Safety plays come in all shapes and sizes, and are necessary in many deals. Sometimes, though, declarer must not get so carried away with guarding against an unfavorable division that he winds up more sorry than safe.

Take this case where South was in four spades and West led the king of hearts. Declarer won with dummy’s ace and, intent on guarding against a 4-1 trump division — the only real threat to his contract — led the nine of spades and let it ride after East followed low. West won with the jack, cashed the heart queen and continued with the jack. Declarer ruffed and mulled over how to handle the remaining trumps.

One possibility was to cross to dummy with a diamond, lead a trump and repeat the finesse. This would succeed if East had all the remaining spades but would lose if West had started with two or three spades including a second honor card. In that case, South would lose two spades, a heart and a club for down one.

South decided that the remaining spades were much more likely to be divided 2-1 than 3-0, so he cashed the ace. When West showed out, declarer had to lose a second trump trick, and he finished down one.

South had the right idea about protecting against a 4-1 trump break, but he went about it the wrong way. A superior approach is to cash the spade ace first and then lead a low spade to dummy’s nine. In the actual deal, East wins with the ten, but declarer later picks up East’s queen via a finesse.

The suggested play has more to recommend it than the obvious advantage of averting a guess on the second round of trump. It is also the correct play mathematically. Cashing the ace first guards against West’s having started with the singleton ten, jack or queen, while the first-round finesse wins only when West started with the singleton two or three. The odds are therefore 3-to-2 in favor of playing the ace first.

Tomorrow: Resist that impulse.