One of the Most Obvious of Cases


A 10 9 5
J
A 7 3
10 9 6 5 4
6 2 8 7 3
5 2 10 9 8 6 4 3
K 10 4 2 9 8 6 5
K Q J 7 2 ------
K Q J 4
A K Q 7
Q J Contract: 6 spades, 6 no
A 8 3 Opening lead: K of clubss

I have the play of two declarers here. The one in 6 no made his contract, while the one in six spades went down. What? Did I get something mixed up? Well, no, I don't think I did. That's what the record shows, when, of course, it should be the opposite. Lemme start with the one making six no, where the error brought inclusion to this category.
Opening lead was the K of clubs (as it was in the the six spade contract), East playing the 7 of spades, declarer winning. Now declarer led the Q of diamonds, West covering. Declarer wins in dummy, cashes the J of hearts and now proceeds to run four spades, ending in the closed hand, and then three hearts. West has to make a powerful lot of discards -- well, for of them. Is he squeezed?
No, he's not squeezed, not by a long shot. Furthermore, if he had been squeezed while saving the clubs which he must, well, that's a good enough excuse for coughing up a trick. But there's no much excuse here. For his first discard, West pitched the deuce of clubs. That was not in itself harmful, but why with one more diamond than dummy shows does West cut himself down to one less club? And I guess one could say it didn't augur well.
His second discard was the 7 of clubs! Still no diamond, and now he's down to the rock bottom holding in clubs (and remember that with East showing out of clubs at trick one, West presumably knows how many of them things declarer holds). Now he followed to the second round of hearts, finally threw a diamond on the third round and on the fourth round. . . yes, at trick 10, with two diamonds (10, low) and two clubs (the top two out), yes, West opted to pitch one of those clubs and save the 10 4 of diamonds -- which makes no sense.
Come to think of it, if we give declarer one less club and the 9 of diamonds, West would have been squeezed at that point. If West blanked the 10 of diamonds, declarer cashes the J and 9, and if he discards a club, which he did, declarer loses a club and can then win the last two tricks with the high diamond and high club. But East had shown out on the first round of clubs, disclosing a 5-5-3-0 distribution around the board, and West shouldn't have had any problem there. He must save clubs.
"Only you" applies here, also. Clearly only West can guard the 2nd and 3rd round of clubs. East may or may not be able to guard the third round of diamonds (if West has lost count on the clubs). Which is better to save? C'mon. Indeed, declarer would have no entry to dummy anyway if West was wondering who's guarding the 7 of diamonds.
And now the other side of the coin. Opening lead against six spades, the same K of clubs. A rather simple hand. Oh, my god. Third hand ruffed the K of clubs and declarer played the ace! ! ! ! ! I didn't even realize that. Well, the hand would've been a piece of cake had declarer remembered what denomination he was in. In fact, the ruff helps him if anything, coming from the long holding. Now two rounds of trump will draw the opponents' trump, though it doesn't really matter. Had declarer saved the A of clubs, he would unblock the hearts, run two rounds of trump, ending in the closed hand, run three rounds of hearts, sluffing three clubs (dummy now has only one left), take the diamond hook, and then cash the A of clubs and ruff a club.
Anyway, let's suppose East doesn't ruff. Declarer wins with the ace, unblocks hearts, runs three rounds of trump, ending in the closed hand, run three hearts, sluffing 3 clubs, take the diamond hook, (and, whether covered or not), lose a club, after which he will ruff the third round of clubs. Hopping up with that ace, indeed. Not the first time I've seen a play of that order.