It’;s easy to find fault, but people keep looking for it. One of my peeves is hearing a player blame his partner for a poor result when the fault was his own.

Today’s West led the king of diamonds against South’s three hearts, and East signaled with the nine. West wasn’t sure what to make of that and continued with the ace and ten.

Declarer ruffed and led a club to dummy’s queen. East took the king and shifted to a trump, but South took the ace, cashed the ace of clubs and ruffed his last club in dummy. He lost a trump to West’s queen but made his contract.

“You should beat it,”East told his partner. "Lead your ten of diamonds at Trick Two. I’ll overtake it and lead a trump. When I take the king of clubs, I lead another trump, and declarer loses a second club.”

East was at fault: He should signal with the queen on the first diamond. Then West can underlead in diamonds to start the winning defense.

Don’t put your partner in his place. Put yourself there.

Daily question: You hold: ? K 10 5 4 3 ? 8 2 ? 5 4 3 2 ? Q 7. Your partner opens one heart, you bid one spade and he jumps to three clubs. The opponents pass. What do you say?

Answer: Partner’s jump-shift is forcing and says he expects to make game even if you have scraped up a response with a minimum six-point hand. Some players would have passed one heart with your hand, but you’ve made your bed. To pass now would be inconsistent. Bid three hearts.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable

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