I’d like to kick the person who thought teaching my sister Greek mythology was a good idea.

While other kids were sledding down the big hill near our house, I got to play “Sisyphus”. This involved me pushing a snowball up the hill until it got so big it would roll me over on the way back. By some big sibling mind-control, she convinced me that this was fun.

It turns out that having fun at failure was good training for my career in bridge. Playing bridge is endlessly frustrating and just when you feel like you’ve reached the peak, the boulder falls back to the ground.

Coming to the realization that we’ll never reach the summit should not stop us from enjoying our game. Let’s take a look at a problem that would have driven me nuts when I started playing bridge.

First, a bidding problem. Partner opens 1NT and you have: 

 43  
 82  
 AK75432  
 53
 . 

What do you do? I don't care about your system, the answer is the same: bid 3NT. You can probably take six or seven diamond tricks and partner can help with the rest.

Vul:None Dlr: S	DUMMY  43  82  AK75432  53
Lead: Q
	DECLARER  AK2  A943  J108  K102

Auction: We wind up in 3NT which seems right.

After the spade lead, you’re pretty happy. You can count two spades, one heart, and seven diamond tricks (assuming there’s not a 3-0 split). Giving you a spare trick. Should we hold up?

Players who follow rules blindly like the "rule of 7" might hold up, but we should always follow the rule of thinking. If we hold up, West might hurt us by shifting to a heart. So let's not hold up.

Most players (even more experienced ones) would win the first trick and play the J. West plays low. They win the ace, and the queen doesn't fall. Now they play the K. That wins, dropping the queen. And then… the snowball falls back down the hill.

The diamond suit is blocked! You have all those good diamonds, but no way to get there. How can we avoid this problem?

We need to lead the J and finesse! What if East wins and plays a club? We’ll cover it and lose at most 2 clubs and a diamond. 

The full deal: 

Vul:None Dlr: S	43  82  AK75432  53
QJ965  J1042  6  AQ7		1087  KQ5  Q9  J9864
	AK2  A963  J108  K102

There are many tricky parts here. Whether the auction, the non hold-up play, the diamond suit, or the club suit is the part that overloads your mental snowball, don't worry! Unlike Sisyphus, we really do get a little closer each time we push ourselves to our limit.