BRIDGE

North dealer.

Both sides vulnerable.

Over time, defenders who play mechanically will not do nearly as well as those who play thoughtfully. Today's deal from a duplicate game provides a case in point.

The deal was played at eight tables, and at every table the final contract was four spades by South, against which West led the queen of hearts. At seven of the tables, declarer made 10 tricks -- five spades, two hearts and three clubs. Since seven declarers achieved this result, and since 10 tricks seem to be there for the taking, this would seem to be the normal outcome. But it shouldn't be, as demonstrated by what happened at the eighth table.

First, let's see how the play went at the other tables. South won the heart lead, cashed the A-K of spades and led a spade to the jack. Declarer then tried a club finesse, losing the queen to East's king.

At this point, the defense varied. Some Easts shifted to a diamond, and after the defenders collected two diamonds, declarer had the rest, eventually discarding the heart six on dummy's nine of clubs. At the tables where East returned a heart, declarer similarly finished with 10 tricks.

At the table where the contract failed, East found a way to give South a chance to go wrong, and it made all the difference.

Here, when declarer led a club to the jack at trick five, East did not take the king.

South naturally assumed that West had the king, in which case repeating the finesse was necessary and might even yield an overtrick.

So declarer crossed to his hand with the heart king and led a club to the queen. This time East won, and the defenders quickly cashed a heart and two diamonds to set the contract.

East's refusal to win the first club is a play that has much to gain and little to lose. All it takes is a bit of thought and a natural reluctance to play mechanically.