When he opened and rebid in diamonds, and did not bid 2NT at his third turn, North had a go at five diamonds. That contract would have been cold if Louie held AQ4,42,AK9752,73. In fact, it wasn’t cold, especially with Louie declaring.

West led the ace and queen of clubs. He shifted to the five of hearts ... and Louie huddled.

William of Occam was a 14th-century philosopher. “Occam’s Razor,” an idea attributed to him, says that with a choice among competing hypotheses, choose the one with the fewest assumptions. That is, the simplest explanation of a phenomenon is likely to be correct.

As declarer, apply Occam’s Razor. Finesses are necessary evils, so take no more than you must. Don’t make too many assumptions.

Back at the five-diamond contract, Louie finessed with dummy’s queen of hearts at Trick Three. East won and led a trump. Louie drew trumps, cashed the ace of spades and let the ten ride. He went down two when East had the queen and grumbled about his luck as usual.

If William of Occam had been declarer, he would have seen that the heart finesse was an unnecessary assumption -- what is known as a “practice finesse” since it had little to gain. Even if the queen of hearts wins, Louie must still guess the queen of spades to make game. But if he guesses right, he can pitch a heart on dummy’s fourth spade. Louie should take the ace of hearts, draw trumps and hope to guess right in spades.