Not So Difficult Part Two


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

This hand was introduced here but the discussion got so long that I decided to continue in this new entry.
Case 4: Opening spade lead -- ducked. Hm-m-mm. Reflecting that declarer doesn't know of that bad break, I'm not so sure that that's a bad idea. For he now has the entries to establish and run the spades, i.e. on a 3-2 split and 3-2 hearts, the latter of which is there.
How'd he get so many entries by that simple duck? Well, he gets one on West's lead, two rounds of spades on leading toward the A from the closed hand, and of course one with that 10 of hearts (the only one left when declarer goes up on the spade lead and leads a second round).
East won, shifted to a heart, won by declarer with the A, following with the K, noting the favorable break, and now all he needs is an even break in spades and he's cold for 4 on a losing diamond hook, 5 on a winning. He would lead a spade to the A, ruff a third round high, back on a heart to the 10, eventually taking the diamond finesse. So he leads the 7 of spades and -- kaboom! West ruffs. The best laid plans of mice and men . . .
Well, there's not much more to the story. Declarer has to lose a club, gets one ruff of a diamond and sluffs another on the A of spades, but has to go down one, losing a trick in every suit, if we count the ruff of a spade as losing a heart. A reasonable line of play with no mistakes, really, but the result was the same as the poorly played Case One. And so it goes.
Case 5: Opening lead a low spade, taken in dummy, diamond finesse, lowing to West, club shift, declarer taking the trick with the A. This person didn't get the one-two punch of a heart, then club (or maybe it's a club, then heart) and should've made the contract. Lemme see where she went wrong: Oh, I see. It came early. Cash the A of diamonds, ruff with the 6, overruffed! Same as Case 2 in the previous batch. You only wanna (or can) ruff two diamonds and have enough high trump in the closed hand to draw trump. So why not ruff with dummy's two highest trump?
Case 6: Club opening lead, taken by declarer, low heart to the 10. Heart to the 10? ? ? This declarer simply hasn't visualized what he's gonna hafta do. You've got to ruff two diamonds, period. You simply can't ignore the 3rd and 4th rounds of diamonds. Now with the top four trump in the closed hand, why on earth would one wanna use up a high trump in dummy that you're later gonna need to ruff a diamond? I might put it another way. You've always got a spade loser. There's just no place where that second-round loser can be parked. So face it and if you want an entry to dummy, go to the spade, for heaven's sake.
Since this declarer got a club opening lead and might have been subjected to the club-heart attack had he used the A of spades for an entry to dummy, we don't know what would've transpired had he gone to the A of spades. A heart return, or even cashing their club winner and then a heart lead would queer declarer's chances. But he was hoist with his own petard, immediately leding the suit he shouldn't wanna see led.
Case 7: Club lead to the Q and A, low spade, ducked to East, diamond shift by that defender. Hm-m-m-mm. Each side seems to be leading the suit the other should be leading. Now the declarer who (unwisely, I believe) ducked a first round spade to East, declined to take the diamond hook! Something's backwards here. The diamond finesse might have worked, and even though we can see it wouldn't have, why shouldn't that too have been regarded in the same light of ducking the first round of the suit, with the added advantage of possibly winning with the Q? Particularly when you've got to get past that second round of diamonds to get ruffs. The contract was hopeless at that point.
Declarer led a spade, ruffed by West, shift to a club, East winning, he leads a diamond, West winning the defense's fourth trick out of 6, which is not a good idea in a major suit game contract. Declarer simply got mixed up on which suit he should "duck" a round in. (Of course, in diamonds, it wouldn't be looked on as "ducking" but as taking a finesse.) The first three tricks (ducking a spade, declining a diamond hook) simply didn't augur well.
Case 8: Spade lead to the A, diamond hook immediately, losing, with a diamond right back!! ! This declarer had the contract handed to him by trick three! With only the risk of ruffing a round of diamonds with the 8 facing him, a risk he certainly must take, there being no place else to park the low diamond not ruffed with the 10, and with that ruff working, the rest of the hand should've been a piece of cake: Ruff a diamond with the 8, breathe a sigh of relief, back on a trump lead -- you could even live with a 4-1 split now, barring a void in clubs -- ruff another diamond with the 10, back on the A of clubs, run trump and claim.
Lemme see where this declarer veered into a non-productive path: Oh! Oh, no! This declarer simply ignored the ruffing potential in that diamond suit. Hard to believe. The tricks are there. Staring him in the face. But he got one break: Club to the A (after the third round of trump taken with the 10, club to East's K, spade K also holding (West sluffing a diamond), Q of spades forcing declarer to ruff, West sluffing another diamond (!), a diamond to West's 10, club back, ruffed by declarer and now the deuce of diamonds won the last trick.
Case 9: I was going to knock off when a glance at case 9 showed another declarer kicking away a favorable defense. Spade opening lead, diamond hook losing to West, club to the Q and A. A of hearts. Uh-oh. That's what did it. He couldn't ruff just one diamond before playing the A of hearts? Did he think he was going to draw maybe a stiff 9 of hearts with East? I dunno. But if he'd ruffed a diamond with the 8 and then come back to the A of hearts, he could've gotten his second diamond ruff and now he would have the K Q J 5 of trump in the closed hand with only 3 trump out splitting 2-1. I just don't quite get why he'd feel there was some value to cashing one round of trump when he could use it for an entry.
Case 10: One more twist for those down 1: Heart lead taken with the J, spade to the A, diamond 8 to the 7 and West's 10! ! ! Yes, we can see that the finesse is off, but declarer cannot, and why with A Q opposite a doubleton would any declarer not take the obvious chance for making the Q a winner? Since the finesse was off and declarer was subjected to the heart-club treatment, it didn't matter for the final score. But such play doesn't augur well.
Case 11: Club lead to the A, Ace then K of hearts. Ace and K of hearts? Wait a minute, now: Where do you see 10 winners? Oh, yes, if the diamond hook is on. But do you wanna bank the whole contract on a successful diamond finesse when others are gonna make on an unsuccessful diamond hook, but two diamond ruffs? I wouldn't think so. And still worse, declarer continued hearts into the third round, now taking the diamond hook. Even had it held he has to lose two diamonds, a club and a spade. But it didn't hold. Down 2.
Well, I guess I 'bout flogged that hand to death and had better leave it. It would also be appropriate in "What Does A Winner Look Like" (for those who didn't avail themselves of diamond ruffs) and "Delay the Drawing of Trump" in two ways, one just mentioned and the other, Using Trump for Entry Purposes.