Handle with care

There are many hands where declarer runs into bad luck and, as a result, cannot make the contract, regardless of what he does.

However, there are also many other hands where declarer fails, and the outcome is attributed to bad luck — but

where subsequent analysis reveals that he actually contributed to his own demise.

For a good illustration, consider this deal where South was in three notrump and West led a heart. Declarer took East’s king with the ace and led a low club to dummy’s jack. East won with the ace and returned the heart deuce to South’s nine and West’s ten.

West continued with the three of hearts to the jack, but when declarer next cashed

the king of clubs and West showed out, there was no way to avoid going down one. Altogether, East-west scored three heart tricks and their two black aces.

Bad luck, South could easily say, but