William Arthur Ward, a writer of inspirational maxims who died in 1994, said, “Adversity causes some men to break, others to break records.”

We have been looking at declarer’s handling of bad trump breaks. Sometimes, though, declarer needs a favorable split, but must still play carefully. In today’s deal, South is in four hearts. West leads the spade king and continues the suit when East encourages with his eight. How should declarer continue?

North’s three-club rebid was a double negative, showing a very bad hand. His three hearts was nonforcing. But South did not want to stop short of game and continued with four clubs just in case partner had considerable length there.

South starts with three top losers: one spade, one heart and one diamond. So, if trumps are 4-1, the contract has no chance. However, he should also count winners. Here, he has four hearts, two diamonds and three clubs. If diamonds are 3-3, that will permit an extra winner to be established, but that is against the odds. So, what can declarer do if hearts are 3-2 and diamonds are 4-2?

South must arrange to trump his last diamond on the board.

After ruffing the second spade, he can afford to cash one top heart, but not two (otherwise, West will remove dummy’s final trump when in with the diamond ace). Then declarer drives out the diamond ace, ruffs the third spade, cashes his second high heart, and returns to diamonds. West may trump the third, but then South can ruff his low diamond on the board.