A Dramatic Illustration


9 6
K J 7 3
A 10 7 5 3 2
5
3 2 Q J 5
A 10 4 9 5
K J 6 9 8 4
10 9 8 7 6 Q J 4 3 2
A K 10 8 7 4
Q 8 6 2
Q Contract: 4,6 hts, 4 spades
A K Opening lead: 10 of clubs

EastSouthWestNorth
Pass 1 Pass 2 !
Pass 2 NT Pass 3
Dbl 3 4 6
All pass ! Alerted

How'd the bidding go (for those in 4 spades)? One spade, one no, 4 spades was the sequence with several pairs. A couple of North's opened two diamonds, weak, presumably, and likewise the heart suit was never mentioned. And one benighted soul opened 4 spades! With 16 working hcp's, 18 if you count a stiff Q, South pre-empted his partner out of any slam exploration, not to mention a balanced fit. Anyway, here's the skinny.
Three pairs were in six hearts, making for 97%. Those bidding hearts and making 2 overtricks picked up a respectable 69%. And the spade bidders, with no chance of picking up more than 11 tricks got a not so respectable 28%.
With both major suits breaking 3-2, the play of the hand doesn't require a rocket scientist, if one will just be careful of entries. A club lead wipes out one entry, but there remains an entry by way of the second round of diamonds, which the defense can't wipe out when in with the A of hearts. Hence:
Get out your trump, take two rounds of spades and ruff a third round in dummy, and now cash the A of diamonds if the suit hasn't been led, ruff a diamond and claim. Lemme see how this declarer went down three! in four hearts:
Club lead to the ace, two rounds of trump, West winning the second and leading another club, declarer sluffing a diamond from dummy. Two rounds of spades. Hm-m-mm. Not too swift. Declarer had used his J of hearts, then Q to knock out the A of hearts. Now the high trump is in dummy and entries being scarce, he must cash his spades and ruff one before drawing the last trump! If the defensive hands were reversed, declarer could not now make pick up 12 tricks. To be sure, as the cards lie, the shortage lies before dummy, and declarer could cash his top spades and ruff the third round with impunity, drawing the last trump then unless West chose to ruff that third round. Then he would get back to the closed hand on the second round of diamonds and claim.
Even so, it was foolish to court that potential disadvantage when he could so easily have drawn the last trump in dummy and then cashed the top spades and ruffed the third round. Or to put it another way, he wouldn't have gotten all screwed up had he followed that simple path. He knew hearts were splitting 3-2 at that point. But what he did after cashing the top spades was go to dummy with the high trump! And now he can't make 12 tricks, since he needs two entries to the closed hand to ruff the third round of spades and doesn't have 'em.
Well, he gave it a futile try, of sorts. After drawing the last trump, he cashed the A of diamonds, ruffed a diamond and ruffed a spade! Now the suit is set up but he can't use those remaining 3 spades. The defense took the last three tricks in the form of the K of diamonds and the Q J of clubs. Down 3. Declarer managed to make a partial out of this slam potential. <