Do not take what you do not need

Today’s cliche is: “Waste not, want not.” As a child is told, if he isn’t going to eat something, he shouldn’t put it on his plate.

It is also a concept to be borne in mind by bridge players. Can you see how it could be applied in today’s deal? South is in five clubs. West leads the spade two. East wins with the jack and tries to cash the ace. How should declarer continue?

North bid three spades in the faint hope that his partner could bid three no-trump with a spade stopper.

South thought that he had four chances: a singleton diamond queen, the diamond finesse, a 3-3 diamond split or the heart finesse. After ruffing high at trick two, declarer drew trumps, cashed the diamond ace and played a diamond to the jack. East won with the queen and returned a spade. Declarer ruffed and played a diamond to dummy’s king, but East discarded. South crossed to his hand by ruffing a spade and took the heart finesse.

However, that lost as well, and the contract was defeated.

“How unlucky can I be?” grumbled South. “My line must be over 80%.”

North was sympathetic — but he knew that there was a slightly better line available. The correct way to maximize the chance of three diamond tricks was to cash the king and ace and, if the queen hadn’t appeared, to lead low toward the jack. As you can see, this works beautifully on the given layout. In addition, if East had started with queen-fourth of diamonds, the heart finesse was still waiting in the wings.