Don Marquis, a journalist and humorist who died in 1937, said, "A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists."

Not at the bridge table! A pessimist will do better in the long run and should rarely listen to an optimist.

This deal is an example. South has barreled into four spades. West cashes two club tricks, then guesses well in shifting to the diamond jack. East takes dummy's queen with his ace and returns the suit. How would an optimist or a pessimist continue?

North made a single raise with a maximum for the bid, having four trumps, a king-queen and a doubleton. South's jump to four spades was a tad optimistic, but he expected the game to have play. Also, perhaps the opponent might misjudge, bid five clubs, and pay a doubled penalty.

West was tempted to shift to his singleton heart at trick three, hoping that his partner had a major-suit ace. But he was not that optimistic.

South saw that he needed the heart finesse to succeed, so, whether an optimist or a pessimist, assumed that it would.

The optimist, leaving it at that, would draw three rounds of trumps ending on the board and run the heart 10. The finesse would win, but when declarer repeated it, West would show out and the contract would fail.

The pessimist would anticipate the 1-4 heart break. He would play a heart to his queen at trick five. Then he would draw trumps ending with dummy's queen, run the heart 10, play a heart to his jack, and claim.

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