wrong branch, right move

One axiom of good cardplay is this: every decision is a new opportunity to make the optimal play. No matter how bad your previous decisions were and how bad of a spot they landed you in, you still need to make the best choice given the options available to you. Example: you and your partner have a bidding disaster in bridge, because your partner does something dumb during the auction. Instead of landing in a contract of 4 spades, you are now the declarer in a contract of 3 Notrump. Had you correctly landed in 4 spades, you could easily make the contract and score 620 points. But here in 3 Notrump, you are likely to not make the contract and you are going to lose points. All you can do at this point is try to lose the minimum number of points. If you cry and moan and play the hand terribly and only make 6 tricks and lose 300 points, you can certainly scream at your partner about his bidding. But if you forget about the bidding disaster, focus on the hand, play it brilliantly and only…