Contract Bridge

BY STEVE BECKER/A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY

Playing hastily in bridge is analogous, in many ways, to the ancient proverb about marrying in haste and repenting at leisure. Today’s deal provides a case in point. Assume you’re in three notrump and West leads a club. Dummy’s six holds the first trick, and you apparently have nine sure tricks consisting of a spade, a heart, four diamonds and three clubs.

Lulled by this false sense of security into thinking that it’s all over but the shouting, you try for an overtrick by taking a heart finesse at trick two, losing the queen to the king.

West returns the ten of hearts, and about this time it begins to dawn on you that there’s some doubt about making nine tricks. The four diamond tricks you counted at the start are much easier to count than to cash. If you take the K-J, there will be no way to reach dummy’s A-Q, while if you cash the king and then overtake the jack with the queen, you will make only three diamond tricks unless the ten falls. (In the actual deal it doesn’t, so you finish down one.)

To make matters worse, you now realize where you went wrong. The fault goes back to trick one, when you won the club lead with dummy’s six and should have won with the ace! You could then have played the king of clubs, cashed the K-J of diamonds and led another club toward dummy’s J-9. Whether West took his queen or not, the jack of clubs would be an entry to the A-Q of diamonds, and nine tricks would be assured.

Obviously, it’s clear in retrospect that winning the opening club lead with the ace is correct, but you must give yourself enough time to think of it. If you play too hastily at trick one and allow dummy’s six to win, you will, as the proverb says, have lots of time later to repent at your leisure.