A Rare Bird


7 6 4
9 7 5 4
Q 5
K J 6 3
8 2 K Q J 10 5
J 3 2 10 8
10 9 8 6 3 2 K J 7 4
Q 8 7 4
A 9 3
A K Q 6
A Opening lead: K of hearts
A 10 9 5 2 Contract: 6 ?

This is a hand I'm more accustomed to seeing in a bridge book than at the table. But it did occur here. There were five people in slam here: 2 in hearts and 3 in clubs. The two in hearts made their contract, while the 3 in clubs all went down. Howzzat? Well, that's because the unbalanced club suit as a side suit allows declarer to sluff a spade, allowing declarer a third round ruff of a spade for a 12th winner. Losing just a spade. But if clubs are trump, you can't sluff a spade on the balanced hearts, and it does you no good to sluff a spade on the 5th club since you won't have anything to ruff with. Tough luck.
How do you determine, on a double fit, when one suit is 5-4, the other 4-4? Well, I think the only honest answer is that you don't, unless you have a bid that specifically promises 5-4 in a holding, such as Flannery. For the most part, that's too subtle a difference in holding to be amenable to discovery. I can only point to a far more basic principle, one far more likely to be rewarding, and that is the major over the minor! True, you could go down in 6 hearts if they were 5-4 and clubs 4-4. Still, I would put it this way:
If you choose the major over the minor when both suits are viable trump suits, you come out ahead when both make and when the major makes while the minor doesn't. But if you choose the minor, you come out ahead only when the minor makes while the major doesn't. This hand illustrates a rare situation, more of a curiosity that confirms the principle of picking the balanced suit over the unbalanced, than a common situation you want to be on the lookout for. It wouldn't work if hearts were 4-1, even if you had the jack, for you've gotta get all trump out first, and if there aren't any trump left, the sluff on the 5th club can do you no good. Nor does it work if the queen of clubs isn't picked up (on a spade opening lead), for the defense could cash as many spade tricks as they've got coming, though it would work for an extra trick on any other lead, for the key feature is whether you can sluff a loser and promote a ruffing trick, not whether you controlled the suit totally on the way to the 5th round. To put this another way, let's give declarer the K of spades. Now you could withstand any lead and could withstand losing a trick to the Q of clubs in a little slam (on 3-2 hearts in a heart contract). If you pick up the Q, you can make 13 tricks in hearts, only 12 in clubs.