“I think that Ebenezer Scrooge guy was rather lucky,” Cy the Cynic remarked to me in the club lounge. “If I could get three guys to swing by my house on Christmas Eve and tell me everything I’ve been doing wrong, I would be delighted.”

I am no ghost of Christmas anytime, but I could help Cy with his bridge game, would he but listen. He habitually seizes on the first line of play he sees – and often comes to grief.

Cy was today’s South in a penny game. His 1NT opening bid was aggressive if not greedy, He had only one ace and one king, and his spade honors weren’t pulling their weight. To downgrade the hand and open one diamond would have been reasonable enough. When the Cynic opened 1NT, North raised to 3NT, stopping off to try Stayman on the way. West led the five of diamonds.

Dummy’s nine won, and Cy next tried a club to his jack. West produced the queen and shifted to a spade, and Cy was in trouble. He had only eight tricks – three clubs, four diamonds and a spade – so he played low from dummy. When East took the king, Cy was still alive, but East shifted to a heart, and West took the jack and ace and led a third heart to East’s king. Down one!

Cy’s play was miserly. Instead of letting dummy’s nine win the first diamond, Cy could overtake with his ten to let the queen of spades ride. If West had the king, Cy would be sure of at least nine tricks. When East takes the king, Cy is still safe. The defense can take at most three heart tricks, and when Cy gets back in, he has three spades, four diamonds and two clubs.