East Had Setting Trick II


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

This hand felt like a home-coming of sorts. Throwing a contract to the opponents because of carelessness with a 4-card suit was the first frequently encountered error that caught my eyek or rather, it was the first of "new" ones for me, categories I had never seen discussed in any column or book, such as getting the trump out, watching entries, etc. I believe it was the first category I set up. The upshot was that before long, I seemed to have enough illustrations for all practical purposes and quit entering any more.
Further, this is a concurrent illustration of another new-to-me category, which was keeping the same number in a suit as dummy shows if at all convenient -- all being spiced up a bit by being illustrated in a grand slam that shouldn't make!
Declarer let the opening heart lead ride to his J -- and East should've been able to see that he can do no damage to declarer in hearts. Now we can see that declarer has an easy ride to 12 tricks, to wit: four hearts, five clubs and three spades. Can he squeeze a 13th winner here somehow? After four rounds of trump. Declarer now cashed three more rounds of hearts and then the two top spades. Keep your eye on dummy, now, where it should be obvious that declarer can't possibly lose a trick in any suit other than spades.
So now we'll hafta look at look at East's discards on four rouunds of trump. On the first round of trump, a diamond was thrown as the same was thrown on the second round -- and then a spade on the third! That really boggles the mind. I wouldn't think East would want to cut his guards to the A of diamonds to just one, which means that two ruffs would in dummy would drop the A. Oh, yes, we can see that declarer can't ruff twice with that 4-0 trump break, and all that, but what's he doing hanging onto all those hearts?
Where I have advised keekping the "same number as dummy shows", I have always cited a few qualifications, the most obvious being that if your highest card can't beat dummy's lowest card in a suit, there's not much percentage in hanging onto the "same number" in that suit. (Another is not to save the same number if declarer has no entry to dummy, but that's not germane here.) After the first trick, dummy is showing A K Q in hearts. How many hearts do you wanna save?
Looking at dummy, it should be self-evident that the only possible suit where the defense might win a trick lies in spades, for heaven's sake. But it was East's third discard: two diamonds and a spade. It just boggles the mind when East is looking at A K Q in hearts, not one of which he can possibily beat, and 9 7 3 in spades, any one of which can be beat with his J 10! -- if he keeps enough guards.
I have a vague recollection of entering this hand somewhere and wondering if East can possibly be squeezed, holding the key spades and the key diamond. As I recall, there's no squeeze, but lemme take a second look. Dummy would get down to four spades, the closed hand to A K 8 in spades and the K of diamonds. Oh, me. Declarer cashes out all dummy's winners in hearts and clubs, getting down to three spades and the K of diamonds in the closed hand, four spades in dummy. Hm-m-mmmm.
Why wouldn't that constitute a squeeze? East can't keep four spades and the A of diamonds after 9 tricks.
I'm sure this hand is parked somewhere, possibly under squeezes, but I'm not going to drop it. After all, East didn't offer any resistance here, discarding a spade on his third discard before discarding any hearts. We don't know that declarer would've seen the squeeze. C'mon. At trick four out came a spade. No, that's too obviously a matter of a fourth card here for me to delete it.