It doesn’t matter to declarer whether he makes a contract because his side has overwhelming high-card strength, because of his skillful play, or because an opponent makes a mistake.

What counts above all else is making the contract, and whatever can be done to bring this about is all to the good. While declarer has no objection to succeeding on merit, he also doesn’t mind succeeding by inducing an opponent to commit an error.

Take this deal from a team match where the contract was four spades at both tables. At the first table, West led a club to dummy’s ace, and declarer played a low spade to the ace, on which West showed out. South eventually went down one, losing a trump, two hearts and a club.

At the second table, West also led a club to dummy’s ace, but here declarer played the jack of spades instead of a low spade from dummy at trick two. East covered the jack with the queen, which proved to be a fatal error. After taking the ace and seeing West show out, it was easy for declarer to avoid a trump loser by subsequently taking a finesse against East’s ten, and he wound up with 10 tricks.

Obviously, leading the jack of spades from dummy proved more successful than leading the five. More importantly, leading the jack couldn’t hurt South regardless of how the missing trumps were divided. The play therefore offered a chance to gain a trick if East had all three trumps and made the mistake of covering with the queen.

The second declarer, of course, had no intention of finessing if East followed low, but leading the jack gave East a chance to err, and to that extent increased the chance of making the contract.

Tomorrow: Blitzkrieg!