Here is another deal with lines a and b

Lea Michele, an actress and singer, said, "I always knew that I wanted to work, and I knew I wanted to be a singer and an actor. I knew that every choice I made would help me get to that point. So the better the choices I made, the more of a chance I would have to get to where I wanted to be."

That has been our theme this week. In this last example, how should South play in seven spades after West leads the heart queen? What are his choices?

In the auction, I strongly agree with North's three-club response, which showed at least a five-card suit and eight or more points. South's final bid was a slight gamble because if North had the club ace and king, South did not know where the diamond queen would go. Still, the grand slam rated to be at worst on the diamond finesse.

With 12 top tricks, declarer can make his contract if either the diamond finesse works or the clubs break 4-4. So, after taking the first trick, South should play a trump to dummy's seven, ruff a low club with the spade jack, cross back to dummy with a trump to the eight, ruff a second low club high and draw East's last trump by leading the spade nine to dummy's 10. Now declarer cashes the club ace and king, discarding his two low diamonds.

Are the clubs 4-4? If so, South throws his diamond queen on the club seven. If not, he takes the diamond finesse. Altogether, the odds of success are an acceptable 66.36 percent.