Various Ways
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 A K Q 7 5 3 |
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 A 10 |
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 9 6 4 |
|  K 7 |
| 9 |
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J 6 4 |
| Q 9 4 3 |
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J 5 2 |
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| Q J 10 7 5 3 | |
2 |
| 8 2 | |
Q J 9 6 5 4 |
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10 8 2 |
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K 8 7 6 |
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A K 8 |
| Contract: 6 NT, 7 spades |
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A 10 3 |
| Opening lead: various |
An interesting hand with a few inexcusable errors and then a delightful surprise on the last declarer. The contracts were usually at the six level, and that's a cakewalk with 12 top winnrs. But a number were making an overtrick, and I had to see how they did it, with no obvious play for it. I have the line taken by four declarers.
The defender in the first case was the victim of a pseudo-squeeze. He had no way on his own to figure out what to do, though his partner may have helped him. Opening lead was the 8 of clubs, declarer winning with the K and immediately running six spade tricks. West sluffed three diamonds, a club and a heart, while East sluffed two clubs and a diamond. Declarer now led the A of hearts and the 10 to the K, reaching this end position:
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9 6 4 |
| 7 |
| ------ |
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| Q |
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J |
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| Q J 10 | |
------ |
| ------ | |
Q J 9 |
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A K 8 |
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A |
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Declarer led to his ace of clubs and West is pseudo-squeezed. It's awfully hard, well, make that impossible, for him to know whether declarer has a third diamond or only a doubleton diamond with the J of hearts lurking unannounced. Yeah, East could have sluffed all his hearts, which is to say that if West had been watching, he'd know that declarer has no more hearts. But East didn't, the pseudo-squeezed worked, and I think West is entirely blameless.
Well, couldn't he have surmised that declarer didn't have the J of hearts, since he didn't take that finesse he might otherwise have taken? Oh, I think that's asking a bit too much. You don't know which declarers feel they might drop the Q or have a squeeze, or get a foolish discard as opposed to the tame play of taking the heart hook for 13. It may have steered West right as the cards lie, but I don't think it's a slam-dunk obvious inference to draw. Well, can East be blamed for not discarding his whole heart suit to give his partner a count. Well, not vigorously, I would say. His last chance to pitch a heart for that reason was way back at trick 7, and I think that's asking a bit much also, though with slightly more justification.
The second declarer, playing in 7 spades from the North hand, had a much easier route to a 13th trick: Opening lead the Q of clubs, three spades run, the A of clubs was cashed, the 10 ruffed as declarer's RHO sluffed a heart (that's from the 4-card holding, now, which may have been missed from the above layout). And there's the opportunity for a 13th trick: Declarer cashes the A K of hearts and ruffs a heart, establishing the 8 of hearts. A lead to the diamond honors allows declarer to cash that 13th winner.
That was an awfully early discard from a four-card holding. At the time of discard, that defender had four diamonds and four hearts. And dummy was showing A K 8 in diamonds. How can you need four diamonds when dummy has only three? Against a grand slam, where one ittle-bitty trick will do declarer in? Keep the same number of cards in each suit as dummy shows I have often exhorted my readers. Like all maxims, it's going to have exceptions and to be sure isn't always possible. But with four hearts and 3 diamonds showing, that worthy should certainly have cut down to 3 diamonds rather than 3 hearts. That 10 of clubs was, incidentally, one of the cards that made a double squeeze possible (to be described below), which is to say declarer would have been unable to effect a squeeze. Could she not have cashed out dummy's diamonds and then squeezed her RHO (the West hand above)? No. Not as long as East (above) has the J of hearts (guarded). Give West the J of hearts for the 3 and then the squeeze would have worked. Declarer would get down to the 9 of diamonds and A 10 of hearts opposite K 8 7 of hearts, and with three cards, West (above) couldn't protect both suits, as East didn't have a high enough heart to matter. But as the cards lie, West would protect diamonds, turning protection of third round hearts over to her partner.
The third declarer (playing from the North hand), took the opening deuce of diamonds lead, ran six spades, sluffing from his own dummy a diamond, a club and a heart. The East player above sluffed two clubs and a heart, while his partner, needing 5 discards, sluffed three diamonds and two clubs. Declarer now cashed two top hearts, the second round going 10, J, K and Q, as that defender, seeing that the 9 was high apparently wanted to throw a little dust in declarer's eye. The end position reached was this (rotating the hands to make South declarer):
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8 |
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K |
| A 10 |
| ------ |
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| ------ |
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9 4 |
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| ------ | |
Q J |
| Q J 9 6- | |
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9 6 |
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K 7 |
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West saved a lot of clubs against a non-existent threat (since trick 6 when the 3 was sluffed). Surely three would have been enough. But on the positive side, you might say he gave his partner a count on the hearts. The diamond K is cashed, then the A of clubs, neither of which changes the relative positions since East can spare the low heart. And now a lead to the K of clubs on which East guesses wrong and saves his high heart, discarding the Q of diamonds.
Could East have known better? You might say so. The 10 of clubs can't possibly hold the lead to make the 8 of hearts a winner if East discards the 9. The K Q & J of clubs hadn't been played at that point, at trick 12, so one of those three cards must go on the 10. And had East watched the fall of the hearts, he would have known that the closed hand couldn't have any more hearts.
But the fourth declarer offers the pièce de résistance, which is something looking an awful lot like a double squeeze, well executed, except that East threw his hearts before he needed to and the actual execution was lost. Here's how it went:
Opening lead the Q of diamonds, declarer winning, cashing one spade and then the K of diamonds (a key play for his double squeeze). Then a spade, then the K, A of clubs, and declarer now reverted to the run of his spades, reaching this end position before the last spade is cashed: