Source: “Play Bridge with the Aces”
“Sale Tortoise Beats _Flashy Hare”.
At all levels of plays, the secret of success lies not so much in playing well as in no playing badly, quite a different thing. The opportunity for brillance presents itself rarely; the oportunity for error lies arround every corner.
Dealer South, N/S Vul
 Q 8 6 4 3 K 5 3 K Q 7 2 5 |
||
| A K 10 2 9 J 10 9 8 Q 10 7 3 |
J 9 5 Q J 6 6 5 4 3 A K 2 |
|
| 7 A 10 8 7 4 2 A J 9 8 6 4 |
The Auction:
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | |||
| Pass | 1 |
Pass | 3 |
| Pass | 4 |
End |
Openning lead J
The first declarer won the opening lead with his A, quickly led to dummy’s heart king, and discarded his losing spade on the K.
He succeeded in avoiding a spade loser, but he could no longer avoid the loss of three club tricks and a trump. (East leading trumps at each opportunity) Down one.
When the hand was replayed, Joel Tarlo fo Great Britain did not play brillantly. He merely avoided playin badly. After the same lead of J, he took the time to count his losers. He resisted the temptation to quickly discard his losing spade and played as follows.
After winning the A, he led a club from his hand. West won the trick, cashed the K and lead a trump. Declarer ducked in dummy and captured East’s jack with the ace. A club was ruffed in dummy with a low trump and two clubs were discarded on the high diamonds.
A spade was ruffed back to the South hand, and another club was ruffed with dummy’s K. South then conceded a trick to the high trump and made his contract, losing one spade, one club and one trump.
As this hand demostrates, careless play occur at all levels. While Tarlo’s line of play was not brilliant, not was if impregnable against all distributions, it was certainly better that the impulsive play made at the other table.