So Interesting


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

This was such an interesting hand, starting with the fact that no fewer than 10 pairs were in 6 spades, missing two aces. I was first going to place this in "Blackwood is for Sissies?", but you'd be surprised at the number who did use Blackwood. Half of those 10 used Blackwood and still marched to their doom missing two aces, no voids. But two declarers not in slam made 12 tricks, and that brought to mind two other categories, namely "Pseudo-Squeeze" and the category here: Keep the same number of cards in a suit as dummy holds (insofar as you can and all that jazz). Actually, Pseudo-Squeeze and Same merge here. If East had kept the same number as dummy, he wouldn't have been pseudo-squeezed.
Anyway, one East player who allowed a 12th trick can be easily disposed of. When declarer led the K of diamonds from dummy, East ducked! I mean, he wants something better? Oh, there are times to be cautious, when we might bump a partner's high honor or going up second hand might pre-empt declarer out of a finesse into partner's Q. But K Q J showing?
The other East player had a far more difficult time, and indeed, when push came to shove, should have jettisoned the very A of diamonds that his counterpart was so reluctant to let go of. Opening lead the A of clubs, continued by West into declarer's K J. Declarer now took three rounds of trump, and then indeed another four. During this run of trump, declarer sluffed everything but the K of diamonds and three hearts. West got down to the same number of cards in each suit, and East did the same. Now the crunch came with the cashing of the K of clubs. The hand looked like this:
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K 10 2
K
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Q 8 7 J 9 3
10 A
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A 6
5
K

West discarded admirably. With three hearts and the K of diamonds showing on his left, he discarded a heart! [Well, it's not all that admirable. I mistakenly thought East would be squeezed on a diamond discard from West, but of course, he could afford to discard a heart in that event. West can close his eyes and discard. The main thing is, they've gotta discard different suits.] East has the burden of making the key play here. Declarer discarded the K of diamonds and it was up to East to discard the A of diamonds. After all, he's looking at 3 hearts in dummy, his partner has discarded a number of hearts (3 of 'em), and he's got to figure, "If I discard the A of diamonds and declarer shows up with the 10, then I was squeezed. But surely I'm the only one who can protect hearts and maybe my partner will show up with the 10 of diamonds." Okay, it takes a bit of guts to discard an ace in a suit as yet unplayed, but that's what it would have taken here, keeping the same number of hearts as dummy. One wonders if the hand would have played out the same had they been in six!