DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” — baseball’s Leo Durocher.

Cy the Cynic says that poor losers make worse winners. He’s referring to people such as Grapefruit, my club’s acid-tongued member, who is obnoxious when he loses but totally insufferable if he wins.

As to losers — meaning tricks that are lost — some are more losable than others. After today’s NorthSouth bid to six spades, South took dummy’s ace of hearts and drew trumps. He next took the king of clubs and led to his jack.

That finesse was a loser — a bad loser — when West took the queen. South ruffed the heart return and cashed three clubs, pitching a heart and a diamond from dummy. He took the ace of diamonds, ruffed a diamond with dummy’s last trump, and lost the 13th trick to East’s king of hearts.

As the cards lay, South had an unavoidable club loser. He can make the slam if he loses it at the right time. South can ruff a heart at Trick Two, then play a low club from both hands. Say East wins and leads a diamond. South takes the ace, cashes the A-Q of trumps and ruffs another heart. He gets to dummy with the king of clubs, draws trumps and runs the clubs for 12 tricks.

That play might lose only with an unlikely lie of the cards: if trumps broke 4-1, the club finesse won and the defender with four trumps also had three clubs.

Incidentally, my counsel on sportsmanship is this: Win as if you’re used to it; lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.