Jackpot


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

I rather favor slam hands where about 10 made and 10 went down, this giving me a lot of different strategies to chew on, so it would seem I hit the jackpot here. Ten people went down in 6 hearts (4 with multiple undertricks) and 21 made it! I might just mention that of the 21 who made it, no fewer than 13 got the 10 of spades opening lead, which makes matters very easy, especially if the jack covering the 10 is in turn covered by the queen. But of those who went down, two got a spade lead, one the 10, the jack (wisely) not being covered, and the other the 5 of spades, now the queen covering the 8!
Well, let me look at those who went down only one. The first one I looked at took a club opening lead and immediately came to the K and then back to the A of spades! I'm saying, what is this? A dummy reversal? And that was before I saw the next play, which was the nine of spades, ruffed and overruffed! You don't want to touch that spade suit. K doubleton opposite the ace? You can get to spades in due time, at which point you may need the entry. But the funny thing is that declarer could still have made his contract by playing for the drop of the queen now with 4 trump out. Declarer could then take the diamond hook, cash the ace, ruff a diamond and sluff two on the club honors. A bit ironically, declarer would then in effect have drawn the queen with the lowly 3 of hearts, without spending a trump from dummy!
However, that wasn't to be, and I wouldn't have recommended the spade leads in the first place. Looking at the hand after a club opening lead, we see that basically, one of the red-suit finesses must be on. But they're not altogether equal finesses. For if the diamond hook loses, you must pick up the heart queen, the finesse offering your best chance, and take care of the third round of diamonds somehow. But if the diamond hook works, you can eschew the heart hook in favor of a 3-2 break.
So I would recommend the first order of business to be the diamond hook. You're going to have to take it sooner or later anyway and that will go a long way toward clarifying the hand. If the finesse loses, and you now pick up the heart queen on a finesse, you're going to have to take care of the 3rd round of diamonds (the 4th and 5th will go on clubs) in one of these ways: A now bare jack in either hand would do it, as would a third-round ruff, not overruffed, as would a finesse of the 10 if E has the jack. Take your poison.
However, when the diamond hook works, you're in far better shape than you would be on a successful heart hook, the diamond losing. Now you can eschew the heart finesse, bank on the likelihood of a 3-2 split, bang down A, K of hearts, note the split and your contract is assured. You can cash the ace of diamonds, ruff a diamond, throw two on the club honors, and since you have an entry in spades, you don't care when the queen-holder chooses to ruff in. Note what happens if you take a successful diamond hook and decide to try for an overtrick on a heart finesse. You go to the king of hearts, finesse into the queen and get a heart back! Now you can't even make the contract! The defense is going to get the third round of diamonds! So if the diamond hook works, the heart hook would be ill-advised.
Case 2: Opening lead a club, again, king of hearts, finesse into the queen and now a diamond back, the king going to the ace. Declarer didn't even have to take that diamond hook. He now has the three options given above for taking care of the third round of the suit. Only one will work, of course, and West missed a chance to wipe that out with a heart return. But declarer didn't take that one. Instead, ace of hearts, king of spades, low to the ace, cash two clubs and a diamond to the 10 and jack. Oh, me! The winning line requires that the hand with the last trump also have a third diamond and I don't know that it's any more favored by the odds than finding the jack of diamonds onsides. But it does epitomize what I said a few days back on finesses, and that is if a finesse represents the setting trick, I'd rather do almost anything over taking that finesse. You're so helpless after you play 3rd hand. But I guess you are also if you get overruffed.

The next declarer also finessed into the jack of diamonds -- first round of the suit! She'd already lost to the queen of hearts and had taken a 3rd round of trump and had wiped out her spade entry back to dummy and so had no chance for her contract even on a winning finesse! Had the 10 of diamonds held, RHO must have K J and she can't pick them up on one lead. Same thing here. Take that diamond hook at trick 2. When it holds, you can cash two rounds of trump and waltz home.
The next one had no chance: K of trump (trick 2), low to the jack and queen, and this defender returned a heart. Now it was impossible to make the hand as the cards lie. The fifth declarer (going down one) had the exact same experience.
And now number 6. This one seems to have gotten a favorable lead, which was a spade, the jack not being covered. (I'll get to that later.) Now a spade lead means declarer doesn't need one of the above options for the third round of diamonds. He has three sluffs coming on the black cards, but still needs the diamond hook. Nope, I've gotta admit that it isn't quite that easy. If declarer unblocks the king of spades, goes to the king of hearts and takes a losing heart finesse, now a club lead, not a heart would deflate declarer's prospects, for he'd be out of entries and cannot use the ace of spades to good effect. Declarer can still ruff the third round of diamonds, since West can't lead a heart if he's leading a club. But this declarer now has four ways of taking care of that 10 of diamonds, the three given above and cashing the ace of spades, this last of which was the one he chose. Down one.
I'm not going over the play of those who went down multiple tricks. The level of play doesn't seem to invite examination. So on to those who made the contract, whom I will divide into three categories: those who got the 10 of spades, jack and a cover, those who got the 10 of spades, the jack and no cover, and those who didn't get a spade lead.
Case 1: You get the 10 of spades opening lead, covered by the jack, then queen in turn. Now the hand's a cakewalk and here you can well think of a dummy reversal. Spades are solid. Clubs are solid, with the expectation of ruffing the fourth round in the closed hand. Diamonds? You can actually sluff four diamonds on the black suits and won't even need the finesse! The lead and cover make the hand that simple.
Anyway, this declarer took a losing heart finesse, won the spade return with the 8, finished drawing trump -- and the record ends! Not premature, exactly, but declarer claimed a little sooner than the norm, but in any event had a clear path to his contract.
Case 2: You get the 10 of spades, covered with the jack and East ducks. Note East's wisdom here. He's looking at 10 spades (counting the lead), and if he presumes his partner hasn't led the 10 from K 10, he can see that going up with the queen can't bring any advantage when dummy has the leading spots. So if East ducks third hand, declarer wins with the jack and still has the K and A, but East will control the fourth round of the suit, inhibiting a fourth diamond sluff. Of course the diamond hook is on, but look at the entry problems declarer has even with that apparent gift: If he goes to the king of hearts and takes a (losing) finesse, a club return by West will wipe out declarer's last entry, aside from overtaking the king of spades. Or if declarer has unblocked the king of spades, that's declarer's last visit to dummy, he can't use the ace of spades after all and indeed can make the hand now only with some astute play (cash two more clubs, diamond hook, cash the ace and ruff a diamond, back to the closed hand with a club ruff. Any way you slice it, the hand becomes much more difficult if East declines to cover.
On a spot check of the first five declarers (of 13) who got the 10 of spades opening lead, it turned out that 4 got a cover on the jack. Hm-m-m, maybe I'll go back and see how the other 8 did. Curiously the next 5 reversed that ratio, leaving 3 to break the tie -- and all three had a cover of the jack! Anyway, I printed out a couple who got no cover and still made the contract along with a couple who didn't get a spade lead.
Well, here's one who took the diamond hook right away, then to the king of hearts, West dropping the 9 for no good reason whatsoever (informing his partner?) and a finesse into the queen. You may remember above that I said a club lead would be a (near) killer. Declarer then couldn't use the third round of spades and would have to play just right for his contract. But this wiseguy throwing the 9 of hearts on the first round didn't have a potentially killing lead at his disposal! Declarer can win the third round of trump in dummy! which he did on the heart lead, and could have even on a club lead, going to the third round of hearts before returning to clubs.
The next one wasn't so foolish as to play his 9 of hearts wantonly. But when he got in with the losing heart finesse it didn't matter since he didn't lead a club. He indeed led the 9 of hearts, taken in the closed hand. But now declarer has time to unblock the spade king, go to dummy with the ace of clubs, sluff three diamonds, take the diamond hook and he's home. So East's wisdom in declining to cover the jack went for naught here.
Okay, a club lead. Ah, here's a man (or woman) after my own heart. Taken in dummy, diamond hook imediately, cash the ace (not necessary so early, but not hurtful), king, then ace of hearts! That'll do it. Only the second one I've seen do that and I'll tell you about the first in a moment. Now it's a cakewalk. Ruff the third round of diamonds, sluff two on the clubs, etc.
The next one I looked at with a club lead played it the same way, and I congratulate them. It looks to me like the safest. You take your diamond hook, and when it holds, eschew the heart hook for a 3-2 split and when you get it, ruff a diamond and have a go at your clubs.
Two people led a heart from the west hand, and that'll do it if you want to hand a slam over. So of 21 who made the contract, 13 got the 10 of spades lead, covered by the queen 8 times, and two got a tame heart into the A J. Which is to say about half hardly had a challenging contract to make at all.

I said I'd tell you about the first declarer I came across to cash the ace and king of hearts. This person first got a gift of the queen of spades on a low spade lead and now led the top two heart honors! -- and wound up with the worst score, going down three! I wasn't going to mention it until I saw that he had everything going for him after three tricks . . . and threw it all away. He only had to start cashing winners, the interruption of the queen of hearts hardly affecting anything. But it wasn't to be for unknown reasons.