Paul Lukacs (1915-1982) of Israel was a noted constructor of play problems. Many of his "single-dummy" problems were remarkable for their elegance.

Today's deal is a Lukacs creation. West leads the jack of clubs against six spades. What is South's best line?

Say South takes the ace of clubs, draws trumps, cashes the king of clubs, ruffs a club and leads a heart to dummy's queen. East wins and shifts to a diamond, giving South a nasty guess: South can finesse with the queen or take the ace and hope for a 3-3 heart break. As the cards lie, he must fail.

KING APPEARS

South should lead a heart to the ace at Trick Six and return a heart. When East's king appears, South is home. But suppose (on a different layout) East played low, and West took South's jack with the king.

South would still have many chances. If West had no more hearts, he'd be end-played. If West had a heart to lead, hearts might break 3-3. If West started with four hearts, South could finesse in diamonds.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S J 8 7 3 2 H A Q 6 D 5 4 C K 4 3. Your partner opens one heart, and the next player passes. What do you say?

ANSWER: Since your hand is worth about 11 points, plan to encourage game. Temporize with a bid of one spade. If partner next bids two of a minor suit, you'll jump to three hearts. If your jack of spades were the ace, you'd still respond one spade - no direct heart raise would be right - but you'd bid four hearts next.