Entries!


K 6 5 4
A Q J 10 4 3 2
6
9
A 3 J 7
------ K 7 6 5
K J 10 9 4 3 Q 8
Q J 5 4 2 A K 10 7 6
Q 10 9 8 2
9 8
A 7 5 2
8 3 Vul: Both

In scrolling down the scoring to see if I'd remembered rightly that nobody went down doubled in 6 clubs, I happened to note that several people were down 2 in 5 spades. Not a bad sac, but down 2? Why not down one? You hafta lose a spade, a heart and a club. Why a 4th loser?
Of course, someone might have lost the first round of trump to the ace and then finessed into the jack, but that didn't turn out to be the case. No, it was more a matter of carelessness. But there was one devilishly clever play here by a defender, so I decided to take a look at the hand in a spade contract.
Opening lead the queen of clubs, overtaken and a heart was returned for a ruff. Clever, you might think, but it's really a natural heart trick being given up for a ruff, and declarer should still make 10 tricks. Further, the play virtually precludes the possibility of a misguess in trump. The diamond jack went to the queen and ace, and a club was ruffed. Whoa! That's the problem. You don't wanna ruff that club. You've always got it coming. But more important, a look at dummy should make it evident that only an easily ruffed-out K of hearts stands between you and the rest of the tricks. You might need that entry later to all those luscious hearts, and that's about the last thing you want to do at this point. Indeed, the defense would have done well to force that ruff, after getting that heart ruff.
Anyway, declarer now came off dummy with a low spade and finessed the 8 into the ace! He luckily finessed against the jack of trump the right way. Anyway West now led a diamond, declarer ruffing with the 6. How many trump does dummy have left? In case you've lost track, it now has the lone king of spades, and the recklessness in ruffing that club should be apparent. If declarer draws the last trump and then ruffs out the king of hearts, how does he get back to dummy? But if he wipes out the king of hearts first?
This declarer indeed did just that. He cashed the ace of hearts, played the queen, getting the king, ruffed in the closed hand. Now he had it for 10 tricks. Return to dummy with the last round of trump and claim. But no. Declarer now ruffed his third diamond! When he led the queen of hearts, East ruffed with the jack, and declarer overruffed. But he still had a diamond to lose -- unnecessarily -- and was down 2.
The next declarer got the same queen of clubs overtaken on his right, only this East shifted to a diamond, won by declarer. The queen of trump was captured by the ace and another diamond lead forced declarer to ruff in dummy. At this point declarer has an "extra" trump in dummy, and can make 10 tricks by cashing the second round of trump, then a heart and knock out the king and claim a good dummy.
Now came a (doubly) strange play, however. Declarer led away from the A Q of hearts! But East didn't go up with the king! So it was left for West to ruff. Had East gone up and then given his partner a ruff in hearts, he would have guaranteed 4 tricks for his side. But the four tricks were to materialize anyway. West led a third round of diamonds and East was able to overruff dummy. So the defense picked up three trump tricks and a club! Indeed, it seems to me the defense would have picked up five tricks, had East gone up on the K of hearts, given his partner a ruff, then ruffed a third round of diamonds higher than dummy could. Defensive winners would have been a club, a heart, the A of trump and a ruff in each hand.
The third run-through is the one that brought a fine defensive play, even if it was a careless declarer who made it possible. Opening lead again the queen of clubs, overtaken, a diamond shot back. A small trump to the king and then back to the jack, queen and ace cleared the suit and should have left declarer sitting pretty for 10 tricks. He has two trump left in dummy and need only knock out the king of hearts for a good dummy. But here's what happened: King of diamonds, ruffed, ace of hearts, a low heart to the nine, East ducking! ! !
That did it. Declarer now has but one entry to dummy, and when he goes there to knock out the king of hearts, he won't have any way to return. It was a fine play by East to duck that second lead. He gave up a heart trick, and got that back with 100% interest. Declarer was spared a heart loser, but had to lose two diamonds
I spoke a few days ago of "Profligacy and Parsimony," and this was an example of costly parsimony. Declarer didn't want to "waste" his 9 of hearts by smothering it with the queen, did he? No, it'll draw as high a card as the queen, won't it? The problem was that it didn't draw any card. No, I don't really think declarer was trying to preserve his Q J 10 in leading low to the nine. I think it more likely that declarer rather lazily thought that of course East would take his king on the second round or lose it. Well, he lost it in one sense, the most literal sense, but didn't in another. No, it didn't turn up a winner on that hand, but the play was worth two tricks when declarer led away from his Q J 10. It was worth two tricks by not winning!
When dummy comes down, declarer should immediately think of making that hand with the long and powerful heart suit the master hand. After drawing trump, that's the suit he wants to establish. He wants to play this hand as a dummy reversal, q.v.
The first declarer above, especially, failed to look on dummy in that light. This was apparent from his ruff of a club early in the hand. You don't want to ruff a club. It's almost surely a valuable entry you'll want to use later when hearts are established. As a dummy reversal, you don't have any clubs in the master hand after the opening lead. Clubs are finished. Diamonds are taken care of, with the ace opposite a singleton. You've got to get out trump and then establish hearts. Those are your tasks, and if you keep your eye on them, you should bring home 10 tricks -- with ease.