Stayman, Anyone?


7 6
Q 8 6 2
K 7 6 5
Q J 7
J 8 5 2 Q 9 4 3
K 7 5 4 9
A 4 Q 10 9 2
6 4 3 9 8 5 2
A K 10
A J 10 3
J 8 3
A K 10

WestNorthEastSouth
Pass Pass Pass 2 NT
Pass 3 NT All pass

Isn't this the hand Mr. Stayman had in mind when he devised his convention for locating 4-4 major suit fits? I'm no great fan of a lot of conventions and indeed regard them as counter-productive for those without a lot of experience and savvy. I could give you any number of hands where the bidding got all screwed up by reliance on conventions. But there are two I have always regarded as indispensible, which should be taught right along with the point-count system from day one, and those are Blackwood and Stayman.
The number of people who eschewed Stayman wasn't great here, but was more than a couple. Now there are two reasons why the 4-4 holding has a good chance of working better than no trump, the first being a stopper in a weak suit, the second being an extra trick by way of a ruff. Here, you've got stoppers enough for a 3 no game, but you do get an extra trick in four hearts by way of ruffing a spade in dummy before leading out all trump.
And what were the results here? Well, one person made an overtrick in 4 hearts and one made an overtrick in 3 no, for the top two spots, and then you have a slew of thirty-five people making 4 hearts and below them, two poor fish making 3 no. 'Nuff said?
The no trumper making 10 tricks did so with two spade leads from West. The first brought the queen, forcing out the ace, which did the defense no harm, but the second was into declarer's tenace, giving that declarer the equivalent of ruffing the third round of spades for the same number of tricks as those in 4 hearts and so 10 points more.
There were some going down in each contract, to be sure, and it's apparent that this all hinged on the play of the diamond suit. If you lose a trick to the queen of diamonds, after a low spade lead in no trump, a spade through the K 10 will now enable the defense to set three no. It's easy to see how to play diamonds looking at all hands, so I won't criticize a misguess on a low diamond from West after taking his king of hearts.
But there remain several whose play can properly be questioned. I would start with the declarer who led the jack of diamonds. Now, first, you don't have the 10, so leading the jack is simply to throw it away. The queen's going to take it. Well, with proper defense, of course. This player actually got a heart opening lead in 3 no. Now that's a break. He can make his contract on any lie of the diamonds except the worst, which is the queen sitting over the jack, the ace over the king.
There are a number of card combinations where the side that initiates the suit loses a trick. So I would not attack diamonds immediately. If the opponents want to attack the suit, so much the better. With that opening heart lead, I would let it ride to the J and lead low to the queen right back. If West ducks, I've got all the heart winners I can get and would then turn my attention to diamonds. Now on this holding, yes, everything may be wrong, but I would play with this presumption: one of those honors, the ace or queen, has to be sitting right. So we lead toward one honor, and if that doesn't work, then toward the other. Here, if the queen of hearts held, I might come to the closed hand with a club and lead a low diamond toward the king, but note that I would do as well to lead toward the jack of diamonds. If East goes up, that would allow me two diamond winners, since the A has to fall second round, and I have good communication in clubs, and if East doesn't go up, the J draws the A and I at least have my ninth trick.
Then there was the declarer who got the ace of diamonds opening lead in four hearts, which was pretty much of a gift, and then ducked the continuation. The ruff that ensued should not have come as a surprise. It's not hindsight that says declarer should go up with the king and get out his trump. What if West held the long diamonds and East a singleton? A bummer, but unlikelier than the 4-2 split, and if East is that short in diamonds, he may be long in hearts, and I might pick up the king as compensation.
And one more declarer in no trump who misplayed his diamonds. This one also got a heart lead. But on regaining the lead with the king, West shifted to spades, the queen drawing the ace. Declarer now ran himself out of clubs, for unknown reasons. It was safe, in a way, because East sluffed 2 clubs on hearts, but unwise as tricks he's always got, and very unwise because he's soon going to need the quick communication the club suit offers.
I've said you need only one diamond honor to be sitting right, but that's if you've got plenty of stoppers. With that spade lead, declarer obviously can't afford to lose a trick to RHO and have a second spade lead come through his K 10 before knocking out the ace of diamonds. He no longer has the luxury of testing first to see if the Q of diamonds is sitting right, then if the A is. He needs to go for a quick trick by coming to the closed hand with a club and leading toward his K of diamonds. But with no more clubs, he led away from his K of diamonds and here it was a snazzy play by East to hop up with the queen and shoot through a spade that spelled this declarer's downfall.
If East has both honors or West has both honors, or if both are sitting wrong, it won't matter what declarer does. The one time it matters is when both are sitting right, as here, and he can develop a diamond winner, or could have developed a diamond winner, by leading toward the king. Then it mattered a lot that he'd wiped out his communication in clubs.

I said above that I'm not overly fond on a slew of conventions. Hands where the bidding is screwed up by conventions are a dime a dozen, and there's not much point is displaying them, but Here has to be the ultimate. There is an 11-card spade fit (9-2) and slam, and there's a six-card heart suit headed by the A Q opposite a void, and this pair took 9 bids, every one of the first 8 alerted, to wind up in -- ah, you guessed it -- six hearts.