All Over the Place


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

The bids and results were all over the place. At the extremes, two people bid and made slam, while another was down three in slam. And in the middle, some were going down in 3 no, while most were making that contract, understandably enough. Let me start with the two who made 6 no.
One started with the ace of spades, while the other started with a low spade, taking his ace on the continuation. If declarer now had twelve winners on anything but a club shift, there would be little to say except that West failed to find the right shift. But the defense wasn't dead yet, even on a failure to lead a club. For declarer doesn't have 12 winners to cash. He has five diamonds, 3 spades and 3 hearts. And West can save the day by saving his hearts.
The 7-high suit doesn't look like the most prepossessing holding with A K Q 5 showing, but it would have been enough. Can West see that? Obviously it's not a cut-and-dried case where he clearly should have known. [years later: I have to take that back. At the point where declarer indicated 11 unimpeachable winners, the third highest club can't do much. Either declarer has the ace of clubs and is on claim or East has it, and the club suit is not West's concern. I regret that I didn't record the sequence of tricks at the initial entering of the hand, for I hadn't thought to point out that 7-high vs. Q-high wasn't at issue -- not in 6 no with one trick in the kitty (though in three no, where you might expect to get the lead back a couple of times, that 5-card suit headed by the Q might look like the suit to save). What is at issue is whether West is likeliest to pick up a trick with the Q of clubs or the 7 of hearts! And in looking at the hand, I find it hard to believe that West should have had trouble: before he comes to a difficult decision, declarer's winners will be self-evident. West has to sluff only once on four spade leads, and clearly can spare a club from a 5-card holding. Another club goes on the second round of diamonds, for surely two guards to the Q must prove sufficient if clubs go beyond the second round. Now on the third round -- and with no entry back, surely declarer started with the A J in that suit -- a low diamond to dummy gives West reason for the first time to pause: do I keep four hearts or 3 clubs? Yet that very same lead establishes that declarer has 11 top winners! This is where the rubber hits the road. If declarer has 11 top winners, the Q of clubs can't be important. Can the 7 of hearts? You betcha! You see it above.]
Wait a minute, fella. With all those entries in dummy, declarer can afford to block the diamonds. He cashes the K and Q, coming back to the A -- making West wonder if his partner has the fourth round covered with the J. This would mean declarer has only 9 top winners and the third round of clubs can become very important. Yeah, okay, you got me. Sort of. But I think this is too clever by half. I had to work at a way of keeping West in the dark and that was looking at all the cards. I really don't think any declarers on Okbridge would be able to fathom West's difficulty that closely and play to it, but if that was what West faced, I'll hafta apologize for presuming that he discarded poorly. Well, I said I regretted not having recorded the sequence of play. Yeah, yeah, in a trusting partnership, East's carding on the first two rounds of diamonds would tell West whether East is holding an odd or an even number, but I didn't want to get into that.
In any event, I think it worth noting for future reference that a 7-high four-card suit might be worth a trick, might be a slam-killer, if you can see a lower card on a four-card holding in dummy. I would also say, start with your discards with useless cards. Sometimes the hand will be clarified by the time you have to make a decision, which I strongly suspect was the case here, while allowing that one improbable line that would have kept West in the dark -- aside from trusting his partner's carding.
One defender did throw a club then his last spade before parting with a heart. But the other didn't, throwing a heart as his first discard (!) before throwing a totally useless spade, indicating that saving his four-card heart suit was simply not on his mind. See Four-Card Suits.
And how did the other slam bidder go down three? Well, he got a club opening lead. This not only assured that the defense would get both aces, but the club suit was established for the defense before declarer had any spade winners established, and the best he could do at that point was . . well, cash five diamonds and three hearts, which with the king of clubs, meant down 3.
Didn't declarer at least get a fourth heart as West saved the runnable clubs? No, curiously, though this pair had declarer substantially beat by the opening lead, this West held onto her four hearts, getting down to the top card in each remaining suit after 10 tricks, the 7 of hearts taking trick 13! Very clever.
Incidentally, something might be said for fourth highest lead here. Indeed, note what happens if West leads her fourth-highest heart and continues the suit upon taking a spade lead. Declarer goes up on the first heart lead, and declarer goes up on the second, dropping the 10! If declarer has the jack, don't you think he'd have unblocked the suit by now? No, I've granted that it's not an easy decision with spade leads, but I think two heart leads would have clarified the suit and led to the defeat of the slams.
But on to some more mundane results. How do you go down one in three no? On a club lead? It shouldn't have been. Club to the ace, club back, jack finessed into the queen, club to the king. No problem. Declarer has 9 top winners and being wide open in clubs had better take them, no? But it wasn't so. Declarer ran five diamonds, and now led a spade! So she then discarded the king and queen of hearts on West's long clubs, picking up a spade winner, while giving up two heart winners.
Making three: this defender also saved hearts though clubs were established, holding declarer to those unbeatable 9 tricks. The 6 of hearts took the last trick.
Making four? You can figure that one out, can't you. This defender didn't save his hearts after getting off to a club lead, so declarer had five diamonds, four hearts and a club. Still, I'm impressed by the handful who did save their hearts. A very fine reading of the cards.