An Open-and-Shut Case
|
 A K 10 6 |
|
|
 Q 9 2 |
|
|
 K Q J 9 |
|
|  A 3 |
| J 8 |
|
9 4 2 |
| 10 5 4 3 |
|
6 |
|
| 10 7 2 |
| A 6 5 4 3 |
| Q 8 7 5 | |
K J 10 4 |
|
Q 7 5 3 |
|
|
A K J 8 7 |
|
|
8 |
Contract: 6 ? |
|
9 6 2 |
Opening lead: 5 clubs |
| East | South | West | North |
| Pass |
1 |
Pass |
1 |
| Dbl |
2 |
Pass |
4 NT |
| Pass |
5 |
Pass |
6 |
| All |
pass |
Sometimes you might be confronted with a balanced minor vs. an unbalanced major; sometimes the bidding might get crowded and you can't get both suits in conveniently; sometimes, indeed, your balanced suit might be so meagre that a third unbalanced suit will give you sluffs, making the strong unbalanced suit the best pick. No one's saying it's always easy to determine the distribution and certainly no one's saying a balanced suit over an unbalanced is guaranteed to do you better. But if there is an advantage to one over the other, the balanced suit as trump is ten times as likely to be the one that offers it. This has to be the most open-and-shut case imaginable for the balanced over the unbalanced suit for trump when you have a choice.
The bidders had ample time to get both suits in. They're both majors. And the bidders should be able to see that the spade suit is balanced, the heart suit not so balanced. Couldn't North suspect that his partner had raised on 3 spades, as some players are wont to do? Perhaps. But South should have been reasonably certain that they had a balanced spade suit and an unbalanced heart suit and bid accordingly.
As for what happened in the play, there isn't much to discuss. On a club opening lead, you simply can't make 6 hearts, and no one did. But in six spades, a club opening lead can be handled with aplomb. Draw three rounds of trump, run your hearts, sluffing a club and low diamond, lead a diamond and claim.
Nobody in six hearts made that contract. No one in six spades went down. 'Nuff said?