Contract Bridge

Regardless of the caliber of the game you play in, one truth remains constant: Many more points are lost on easy hands than are lost on difficult ones. This is because complicated hands that require great skill are relatively rare, while the everyday garden variety that require no special skills come up all the time.

Consider this case where South wound up in three notrump and West led a club. Declarer won East’s jack with the ace and immediately led a spade to the jack, losing to the king.

South won the club return and cashed the A- Q of spades. When the suit didn’t break evenly, he tried a diamond finesse. Unfortunately, West produced the king and cashed three clubs and a spade for down two.

It cannot be denied that declarer ran into a few bad breaks along the way — two finesses lost, the spades didn’t split, and the opposing clubs were divided 5- 3. However, the fact remains that he went down on a hand where making at least nine tricks was an absolute certainty.

South failed because he attacked the wrong suit at the outset. Had he won the opening club lead, crossed to dummy with a heart and tried the diamond finesse first, he could not have made less than four diamond tricks, two clubs, two hearts and a spade for his contract. Indeed, he could just as easily have assured nine tricks by leading a low diamond from his hand at trick two, conceding a trick to the king.

Declarer’s error was essentially an error of convenience. Because he had to win the opening club lead in his hand, it was much more convenient to try the spade finesse first than it was to cross to dummy and try the diamond finesse.

The reason for South’s failure on this relatively straightforward deal was, sad to say, simply a matter of laziness.