BRIDGE with Tannah Hirsch

South accurately led a spade against two no trump. She chose to lead the nine from her solid sequence. While this was a reasonable choice, it didn’t help North to know how many spades she had. Declarer ducked in dummy and North won the king. Looking at all four hands, he should return the jack of spades to unblock the suit. The defenders could then run the rest of the suit later when either one of them won a red ace. North fell from grace by returning the five of spades and was horrified to see the queen fall from declarer. He realized too late that the suit was now hopelessly blocked.

If declarer had played on diamonds at this point he would have made two no trump. South would win her ace of diamonds but they could only cash the jack and ten of spades. South had no other entry to get to the fifth spade. Luckily for the defense, however, North was not the only one who couldn’t see all four hands. East cashed the ace of clubs and was delighted to see the queen fall. He was in a rush to take his four club tricks and did so right away. North gratefully took this opportunity to discard his high spades, both the jack and the ten. Now when South eventually won her ace of diamond, her spades were the only ones remaining and she could easily cash them for down one.

The moral of this story is: When you err, don’t give up. You might get a chance to fix it.