PATIENCE

by Aleksander Wagner

 The following hand was published in 'Le Bridgeur' in mid 70's as a lead and defence problem and I was genuinely surprised when a friend of mine from Paris sent me a copy of one of the world's best known bridge magazines and told me this deal was there.
 How come our hand appeared there at all? Well, it was Philip Morris Cup in Tel-Aviv and we were playing against the favourites, Romik & Lev ( Sam Lev had moved since to New York and is considered one of the best players in the US ). There was quite a crowd there following them and enjoying their game, among them one or two reporters waiting for some gems to write home about.
 In the following deal all four of us played our best, and all four of us rightly deserved to have our names featured in this deal. Instead of translating the story, I'll try to summarize it in my own words.

Dealer East, N-S vulnerable: 
 
                      W        N       E       S
                    Wagner    Lev    Press   Romik
                    ------------------------------
                      -        -       1D      p
                      1H       x       2D      2S
                      p        4S      p       p...
What will you lead as West with K842, 10742, J854, 6 ?

The only lead I never thought of was heart. There was a good case for leading each of the other suits, but I discarded them one by one: club might have gained us a ruffer but quite possibly lost an original trump trick, spade would clarify the trump suit and give them initiative and I hate solving my opponents' problems for them, so diamond it was. 'Le Bridgeur' rightly awarded 100 points for a diamond lead, 80 for the 6 of clubs, 70 for a spade and only 30 for a heart lead.
But this story isn't about the diamond lead. Let's see what really happened there: 

                                AQ3
                                AQJ5
                                72
                                AK104
                   K842                       65
                   10742          N           K83
                   J854         W   E         AKQ103
                   6              S           852

                                J1097
                                96
                                96
                                QJ973
My partner took his two high diamonds and then decided to continue another diamond and give the declarer ruff and discard! Why? He knew I had four trumps, he thought we could defeat them one down but it didn't satisfy him, maybe the crowd got to him or maybe it was a stroke of genius.
The third diamond created an unexpected opening for the declarer and he saw his chance of making the contract (he rightly discounted the heart finesse from the word go). He ruffed with the 3 of spades in dummy discarding a heart from his hand and quite masterfully played the trump Queen! If I take the trick or there is a dubleton King in either hand he makes the contract easily having a club entry to his hand for drawing the outstanding trumps (if I play another diamond he ruffs with the Ace). But the Queen took the trick. Now he drew the Ace, but the King didn't drop. His last chance of taking 10 tricks was trump 3-3 split and he decided to go for it, entered his hand with the club Jack and played the Jack of spades. I took the King and cruelly played my last diamond which he ruffed. Now I patiently waited until he played his fourth club, ruffed it and returned a heart. My partner had to take his heart King and his last diamond. Down two and an absolute top.