“God gave us a mouth that closes and ears that don’t,” Cy the Cynic grumbled to me. “That should tell us something.”

Cy had lost in the club’s penny game. He was today’s North, and his bid of two spades — with 13 high-card points — was quite proper: A jump-shift shows slam interest, not any number of points, and Cy could see a grand slam if South had only Q 4, A 7 5, K 10 8 5 3, A 6 5.

At six diamonds, declarer took his ace of clubs and tried to combine his chances by cashing the ace of trumps. When no king fell, South led a heart to his queen, hoping to discard dummy’s club loser on the ace, but West had the king. Down two.

“I was minus 200 instead of plus 1370,” Cy told me. “What’s more, my partner insisted that his play was correct. When I pointed out that the spades were split 3-3, and he could have pitched two clubs as East ruffed with the king of trumps, he said that an even spade break was only a 36 percent chance. The heart finesse was 50-50.

“I told my partner that if you have nothing to say, don’t say it anyway.”

Fractions speak louder than words, and South’s play was questionable. By starting the spades after taking the ace of trumps, he wins if the suit breaks 3-3 but also if the defender with the king of trumps has four spades. South can pitch a club on the third high spade, ruff the fourth spade, take the ace of hearts, ruff a heart in dummy and discard his last club on the good fifth spade. His chances would be a bit better than 50 percent.