Seeking perfection in today’s game of bridge

“A perfectionist walks into a bar. Apparently, the bar wasn’t set high enough.” — graffiti.

Nobody ever suggested that bridge is easy to master. Part of its charm is that perfection is unachievable. Nobody ever played a perfect session, and nobody ever will. Nobody will even come close.

When today’s deal arose in a team-of-four match, South played at four spades at both tables. Both Norths opened one club and jumped to 2NT next, quite reasonably upgrading the hand because of the maximum high-card strength plus a promising five-card suit. Both Wests led the jack of diamonds.

At one table, declarer played dummy’s queen and captured East’s king. He drew trumps and let the jack of clubs ride.

East took the king and returned a diamond to West’s 10, and West then shifted to a heart. When declarer put up dummy’s king in desperation, he lost three heart tricks for down two.

At the other table, the play started the same way

— jack of diamonds opening lead, queen, king — but South let East’s king win. Then the defense couldn’t use West’s 10 as an entry for a heart shift, but East shifted to the ace and jack of hearts. After declarer drew trumps and lost the club finesse, East led a third heart to West’s queen. Down only one, yet still down.

Perfect play makes four spades. South must play a low diamond from dummy at Trick One and take the ace. He draws trumps and finesses in clubs. When East takes the king, all he can do is cash his king of diamonds and ace of hearts to hold South to just 10 tricks.