Develop, Develop, Develop


K Q 10
A K 9 8 6 2
A K 4
A
9 5 J 7 4 3
10 4 J 7 5 3
J 9 6 3 7 2
Q J 8 7 3 10 5 2
A 8 6 2
Q
Q 10 8 5
K 9 6 4 Contract: 6 no trump


I haven't been given to offering butchered hands that require only cashing top winners for a fairly self-evident reason. Suffice it to say that they pop up every so often. Nor hands that require only knocking out one card to claim. There isn't much to say about such hands. I'm drawn to those that offer a little complexity and well maybe some excuse for a key error. However, I thought I'd offer the above hand in part just to mention that it's not all that rare that contracts requiring only one play beyond cashing top winners are booted away.
Here, when dummy comes down, you count 11 unimpeachable winners and see that there are a few different roads to a 12th winner: both spades and diamonds are 4-3 with the top three honors. But the heart suit seems to be the most likely one to work. For you can live with a 4-2 split (the odds for which are in the 80's) and just might even find a 3-3 for all 13 tricks, whereas the diamonds and spades could only offer a 12th. Further, if hearts are 5-1, you'll know of it before losing your last heart stopper, and can then test spades and diamonds for 3-3 breaks, or even take a finesse in each. You might even work out a squeeze, as for instance, if West has 5 hearts, a red-suit squeeze against that defender.
Whatever the lead, you cash your queen of hearts, get to dummy on any suit (unless a club was led), cash your top hearts and note that they do not split 3-3. Well, what of it? You lead one more heart to the jack and claim with four heart winners, three spades, three diamonds and two clubs. Actually, you'll establish a good dummy (five heart winners) and won't even claim the second club.
It can't get much simpler than that. Yet four people went down in 6 no and 6 went down two in 7 no. To be sure, it's a lot easier to understand how someone could go down 2 in 7 no. After all, you don't play for down one when there is any reasonable chance for your contract. When hearts don't split, it is still possible (from declarer's viewpoint), though not probable that you could find 13 tricks through four in spades and diamonds, and if they give it a try and wind up down 2, well, who can blame them?
But down in six no? I dunno. Were they going for an overtrick? Or were just careless about counting winners? I've gotta believe it's the latter, that they just didn't count the winners they had and note the easiest path to a twelfth. Well, lemme see how they managed to miss that all important twelfth trick.
One took the opening club lead to the ace, a low heart to the queen, a diamond to the ace, ace of hearts, king of hearts, LHO showing out. K Q of spades. Oh-oh. Better get around to that heart pretty soon, though the spade hook would work, if you've set your mind on it.
No, his mind wasn't set on it at all. Now came the diamond king, a lead to the queen, and now he doesn't have the communication to effect a spade finesse. He cashed the king of clubs and ace of spades and surrendered the last two tricks to the jack of diamonds and jack of clubs. A too clear case of not wanting to lose a trick early and so losing two later.
Another: club opening lead, queen of hearts, spade to the king, cash the queen of spades (which doesn't kill his chances but makes one a little uncomfortable -- why doesn't he go after hearts as he started to?). Ace of hearts, king of hearts . . ah, that's the stuff. Spade to the ace! Why oh why oh why? Just one more heart gives you not an overtrick, of course, but a redundant trick, more than you can use. Now with the spade stoppers wiped out, you can't afford to lose a heart. Club king, sluffing a heart, three rounds of diamonds, this declarer also losing the last two tricks to the jack of diamonds and jack of clubs!
This next declarer, who tells us he's advanced, didn't even look at his hearts until he'd wiped out his spade holding. Opening lead a club, then came the K and Q of spades and a lead to the A! The cards rightly said, "Hey, fella, I offered you an easy path to 12 tricks. If you're going to ignore it and play for a low-probability 12th trick, I'm not going to give it to you!" This declarer subsequently found that hearts didn't split, diamonds didn't split and he too lost the last two tricks to the jack of diamonds and jack of clubs!
And lastly, the expert. Opening lead a heart to the queen, go to the ace of clubs and . . oh, no, he cashed three diamond tricks. Well, that's better'n cashing three spades since the defender with the long hearts doesn't have any diamonds, but now declarer cashed the A and K of . . no, not the ace and king of hearts, but of spades! Now he can't make the contract because he'll have no entry to the long hearts! Nor would it pay him to push the 10 of spades through, since the suit blocks and declarer would have no entry to the ace! I just can't understand it, not for an expert, not for a person who calls himself an expert. The only variation in this declarer's last two tricks was that he lost a club and then a diamond.
All of them had enough bridge savvy to reach a very fine contract. And yet, all of them, presented with eleven top tricks and a powerful heart suit and a lot of entries, couldn't find their way to a twelfth trick in hearts. I dunno. Well, one bright spot: three of the above Easts held off covering the 10 of spades with the jack. (The fourth wasn't tested.) Yes, of course it would have been a ridiculous cover, but I've seen worse.