Carelessness . . Simple Carelessness
|
 A K 7 3 |
|
 A K Q 8 |
|
 ------ |
|
 A J 9 7 2 |
| 10 9 5 4 |
|
J |
| 9 5 3 |
|
2 |
|
| Q J 6 | |
K 10 9 7 4 3 2 |
| K 10 6 | |
Q 5 4 3 |
|
Q 8 6 2 |
|
|
J 10 7 6 2 |
|
|
A 8 5 |
Opening lead: various |
|
8 |
Contract: 7 hearts |
Only three pairs bid the grand slam here . . . and they all went down. It's cold and doesn't require any esoteric squeeze or a phenominal memory. The only difficulty that might have arisen would have been for declarer to pick up the stiff jack of spades and then on a low lead to the A K 7 of spades, finding West going low, guessing on whether to look on that J as a singleton or not. But not even that difficult occurred. One declarer got the 10 of spades lead and so had an opportunity to make certain he wouldn't be finessing into a doubleton. Another got split honors from West on the second spade lead, while the third sluffed a spade on the A of diamonds opening lead and wasn't faced with that problem.
No, it wasn't any excruciatingly difficult guess that declarer was faced with. Rather it was his own disinclination to count out the hand and ask what he had to do for thirteen tricks, costing his side about 24 IMP's. (Can't give a more exact figure, since no one bid and made 7 hearts.)
The first declarer sluffed a club on the Q of diamonds opening lead, ruffed a diamond, cashed a trump, came to the closed hand with the Q of spades and ruffed another diamond. He now overtook the 8 of hearts with the 10 and cashed the J, drawing the last trump. Seems like a pretty good start. And then it got even better! On a spade lead, West split his "honors", and the hand was an open book. Declarer only had to cash the A of clubs, ruff a club and take the marked finesse in spades. It doesn't matter if he didn't unblock the 8 of spades so as to finesse the 7. Since spades are 4-4, the finesse works either way.
But no, this declarer, after capturing West's 9 with the K, now cashed the A of spades! A marked finesse staring him in the face! I need hardly tell you that the setting trick was the 8 of spades into the 10. 24 IMP's
The next declarer got the 10 of spades opening lead, and now the suit shouldn't have given him any trouble, nor did it. No, it was another carelessness that did this declarer in. Three rounds of trump were drawn and . . . Wait a minute right there. In a grand slam, you've got to account for EVERY * CARD * IN * ONE * HAND * OR * THE * OTHER! That is to say, if you draw three rounds of trump, you cannot ruff two diamonds in dummy, for if there's one thing certain in bridge, it's that you can't get two ruffs with one trump. And if you can't ruff two diamonds in dummy, then you're going to have to find another parking place for the second diamond spot card, which of course, with a little bit of planning, might well have been that fifth club. But let's see if there are enough entries now to establish clubs and draw trump and be in dummy with that established club.
But after three rounds of trump, you've got only two trump in the closed hand and must ruff clubs three times. The only hope for declarer at that point would have been for the K & Q of clubs to be short, in a two- or three-card holding. Ace of clubs, ruff a club, dropping a top honor, cash the Q of spades, to dummy with a spade, ruff a club, dropping the other honor, back with a spade (or trump) and sluff a diamond. But that wasn't to be, and it looks to me that when you draw three rounds of trump immediately, you're going down. Declarer must ask himself how to take care of every card in one hand or the other, or how he can get 13 winners, whichever is easier. But you can't barge in, wiping out a ruffing potential because you were hectored to get outcher trump when you were learning the game.
The third declarer sluffed the 3 of spades on an opening diamond lead! That was a bit of a surprise, since he can't know the suit is splitting unevenly here. And of course, he now can't take the finesse that would give him control of the fourth round of spades. So he's virtually in a position where he'd better establish the dummy. Let's see if it works. Forget about spades. They're now solid. Forget about diamonds. We're going to have to ruff out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds of clubs, draw trump and arrive in dummy when all this is done. Let's see if that would work:
Yes, by golly. Ace of clubs, ruff a club, back with a trump, ruff a club (when everyone follows, you now have a virtual lock on your contract), back with a trump and ruff a club. How many trump does the closed hand have? Now many does dummy? The answers are zero and two, of course. You've led trump twice and and have ruffed 3 times in the closed hand. Now you go back with a spade or a diamond ruff, draw the last trump remaining, cash that fifth club and run spades.
I think it a poor practice to split honors when two higher honors are sitting over them unless you're quite certain that declarer doesn't have the means to repeat the finesse (either because he doesn't have an entry back to that hand or he has led a singleton). Look at this case. The Q of spades picks up the J. But declarer cannot know whether that was a singleton or a J 10 doubleton. You must put him to the guess.