Keep your eye on the goal

Let’s say you’re playing rubber bridge, and you find yourself in a vulnerable six-heart contract. If you make the slam, you’ll score 700 points for winning the rubber, 750 for slam and 180 for the tricks — 1,630 points in all. Conversely, if you go down one, you’ll lose 100 points. The total difference between making the slam and going down one is, therefore, 1,730 points.

Now let’s say you have a chance for an overtrick, which would give you an additional 30 points. In view of what’s at stake, this is obviously a mere drop in the bucket.

All this is said by way of introduction to today’s sad tale, where South bid aggressively to reach a sound six-heart contract but then failed to make it.

Declarer won West’s opening trump lead and drew the outstanding trumps in three rounds. He next cashed the A-K of diamonds, receiving a jolt when East showed out on the second round. After cashing the queen and discarding a spade, he stewed for a while, not knowing which black-suit finesse to take. As it happened, he couldn’t guess right, and he eventually lost a trick to each of West’s kings to finish down one.

South’s line of play was geared more toward making an overtrick than ensuring his contract. Since he could afford to lose a trick, he should have taken out insurance against the 28% chance of a 4-1 diamond division.

The proper play after drawing trump is to lead a diamond and let the opponents win it! It is then a simple matter to win any return and run the rest of the diamonds to make the slam.

It is true that in adopting this approach, South might lose a diamond trick he didn’t have to lose. But considering what’s at stake, he should be willing to give away 30 points to ensure scoring 1,630.

Tomorrow: Double-dummy problem.