And the Obverse


Part II


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

This is the same hand as Example 16, which took more space than I had anticipated, so I cut off and here will point to a couple of defensive pairs who didn't set the contract.
Opening lead the A of spades in each case, so now the forcing game is the only way to beat the contract (as opposed to a diamond opening). One West player now shifted to a club! At trick 2! And that did it for the defense. Since declarer started with one more trump than West holds, it's too late now to shift to the forcing game. Declarer needs to knock out only one more top card -- the K of hearts -- and of course will be able to withstand a force that cuts him down to the same number as West holds. Declarer will gladly suffer a force when knocking out the trump king, for then he'd have all his winners developed and would need only finish drawing trump and then run all side-suit winners.
The other defensive pair stayed in the running a bit longer. Spades were continued at trick 2, a necessary prelude to forcing him in spades. Declarer now led the J of hearts, pushing it through to West's K, and West continued in the right direction by leading another spade, cutting declarer down to the same number of hearts as he holds. Declarer now cashed the 9 of hearts, getting the bad news about the split. The hand now looked like this:

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

Of course declarer could draw West's remaining trump. But that leaves him with no more trump himself, with the A of clubs to go. So he shifted to knock out the A of clubs, and the hand now looked like this:

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

And it should be evident that if East will continue the spade attack, he will cut declarer down to one fewer trump than West holds. West must get another trump winner and beat the contract. But East now shifted to a diamond! Declarer probably had to wipe the smile off his face, for he sure didn't mind that. He drew the remaining trump from West and ran clubs.
Sometimes one is surprised to find new interest in a hand that looks fairly self-evident. But actually, in typing up how two defensive pairs didn't carry out the forcing game, a couple of new thoughts occurred to me. First was that when East was in with the A of clubs, a spade lead would have constituted a sluff&ruff -- of sorts. But since West can beat any trump in dummy, it wouldn't have hurt the defense. It's not a costly sluff&ruff. If declarer sluffs off, West ruffs for the defense's fourth trick. Could that have been why East didn't continue the suit? Because he feared it would constitute a sluff&ruff? Can't say, but it might have been.
Another thought that occurred to me was: what if declarer had knocked out the A of clubs at trick 3 (after two spade leads). East can force declarer with a third spade lead, the same as West, but now West can't force declarer when in with the K of hearts! Could East have set up a diamond force by leading a diamond? No. That would leave declarer with one more trump than West, and he could knock out the K of hearts with impunity.
This is not to suggest that declarer should've known this. Just a curiosity about the hand that occurred to me. That line works because it exhausts West of his third spade before he regains the lead with the K of hearts. On another configuration of the cards, that could easily prove to be the wrong line.