Sometimes your partner – never you! – will do something that would not pass muster in the cold light of day, but seemed like a good idea at the time. Then you must cover for him.

In this deal from a pair tournament, how should South play in seven – yes, seven – no-trump after West leads the diamond queen?

The bidding was clearly debatable. North’s three-club rebid was a double negative, showing 0-3 points. Then his call of three spades promised nothing. So, when South gambled with his jump to six no-trump (hoping to outscore pairs in six spades), North decided that since he could have had zero points, his invaluable spade queen justified raising to seven.

South had only 10 top tricks: five spades, one heart, two diamonds and two clubs. To make seven, South assumed that East held the heart king, but if he had king-fourth or king-fifth, it would be necessary to take the finesse three times. That would require three dummy entries from those spades.

At trick two, declarer led his spade jack and, when West followed suit, overtook with dummy’s queen. East’s discard was a pleasing sight for South. Next, a heart finesse worked. Back to dummy with a spade to the eight, declarer took a second heart finesse. Then, after a spade to the 10, a third heart finesse saw seven no-trump home for a cold top – and a very unhappy East-West.

If East had followed with a low spade on the first round of the suit, South would have played a spade to the 10 next, hoping either that the nine appeared or that East had at most three hearts.