Cy the Cynic, who maintains that he was married but never spouse-broken, defines marriage as a continuing process of adjusting to things you hadn't expected.

So is dummy play. But in today's deal, declarer failed to adjust. Against the easy-looking four hearts, West led a spade, and South tried dummy's queen. East took the king and shifted to the queen of clubs, and South won and led a trump to the queen. When East unkindly discarded, South led a diamond to his jack, returned a trump to dummy's eight and took the jack.

DISASTER

South next tried to get back to his hand with a diamond to draw trumps, and disaster ensued. West ruffed, led a club to East and ruffed another diamond. Down one!

South needed to adjust his sights. To assure 10 tricks, he can take the queen of trumps, then the jack, king and ace. He next starts the diamonds. If West ruffs and leads a spade, South takes the ace and finishes the diamonds to pitch his last spade, losing a spade, a club and a trump.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold: S A Q 8 H Q J 8 D A Q 8 3 C 10 4 3. You open one diamond, your partner responds one spade, you bid 1NT and he jumps to three hearts. What do you say?

ANSWER: Partner has a good hand with five or more spades. A return to three spades would suggest a dull hand with average three-card support. Bid four spades to show strong support and useful values. If partner is interested in slam, you'll reassure him about the quality of the trump suit.