A rancher will tell you that it's not a good idea to take down a fence until you know why it was put up. It's also good practice on defense to "build fences" around your partner. Don't give him a chance to err.

Today's West led the ace of spades against South's three diamonds. East signaled with the king, won the next spade and led his singleton heart.

South won in dummy and led the ace and a low trump, and East rose with his king and led the THREE of spades. West ruffed and led a heart for East to ruff. Down one.

HIGH SPADE

Of course, if East leads a high spade at Trick Six, West should still ruff East's winner and lead a heart. But partners have been known to have blind spots. East was interested in beating the contract, not in having to mend fences with West in the postmortem.

After the second trick, South could always make three diamonds. After he wins the first heart, he takes the A-K of clubs and leads the ten. When East covers, South discards his last spade as a "scissors coup"!

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S 7 6 4 H A K J 9 D A 9 C A K 10 9. You open one club, and your partner bids one spade. What do you say?

ANSWER: To describe a hand with about 19 points and balanced distribution, jump to 2NT. In Standard methods, any further bid by your partner will be forcing. An option is to bid two hearts, a "reverse" that would promise substantial extra strength. But that action would be flawed: It would suggest longer clubs than hearts.