2-1, anything would have worked, but to accommodate a 3-0 split, declarer led a low spade from the dummy and covered East’s six with his eight. When South won the trick, he cashed his spade ace and claimed.

If West had won trick two, the spades would have been 2-1. Or, if East had discarded at trick two, declarer would have won with his ace and led back toward dummy’s queen.