They all say Bridge is a game of alertness, foresight and the ability to decipher the opponents likely distribution and key cards. At times the level of sustained concentration tends to fall a little when complacency or over confidence seeps in. It is here that a lot of slips in Bridge are made and the unwary declarer sometimes gets caught in his oversight of the obvious. While the element of human vulnerability to err cannot be completely ruled out and needs to be given some margin, it is the scope of the folly that makes one wonder how it could happen at a Bridge table where everyone is so attuned to alertness and keeping track of the cards as they term up on the table.
But still mistakes at Bridge do occur. Some trivial, others colossal depending on the stakes with the loss measured according to the level of the contract and the subsequent scope of penalties earned thereon. Despite every caution taken, sometimes when things looks too easy and rosy, that is when complacency takes its toll and the declarer suffers on account of his own disability to scan the correct sequence of play required. Of course in post mortem it is always very easy to point out where the declarer went wrong and pick up the best line of play conducive to the making of the contract bid. But at the table, in the heat of the moment of battle, the stress takes its toll and brings about the tragic downfall of a Bridge hero in action.
Today's illustration is from a major American Tournament wherein the declarer, an otherwise well known reputed player faltered in what appeared to be a hand with no serious problem at all. Yet our expert in a moment of folly and failure to foresee missed the winning line and suffered a major setback going down in his little slam of 6S bid as under on the following deal:
But surely one is going to be parked on the 5th heart leaving the contract ice cold to make. In war as in Bridge, forewarned is forearmed ready to strike the winning blow. Can you in the south seat foresee the problem, if any and find the elegant solution to it? To make matters easy for you, as you can see, trumps are splitting nicely at 3-2, so where lies the problem?
Can you spot it? Or do you think you have your line chalked out by drawing trumps as did our declarer and almost claiming the hand telling the opponents that one diamond loser is going away on the 5th heart of dummy. But wait a minute - there is a big snag if you have not foreseen it. You hearts are getting blocked with no way to enjoy the 5th heart if 3 trumps have been played out. Nor will it help you to duck a heart for you need all 5 heart tricks.
So the solution lies in getting rid of the obstacle by winning AC, drawing just two trumps with the K and Q, crossing over to AS and then leading a club from dummy to get rid of one of your heart giving you easy access to the 3 remaining heart winners in dummy for your 6S contract to come home as at the other table. This play you will agree was nothing else but neat!

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S           W         N         E
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2C          P        2D         P
2S          P        3S         P
4C          P        4H         P
4NT         P        5D         P
6S     ALL PASS
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West      North     East    South
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875         A32       94   KQJ109
2         K6543     J109     AQ87
Q963       1054      K87      AJ2
KJ942        76   Q10853        A
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