Over the long haul, a player will miss many more simple plays than complicated ones, if only because the simple plays occur far more often. Reducing errors in this area should be the primary goal of all players trying to improve their game.

Take this case where South failed to make four hearts after committing an error that should have been easy to avoid. West led the king of clubs and continued with the queen, ruffed by South. Declarer cashed the A-K of spades and ruffed a spade in dummy, then led the ten of hearts and finessed after East followed low.

West won with the ace and had no trouble finding the proper return of the jack of spades. Declarer ruffed with dummy’s eight, and East overruffed with the queen. East returned a club, and declarer later lost a diamond trick to go down one.

South missed his cue at the critical moment when he ruffed the fourth round of spades in dummy, knowing full well that East would be able to overruff with the queen. East could not have had another spade, and it was already known that he had the queen of hearts, since dummy’s ten had forced West’s ace on the preceding trick.

Instead, South should have discarded a diamond from dummy when West led the jack of spades. This would have allowed him to trump a diamond in dummy later on and so would have greatly reduced the possibility of East’s scoring a trick with the queen of hearts.

In the actual deal, the diamond discard from dummy would have been rewarded, and South’s only losers would have been a spade, a heart and a club.

Tomorrow: The serendipity factor.