Two Ways


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

Declarer took the opening lead in the closed hand, ran three rounds of trump, then went to the A of clubs and came back, ruffing the 10. West followed suit on every lead, while East sluffed first a diamond and then a club on the last two rounds of trump, and then a diamond and a heart on the next two rounds of clubs. Which was his undoing, the sluff of that heart, that is at trick 6. After five tricks, the hand looked like this:
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K 8 7 6
A K 8
10
------ ------
J 5 2 Q 9 4 3
2 Q J 10 7
J 9 6 4 ------
7 5 3
A 10
9 6 4
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Now at trick 6, declarer ruffed the 10 of clubs, and East parted with a heart, as mentioned. With that, it's apparent that declarer can establish his fourth heart in dummy by cashing the Ace, then to the K and back, ruffing a heart. To which established heart, he has an obvious entry.
It's difficult to comprehend how anyone, well anyone beyond the second or third session of play, would look at 4 hearts and 3 diamonds in dummy and decide to keep 3 hearts and four diamonds. But such was East's choice.
At a second table, the North hand above was declarer, so I'll rotate the hand to make South declarer.

A K Q 7 5 3
A 10
9 6 4
K 7
9 J 6 4
Q 9 4 3 J 5 2
Q J 10 7 5 3 2
8 2 Q J 9 6 5 4
10 8 2
K 8 7 6
A K 8 Contract: 6 no (?)
A 10 3 Opening lead: 8 of clubs

This declarer may have been in no trump, as his line of play suggests, though possibly in 6 spades on a transfer bid after a 14 hcp no trump open. I confess that my printer wasn't working and I only jotted down the line of play at each of these tables. Nor am I certain that both were in little slam, in which case we're only talking about an overtrick. Or was a grand slam at issue in either or both tables?
Now the defender with four hearts can't see that his opponent has a like number, nor was his error sluffing too many hearts but rather too few, though his error was just as egregious as the one above. Declarer won the opening club lead with the K and now took one, two, three, four, five six rounds of spades, giving everybody, including himself some discarding problems. West threw a diamond (second round), then a club, then a diamond and another diamond and now a heart. The heart discard didn't hurt, because declarer himself had sluffed first a club and then two hearts, before proceeding to cash two rounds of hearts. At the end of 9 tricks (six spades, one club & two hearts), the hand looked like this (and no one had made any mistakes):

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------
9 6 4
7
------ ------
Q J
Q J 10 ------
------ Q J 9
------
------
A K 8
A

At this point declarer came to his A of clubs -- and West discarded the 10 of diamonds, which was the first and only mistake on the hand. It's true that West is on a guess. He doesn't know where the J of hearts is. Can he draw the inference that it must lie with his partner, or declarer would have taken a simple finesse? Given two rounds of hearts and two slufs, the J would give the closed hand 5 hearts. Did this hand open a short club or diamond, belying any likelihood of 5 hearts. Alas, I don't have the bidding either. (I didn't know it was going to turn into such an interesting hand.)
Perhaps the only thing I can do is to withdraw the allegation that this defender's error was as egregious as East's on the first layout above. Perhaps I should give West the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge that he did have a problem. Anyway, declarer had his 13th trick.