Do you know someone who is perfect? Of course not. Do you know someone who thinks he is perfect? Probably. George Bernard Shaw was in characteristic vein when he said, The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.

At bridge, it is sometimes possible to play perfectly: to find the line that always works, whatever the distribution. South had the chance in todays deal, but when his ship came in, he was standing at the train station.

Against three no-trump, West led the spade 10. Since his contract was in danger only if East won a trick and switched to a diamond through the king, declarer called for dummys spade king and immediately ran the club queen. West played perfectly, ducking his king smoothly. Now, of course, if South had led a heart to his 10, nine tricks would have been assured. South had been fooled, though. He erred by playing a club to his 10.

West happily took the trick with his king and exited with a club. Now Souths goose was cooked (unless he had X-ray vision). He cashed the heart ace-king, hoping to drop the queen. Then he took his three spade tricks, the dummy and East discarding diamonds. Finally, declarer led a third heart, hoping West had the queen. (If so, West would have had to lead a heart to Souths 10, or play a diamond around to Souths king.) However, East won with the queen and switched to the diamond 10. The defenders took the last three tricks in diamonds to defeat the contract.

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