A Good short-term memory is helpful at bridge. (Let’s face it, it’s vital. You must remember what cards are played.) So is long-term memory: applying techniques you’ve learned over time.

“I think I have a memory problem,” a club player told me.

“You can’t store your experiences?” I asked.

“Storage isn’t the issue,” he shrugged. “It’s retrieval.”

My friend was declarer at five diamonds, and West led a heart. East captured dummy’s king and returned a heart, and South discarded a spade and took the queen. He drew trumps and led a club from dummy: jack, king, nine. East won the next club with the 10 and tried to cash the ace. South ruffed but eventually had to try the spade finesse. Down one.

“I know there’s a strategy that would’ve worked,” South said, “but it slipped my mind. Isn’t there a play that’s named after an eating utensil?”

South almost had the answer. A “Morton’s Fork Coup” forces a defender to choose between losing options. South should ruff the second heart, draw trumps and lead a club from dummy. If East puts up his ace, South has 11 tricks. If instead East plays low, South wins, leads a trump to dummy, discards his last club on the queen of hearts and loses one spade.

South could succeed even after discarding a spade at Trick Two. He could draw trumps, lead a club to his king and run the trumps. With three tricks left, East would probably save the ace of clubs and the K-8 of spades, and if South judged the position, he could lead a club to end-play him.