Four-card Mania

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

The computer spits out so many flagrant misuses of 4-card suits that it's really a 4-card mania. Still, I don't often see a blunder by the computer that isn't soon matched by live people, and this was such a silly and flagrant misuse of a live East's only 4-card suit that I thought I'd offer it.

We see declarer has 12 top winners when clubs but not spades split 3-3. And where's that 13th coming from? Well, declarer could pick up the heart suit for four winners if he starts with the queen and comes back to finesse the 9, always a ticklish choice in a grand slam, when something else might jell -- like a foolish discard. Declarer could also finesse the 9 on the first round. But finessing the J first round won't do it. For West is then left with K 10 over the queen. Any squeeze? No, it doesn't look that way to me.

But that ol' bugaboo, sluffing one's most valuable card, came roaring through here as East discarded a low spade on his first opportunity. Bingo. There goes the defense and declarer doesn't even have to take the heart hook! Declarer takes 5 tricks in each black suit, two diamonds and a heart.

East should certainly hang onto his four-card spade suit through thick and thin. His hearts are totally useless, nor will he later run into difficulty with a run of hearts, since the only way declarer can run enough hearts to give East difficulty is to make the right guesses on finessing, which gives declarer his contract anyway. So after 5 clubs, 3 spades, a heart (the J!) and two diamonds, East could protect diamonds, while discarding after dummy, throw his last spade as declarer does, if he so chooses. After all, when declarer runs clubs, he has to discard something from dummy.

Keep the same number of cards in a suit as dummy holds, I have often exhorted my readers. Oh, of course there are some qualifications needed. If your highest card is lower than dummy's lowest, there isn't much percentage in saving that suit. And you may be squeezed on occasion and have little choice, though even there, unless you're certain declarer has no entry to dummy, I'd sooner keep the same number of cards as dummy has than a pig-in-the-poke surmise on whether my partner can protect the other suit or not -- particularly if it's four-cards or more, since I probably won't know I'm squeezed and that my partner can't protect the other suit I think I'm guarding. But if it's a four-carder, it's almost certain that my partner can't protect that suit.

Here, there was little excuse for East's hasty discard. He has only two suits worth anything and should have no trouble holding onto the key cards in those suits as declarer runs clubs. That is, especially in spades, since he must know he could easily be the only one who can guard that suit, yes, with a 10-high suit.