A Number of Lessons


A 7 4
A Q 6 3
A
K Q 9 8 4
J 10 9 8 5 3 2
J 7 4 2 10 8
J 9 7 8 4 2
A J 6 5 3 10 2
K Q 6
K 9 5 Vul: Both
K Q 10 6 5 3 Contract: 6 hearts, 6 diamonds, 6 no, 5 clubs, dbled & redbld
7 Opening lead: various

The hand has a number of lessons, and I'll start with the bidding. Six hearts had no chance. The 4-3 fit, called a Moysian fit, is often playable and even sought after at game and partial levels. After all, you can be in game at a level lower in a major than in a minor, with 20 more points to boot. But at the slam level, I would call it a poor choice indeed. There must be something better. Oh, if you play enough bridge and read enough columns, there are bound to be times when that's not true. But by and large, it won't do you well, or at least not as well as another denomination might have -- such as no trump.
Which brings me to the second lesson, which is that when all suits are stopped by high cards, you want to give serious consideration to no trump. The various advantages of no trump slams are discussed here. They're not certainties, and I've even cautioned against no trump slams with a balanced fit where you'll commonly have better stoppers and the chance of an extra trick on a ruff. Here there's no balanced fit, and with North able to see that all suits are stopped with high cards, he certainly should have given consideration to a no trump slam. If hearts don't pan out, maybe you can get your tricks in other suits (as you obviously can in no trump). But in a heart contract, that's not an option.
Six diamonds works as well as six no, of course, at least to bring home 12 tricks. But it doesn't do as well in the final scoring.
Now in the play of the hand, there were first those who didn't seem to count up to 12 winners. Six diamonds, three hearts, three spades. Six diamonds aren't a certainty until the third round, of course, but can you find another route to 12 tricks? You've gotta try the suit for that even break, and it's there. It's there for your peers to exploit, so you'd better take advantage of that break also.
Can one try to push a singleton club through one's LHO? Once diamonds are assured, it wouldn't seem to hurt as long as you've got the other suits stopped and good communication. Well, lemme see what happened with the non-counters: Six no is the contract with a heart opening lead, the 10 of hearts drawing the K. Diamond to the ace -- good boy -- and a spade back to the K, declarer cashing the K of diamonds, Q of diamonds, 10 of diamonds and then switches to a heart to the ace. A heart to the ace! Hey, man, aside from leading your club to the K Q in dummy, you've got to cash out. You've got 12 top winners and they should be cashed out. The queen of hearts was now cashed -- he's not dead yet since he still has the Q of spades -- and the queen of clubs was led to the the ace! Oh, me. You're going to set up the K of clubs for what? To sluff a diamond winner? Why don't you just cash the diamond winner? Oh, you didn't count. You saw your holding take the top four rounds of diamonds. Neither opponent followed to the fourth round. They can't have more diamonds, ya know! Of course the hand with the A of clubs now had the top heart, which he wasn't reluctant to cash. A totally pointless club lead. This was played from the other side of the table, of course (as the 10 of hearts lead indicated) and maybe declarer just wasn't adept at thinking of setting up a good dummy.
Well, in a diamond contract, declarer would win the long diamond tricks willy-nilly. And he can't finesse. Lemme see how two declarers went down: Here it is: Spade jack to the king, low diamond to the ace, spade 7 back to the Q and -- yikes! I've referred to this a number of times in the past: You must be suspicious of the defense's decision on opening lead in a trump contract. Not every lead is a singleton. But it's likelier to be a singleton than the mathematical chances of a 6-1 split in a 7-card holding. Declarer should get back to dummy with a heart to the K. The other declarer who went down in 6 diamonds committed the same blunder.
But the most expensive blunder was committed by the defense in a 5 clubs, doubled and redoubled contract, played from the N hand above. A miserable contract on a strong, but hardly self-sustaining suit opposite a singleton. Even making, it's not as good as the diamond or no trump slam available at that vulnerability -- this pair took 11 bids to arrive in that inferior contract -- but it should not even make in the first place, and the score should have been 400 for the doublers. Instead, it was 1000 for the declaring side. And here's what happened. Opening leader (the East hand above) led the deuce of clubs! Third hand went up with the ace, and that was the end of the defense. Well, there was one more trick coming their way, but that's not enough. I confess that at a glance, I thought the hand with the ace had gone up second hand, when he surely should duck. The 10 would then force the K or Q (or three trump tricks are quickly assured), and declarer would then have to lead into his RHO's A J. That's only two tricks, of course. But in a delicate dance of spot cards, West's 6 5 facing declarer's 8 4 actually guarantee a third trump trick for down one. To wit:
K of clubs on the first round, Q of clubs, smothering the 10, captured by the A. Even if declarer miraculously strips West of all exit cards outside of clubs (which you'll note could be done, but which would require reading that defender's exact distribution), West could lead the six of clubs (after winning with the ace), to be captured by the 8 or 9, and the defender would then hold the J 5 tenace over declarer's 8 4. Or to put it another way, West could jettison all side-suit cards even if declarer doesn't read his distribution exactly right and then be assured of two more tricks in ruffing with the 6. Declarer, presumably winning the trick, would then have to lead into West's tenace.
The club lead was ill-advised, but if East had to lead a club, it should certainly have been the 10, knocking out an honor of some value, preserving honors in the long club holding. You'll note that had this been the opening lead, the cards would then be the same as if declarer led to his K Q, ducked second hand, the K winning and the Q next played, smothering the 10. That card will then have done its work. But the low club lead completely wipes out the value of the 10. It looks to me as if the third hand defender is left with no good choice. It looks as though playing the A (which he did) or the J, preventing the 7 from winning the trick, or going low and keeping the A J all allow declarer to escape with losing only two trump tricks.