Can You Make Six Hearts?
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|  K 10 |
|
|
 J 10 7 6 |
|
|
 A J 8 6 3 2 |
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|
 A |
|
| J 8 |
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A 9 3 2 |
| 3 |
|
5 4 2 |
| K 9 5 4 |
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10 |
| Q J 9 7 3 2 |
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K 10 8 6 4 |
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Q 7 6 5 4 |
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|
A K Q 9 8 |
| Vulnerability: None |
|
Q 7 |
| Opening lead: Q of clubs |
|
5 |
| Contract: 6 hearts |
Could you make 6 hearts on this hand? Against best defense? Would you make 6 hearts? The answer to the first question is yes, you can, even against best defense. But "would you?" is something we'll never know the answer to. Of the 10 who bid slam, only four made it, and of those four, two got a gift from the defense. Meaning that only 2 out of 10 in slam made it on their own steam.
And what was the gift? It was not only the same for the two who made slam on the gift, but 11 made 12 tricks in game, and of the only two I checked, both got the same gift.
It looks like a tough hand. An even break in either hearts or diamonds would make it virtually a cakewalk. When declarer leads the Q of diamonds, should West cover? Now, look a minute. West has four diamonds and declarer only two, and so cannot pick up the king on finesses. On the other hand, the 9 would rather inhibit the run of the diamonds on a cover. So which is it? And the answer is . . . yes, you must cover. If you duck the Q, declarer can then finesse the J, cash the ace and ruff a diamond. That's four rounds. He now needs only one entry to dummy to cash the diamonds, which he'll have by way of ruffing the 3rd round of spades. Or he could just claim, conceding a trick to the A of spades. That was the gift, repeated I don't know how many times, but twice when it really counted in a slam bid.
If you cover the queen, declarer wins with the ace, cashes the J of diamonds and ruffs a diamond. This can be done only after all trump are out, of course, or East could ruff the second round. So now declarer is going to need two more entries to dummy. One to ruff out the 4th round of diamonds and then an entry to cash out the suit. And this with the A of spades sitting over the K!
So how did those two declarers manage? They each finessed the 10 of spades! Now, with an onsides J, the defense cannot prevent declarer from having a second entry to dummy, and in effect, turning this into a dummy reversal.
There is, incidentally, another finesse for the contract available, one which a declarer who actually went down successfully took, and that is the finesse of the 8 of diamonds! second round. This in a way is gutsier, since declarer must take it before knowing diamonds are 4-1, while the declarers who knew of the diamond break, had to do something right in spades. With K 10, it would have been just as reasonable to play West for the A of spades as for the J, and I suppose that's what happened with some who were down one, as well as those in game, making 5.