Tricky


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

It's not making the contract that's at issue. Anybody can do that. Unfortunately, it brings in only a 32% board. The question is, can you make 5? A piece of cake. Or even 6? On any defense?
No, you can't make 6 on any defense. A club lead kills that. Declarer wins, unblocks the spades, comes back by way of cashing the A of diamonds and ruffing a diamond low. Now a spade allows declarer to sluff dummy's last club and ruff out his club loser. Now what? Declarer comes back with the a heart to the K, taken by West, who now gives his partner a spade ruff.
A spade opening lead has the same effect: Declarer won't have the entries to establish diamonds, which I'll get to in a minute, and if he sluffs his club loser on the third round of spades, West can give his partner a ruff. The K of diamonds, on the other hand, makes six a piece of cake. Win with the ace and ruff a diamond, lay down the K of hearts. West wins and then what?
Well, let's start with the A of hearts and a heart continuation. How's that? Good for declarer, bad for the defense. That allows declarer 12 tricks! If West shifts to anything but a spade, declarer ruffs out the second round of diamonds, draws trump, goes to a spade, ruffs the third round of diamonds, and now a spade lead allows declarer to run diamodns. And if West does shift to a spade (which he did), declarer cashes a second spade, enters the closed hand by either the A of clubs or a second round of diamonds, sluffs a club on the third round of spades, ruffs a club, and now can re-enter the closed hand on a diamond ruff, draws trump and claims.
Well, how about declarers. Did they hand over tricks? You bet. I wanted to place this under "Catch-all", for I have a notation about 10 play-throughs, but saw that I had that category only under Defense. So why not call it an Interesting Hand and have done with it. Here is what I found.
Declarer number one made an inexcusable error and wound up plus 4 and 32% Opening lead the A of hearts! That should have been favorable for declarer, though West did switch to a spade, inhibiting a setting up of the long diamonds. Still, declarer has K Q J of trump with only 3 out and can probablyruff high once with impunity -- the last ruff. Declarer cashed the 2nd spade honor in dummy, cashed the A of diamonds and ruffed the second round with the J, played the Q of spades, sluffing a club, now the ace of clubs and then a club ruff, then back on a diamond ruff (the only suit in dummy), ruffing with the 6, overruffed by West! What can one say? He had the ace of clubs for a entry, which doesn't require testing diamonds, and a low ruff on the second round of diamonds and then because he got the A of hearts without spending an honor, he can ruff the third round high, banking on 3-2 hearts and 3-2 diamonds. That was simply misplayed. If you're gonna ruff a suit twice, doncha think you oughtta ruff the first time with a low trump if you can't afford two high ruffs?
Here's a plus 6 on the K of diamonds lead: taken in dummy, A K of spades cashed, to the closed hand on a club lead, Q of spades, sluffing club, ruff a club, and now declarer has a heart lead to knock out the ace. Diamond Q led, ruffed and declarer drew the rest of trump and claimed.
I have a listing of the play 10 declarers. 'Fraid I cannot fathom what I mean for declarer 2. Declarer 3 got a club lead, knocked out the A of trump and accepted the loss of the club. Can declarer do better? No, he cannot with best defense. That A of clubs was too valuable an entry to the closed hand. Go to the spades, back on the A of diamonds and low diamond, sluff a club with the Q of spades, come back with a trump lead, whereupon West gives his partner a ruff in spades. A big difference from having West cash the A of hearts for his opening lead.