You forget a little detail, I think …

At that time, Julie was the most reckless of the young girls that I coached. She sent me a message to tell me about the final of a team tournament that she had just finished playing.

She finished second and she tells me: “With a little more luck, we could have won the final!”

I answer: “It’s true that you have an aggressive approach which requires some luck, but don’t blame it all on luck. Let me see one of your unlucky boards.”

She continues: “At one point, I bid 4♠ over on opening of 3♣ in the pass-out position and all we needed was for Spades not to be 3-0 in order to make the game.”

I’m curious now and I ask her to show me the two hands and the auction:

When I see the hands, I smile and ask her: “That’s what you call being unlucky?” Your partner has two Spades, two aces and the Club doubleton and you are complaining!!” She replies: “Well, I admit that my partner had good cards. But you have to admit that it’s not lucky, after all!”

Me: “Yes, it’s true that there was only a 22% chance of Spades braking 3-0 and that your contract was very good. But maybe you could expect Spades to be 3-0 after East’s Double. Let’s get to the facts: how did you play?”

Julie: “West led the Club Queen and I won with the Ace. Then I played the Club King. Unfortunately, East ruffed that and … since he was not sleeping, he immediately cashed his other two Spades to prevent me from ruffing.”

Me: “That’s what I’m saying, you played badly. You could make it. You had to play Clubs from the dummy.”

Julie: “Bah, I don’t see how that changes anything. He would still have ruffed and played trumps to prevent me from ruffing my Club.”

Me: “You forget a little detail, I think …”