A Most Amazing Case!
|
 K Q J 4 |
|
 K Q J 4 3 |
|
 K 9 7 |
|
 5 |
| 8 |
|
A 10 |
| 10 8 7 |
|
A 6 5 2 |
|
| Q J 6 3 | |
A 10 8 |
| K 10 9 3 2 | |
Q 8 6 4 |
|
9 7 6 5 3 2 |
|
|
9 |
|
|
5 4 2 |
Contract: 4 spades |
|
A J 7 |
Opening lead: 2 of clubs |
Plus 6. Plus 6? Wait a minute! The defense has three aces, the declaring side has no voids. Indeed, if West starts with the Q of diamonds, the defense can beat the contract by two tricks! So how on earth did this declarer wind up plus 6?
Well, the category may have given that away. Opening lead went to declarer's A, East properly going in with the Q. Now declare lead a heart to the J, holding, then the J of spades, taken by East with the A, and now the A of hearts was plunked down, declarer ruffing, and now after taking one more round of spades, declarer cashed three hearts, sluffing three diamonds, and he has his 12 winners.
I have no idea what East was thinking here. He's not going to get anything better'n the J with that Ace (touching cards in the same hand are equals), and since he cannot get his partner into the lead to shoot a diamond through that K, capturing the J and cashing out his aces is the best thing he can do.
But there's one further twist to this hand.
After having passed up a chance to take the first round of hearts, if East will just sit back and at least cover an honor with his ace (eventually), even though declarer ruffs it out, East's 6 will hold up to control the fourth round, which again will be ruffed out. But if declarer's ruffing, he's not sluffing, which is to say that he can sluff only two diamonds and the defense will always get a diamond trick. In other words, East threw away a trick in ducking the J of hearts fourth hand, and then threw away another trick by banging down the Ace, getting nothing with it. East would've achieved the same result by simply cashing the A of diamonds, of course. But he perversely zigged when he should've zagged, ducking an honor, then apparently being satisfied to capture the 3!
This has to be the most bizarre, the most flagrantly wasteful and perverse refusal to win a trick fourth hand that I've come across. And this is with a soi-disant advanced player.