Two Wrongs Making a Right?
|
 A J 5 |
|
 A 7 6 3 |
|
|
 J 4 |
|
|
 9 8 5 3 |
|
| 5 |
|
Q 7 3 |
| 9 8 6 4 2 |
|
Q 10 |
| Q 7 5 |
|
K 9 6 3 |
| K J 5 4 |
|
A Q 8 3 |
|
K 10 8 7 6 3 |
| |
|
K J |
|
|
A 10 5 3 |
|
|
5 |
|
I played the damn hand wrong (in four spades) and yet wound up with two overtricks. Because, I guess, the defense played it wronger. Opening lead was a low diamond, the king forcing out the ace. I immediately led a low diamond toward the jack, West hopping up with the queen and then giving me a free finesse on a trump lead.
Here's where I made a silly mistake. With top honors in spades and knowing they cannot split worse than 3-1, I should have ruffed a diamond in dummy, for I can spare the high trump, draw another round and come to the closed hand with the king of hearts. But I didn't.
Anyway, I drew the rest of trump with dummy's honors, came to my hand with the king of hearts and ran the rest of the trump, cashed the 10 of diamonds, then returned to dummy with the ace of hearts and now hearts ran, allowing me to discard a club and diamond from the closed hand. West had discarded hearts to save clubs on the run of spades.
Look at that heart suit. Yes, we see that declarer can go to dummy, finesse the jack of hearts, cash the king, then return to dummy with the last round of trump to cash the ace of hearts, sluffing . . well, a diamond or club. It doesn't matter. But if I could have sluffed a diamond, that's the same trick as the diamond ruff I could have taken. I can't do both. If I ruff a diamond, I can't use the ace of hearts to sluff a club, since I then can't be in dummy with all trump drawn. Further, that's taking a chance, when in real life I wouldn't know if I'm unnecessarily giving up a heart trick on a losing finesse through the K J.
So I'd like to impress on the reader that 10s, 9s and 8s can get valuable in a hurry when a lot of honors go on one round. If two top honors go on one round, a 10 might well control the 4th round. If two honors go on each of two rounds, the 9 might well control that round. And if 2 honors go on the first round, and 3 on the next, then -- are you counting? -- the 9 is high! That's all the honors and they're all gone!
West can't know this is the heart set-up, of course, but he shouldn't be held blameless, nevertheless. He's looking at 9 hearts, and indeed, the four he can't see are the K Q J 10. Now, whoever has what, there are bound to be a lot of honors falling on the first two rounds. Oh, but West has another four-carder. How does he know which to save? Yes, after 9 tricks (six spades, two diamonds and a heart), West would have to blank his K of clubs to retain fourth-round control of hearts.
I've mentioned it elsewhere. Stick with the four-card holding where you can see declarer also has 4 in dummy. I don't guarantee that it'll always be right, but I think you'll find it more productive than not doing so. West simply has to turn over club control to his partner. But couldn't declarer have an ittle-bitty heart singleton and A Q in clubs? Well, a heart singleton couldn't be lower than the 10, but yes, I suppose it could happen, and backing the saving of hearts smacks a little of hindsight. Still, I've pointed out many times how saving the number in dummy would have been worth a trick, and knowing that the 9 could get valuable in a hurry in looking at all hearts but K Q J 10, I think West might have simply chanced that hearts was the suit to save.
In such a case, and failing to take that diamond ruff, I would have been held to 10 tricks, losing two diamonds and a club.