Intrigue

A K 10 4
K
K 8 4 3
A J 8 7
Q 8 3 2
Q 9 7 4 2 10 5 3
Q 10 9 7 6 5
9 3 K Q 10 6 4 2
J 9 7 6 5
A J 8 6
A J 2 Contract: 6 spades
5 Opening Lead: 9 of clubs

This became such an intriguing hand to me that I wound up following the play of every table where the hand was made, 11 in all. There were about 5 different strategies, the first four all different until I finally saw a repeat. Can 6 spades be made here? If you guess the queen of spades right? If you don't guess the queen right? My first instinct was no to each, not on best defense. Picking up the queen chews up a lot of declarer's 9 trump, 6 of 'em, in fact, so that I didn't think there would be enough winners left. And if you don't pick up the queen, well, there's one trick lost and what are you gonna do about diamonds?
Wrong on both counts. And I mean with best defense, as a couple of declarers were to demonstrate, though there were two cases where declarers and the defense traded mistakes, which isn't quite the same as making against best defense.
The first declarer I looked at did guess the spades right and had the queen on 3 leads. His 12th trick came from the 3-3 split in diamonds, after losing a trick to the queen. It's easy to see how that works, looking the South hand, where only the hearts are at issue (once the spades are guessed right). Of the three low hearts, one goes on the king, one is ruffed and one goes on the long diamond after losing a diamond trick.
At the next table, declarer and West traded mistakes. Declarer took the opening club lead, a spade to the king, back to the ace of diamonds -- no finesse for him -- and I wondered if he's changing the lead so as to guess the trump queen right, but no, he goes to the ace of spades, cashes the king of hearts, ruffs a club, ace of hearts, ruffs a heart, ruffs a club, overruffed by West, and now if West would simply have laid down the queen of hearts, smothering the J, she would have wound up with the setting trick. Declarer can ruff that lead in dummy, but still has a diamond to lose. But no, reading the diamonds wrong, perhaps from the fact that declarer didn't try a finesse, West led the queen(!), not even putting declarer to a guess, and that was the end of the hand. Declarer wins with the K, now to the J, ruff a heart, and again the 13th diamond is the slam-going card. Declarer's mistake was to cash out his A of hearts, allowing West that opportunity, as the next declarer's play will illustrate.
This next declarer handled his cards very skillfully. Opening club lead, spade to the ace, ruff a club, spade to the king, king of hearts, ruff a club, West sluffing a low heart. West would be thrown in here on an overruff -- or would have thrown himself in, if you will -- for he would then have to lead into one of the closed hand's A J tenaces. On a heart return, declarer sluffs two diamonds in dummy on the A J and doesn't have to lose a diamond trick. And on a diamond return, declarer can establish that suit so as to sluff one heart, while ruffing another, as above. Diamond to the king, ruff another club with the closed hand's last trump, as West sluffs another heart (for it still does no good to ruff). West now has two hearts. Ace of hearts, ruff a heart, picking up the queen. Now a diamond back to the ace, and the jack of hearts is led. West ruffs, dummy sluffing off a diamond and the 10 of spades takes the last trick. Well done.
The fourth table: a heart to the king, cash the ace of clubs, the ace of spades, ruff a club, finesse the 10 of spades, ruff a club, overruffed. He guessed right but still lost a trick to the queen! However, it did West no good! He had to lead into either the A J of hearts or A J of diamonds! He chose to lead a diamond. That suit was taken care of, and since declarer'd spent only two trump in dummy, he could ruff out his hearts, In fact, he had a redundant winner in the 13th diamond.
At the fifth table, declarer and West traded mistakes substantially like table two with a few variations. Opening lead a low heart, A K of spades, A of clubs, ruff a club, ace of hearts, ruff the 8 of hearts! That was an error, for as with table two, West can return a heart with impunity. Ruff a club, overruffed, and now West can beat the contract simply by laying down the queen of hearts. Declarer doesn't hafta leave the jack hanging. Declarer should simply ruff the 8 of hearts here and not cash the ace until the next round when he can follow that card with a ruff of his last heart. The reason for not cashing the ace was given above: West is thrown in if he ruffs when declarer has A J in each red suit. West, however, led a diamond, and declarer had his contract which had been on the brink of disaster. This was the first (near) repeat in five tables.
At the next table, there was the same trading of mistakes with a variation. The usual to begin with: Top spades, king of hearts, ace of clubs, a ruff, ace of hearts, 8 of hearts ruffed, club ruffed and West threw the 9 of hearts! Declarer had made the same mistake of baring his jack of hearts, so this West could have ensured defeat with an overruff and playing the queen of hearts. But this one threw his second last heart! Well, declarer simply ruffed out the last of the heart suit, and on the ruff of dummy's last club, West was substantially squeezed, even with the high trump. If he overruffs, he must lead from his queen of diamonds, and if he holds off on the overruff, he'll have only 2 diamonds, and declarer won't have any diamond losers.
The next declarer did it all right. Opening heart lead, A K of trump, ace of clubs, ruff a club, ruff the eight of hearts, ruff a club. When West overruffed, he had to lead into one or the other of A J tenaces in the red suits, choosing diamonds. Declarer can now establish diamonds, cash his ace of hearts and ruff one, and throw a heart on the 13th diamond. There have been similarities, but no two exactly alike. Well done here. No mistakes.
The next one was exactly the same as the one immediately above. Well done again.
The next one was virtually the same. Actually the sequence of club leads and drawing trump were different, but the key play of ruffing only the 8 of hearts and then allowing an overruff of the third round of clubs was the same. Well done again. There was nothing the defense could do.
The next one was roughly the same from the viewpoint of declarer's play. Ruffing the eight of hearts without playing the ace is the key play (if one doesn't guess the trump holding). The only difference here was that West played a little differently. No overruff on the first opportunity. Sluffing a heart. West now has 2 hearts. Declarer cashed the A of hearts, ruffed the jack and led a club to be ruffed. Again West has only a Hobson's choice. An overruff means he must lead into the diamond tenace. Instead, this West sluffed a diamond. So declarer played the A K of diamonds and West took his trump winner on the last trick.
And the last one? This declarer got a diamond opening lead. He wasn't even challenged. From that point it's a cakewalk and need not be followed out.