Laura Fraser from Scotland said, “I’ve always been an actor, a lowly actor without power, so I’ve never been corrupted. I’ve never even directed.”

This week, we have been studying “cover an honor with an honor.” We have witnessed lowly cards win tricks by becoming high; and we have seen that this rule is not etched in stone – covering an honor with an honor can be a mistake. However, there is also the other end of the spectrum, as highlighted by this deal.

South is in two hearts for the third time this week. West leads his club three. East takes the trick with the ace and shifts to the spade 10, wondering if declarer might have the king and his partner the queen – but risking declarer’s having a singleton king. Here, though, West takes the trick with his king, cashes the club king, and returns the spade seven (the higher of two remaining cards). East wins and, say, shifts to a diamond. What happens after that?

North’s two-heart rebid showed 6-9 points with only a doubleton heart. With a third heart, he would have raised one heart to two, not responded one spade.

South can afford only one heart loser. Suppose he starts with dummy’s nine. Although this is not an honor, if East fails to cover with his queen, the contract can be made. The nine will lose to West’s ace, but a moment later, South’s king will kill East’s queen, and his jack and 10 will collect West’s five and eight. In contrast, if East plays his queen on dummy’s nine, West gets two trump tricks with his ace and eight.