Unlucky Louie knows he is doomed to misfortune, but the player we call Harlow the Halo has no idea how lucky he is.

"The man was born on third base," is how Louie puts it, "and thinks he hit a triple."

Against four spades, West cashed two hearts and shifted to the jack of diamonds.

Harlow, the declarer, took the ace and cashed A-K of trumps. When East discarded, Harlow had to avoid a diamond loser.

He took the king of clubs, led to his jack (accepting the winning finesse as his due), threw a diamond from dummy on the ace and claimed.

"That finesse wouldn't have won for me," Louie sighed.

FOURTH TRICK

South can succeed without the club finesse and without guessing the trumps. At Trick Four he leads a diamond to the king. He ruffs a heart, cashes the top clubs, ruffs the jack of clubs in dummy, ruffs dummy's last heart and exits with a diamond.

South's last three cards are the A-J-9 of trumps, and dummy has the K-10-5. With a defender to lead, South has the rest.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S A J 9 8 4 H 8 3 D A 5 2 C A J 3. Your partner opens one heart, you respond one spade and he bids two clubs.

The opponents pass. What do you say?

ANSWER: Since your partner's hand is still not well defined, to bid 3NT would be wrong. Partner would pass with Q 10 3, A Q J 10 6, 8, K Q 10 6 (six spades is a better spot) or 5, A K Q 7 6, K 6, Q 10 7 6 5 (six clubs has a good chance). Bid two diamonds, forcing, and let him make another descriptive bid.