BRIDGE

The chief danger in many deals lies in playing impulsively at a critical point instead of taking the time to think things out. Hasty play is advantageous in some games, but not in bridge. Assume you’re in three notrump and West makes the inspired lead of the eight of diamonds. You can’t afford to rise with the ace, which would leave the diamonds wide open, so you cover the eight with the nine, which loses to the jack. You plan to duck the next diamond if East returns the king, since East is marked by the opening lead with the K-Q-J. However, East shifts to the jack of hearts at trick two. This is the moment when you must take care not to act too quickly by playing the queen. The temptation to finesse whenever you have the A-Qx facing two small is almost irresistible, but it would be a dreadful play to make here. If you go up with the ace, you can be 100% sure of the contract, regardless of how the cards are divided. Next you simply cross to dummy with a club and lead the queen of spades, planning to finesse. Win or lose, you are certain to score at least three spades, five clubs and the two red aces. But if you finesse the queen of hearts, which you might do if you were thinking of where you parked the car that day, a sad fate would befall you when West took the king and returned a heart. You would take the spade finesse later on in an effort to make the contract, but ultimately you would go down one, losing three hearts, a diamond and a spade.