It Was There in the Palm of his Hand
|
 K 8 4 2 |
|
|
 8 |
|
|
 A K 10 7 2 |
|
|
 A K 7 |
|
| 9 7 3 |
|
A Q J 10 |
| Q 10 9 6 4 2 |
|
K J 5 |
| J 8 |
|
6 4 |
| 6 4 |
|
10 8 5 3 |
|
6 5 |
|
|
A 7 3 |
|
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Q 9 5 3 |
|
Q J 9 2 |
Opening lead: 6 of clubs |
| West | North | East | South |
| Pass |
1 * |
Pass |
1 * |
| Pass |
2 |
Pass |
2 NT* |
| pass |
3 * |
Pass |
4 * |
| Pass |
4 |
Dbl |
Pass* |
| Pass |
4 NT |
Pass |
5 * |
| All | pass | | * Alerted |
Ten bids (counting an alerted pass), 7 of them alerted, to reach the 3rd best contract of 5 clubs? Best is 3 no trump, which allows an overtrick which beats 5 diamonds even if the defense allows an overtrick there (as some did). Second best is certainly 5 diamonds. Well, can't he make 5 clubs, and doesn't that mean it's as good as 5 diamonds? I guess you could say that. It's academic here, for yes, as the cards lie, he can certainly make 5 clubs.
When I saw declarer had gone down, my first thought was that he hadn't taken care to get a heart ruff before drawing trump, but he did that, all righty. This declarer did everything exactly right through the third round of trump, but . . . Opening lead was a trump, wisely won with a top honor. Low to the ace of hearts and a heart ruff, cash the king of clubs, enter the closed hand with the queen of diamonds and after drawing trump you cash out your winners.
Well, this declarer took one more round of trump, the third round, and then for some reason switched to leading diamonds and he got what he was looking for, which was a ruff (on the third round), and now he can't make the hand.
Why? I guess you'd hafta ask him. Did he feel nervous about wiping out trump from the whole hand? Perhaps. I've seen a number who couldn't let go that last trump, even though they had runnable winners. (In squeeze situations, when you've got every trick but one, the last trump is often the squeeze card, but some can't let go that last trump.) Obviously, declarer shouldn't have fretted over that here, since he can run his 11 winners and then concede the last two. After such a promising start! -- using dummy's top clubs for drawing the opponents' trump, ruffing a heart with a low club, using his sole entry to the closed hand for drawing trump -- and then shying away from drawing the last club from a defender.
I tell you, that first of rules we learn at our first foray into bridge is not old hat for being an early instruction. Yes, there are a lot of reasons for not drawing trump immediately (as here, declarer needs a ruff). But there's one very good reason for drawing the opponents' trump if you safely can before embarking on the cashing of your side-suit winners. I don't need to tell you what that one good reason is.
The bidding does draw attention to itself. It's not quite as if an outlandish pre-empt by an opponent had forced them into an inferior contract because they didn't have time to explore. They had all the bidding room they could ask for and still didn't smoke out either the best contract of 3 no trump, nor if in a trump suit, the far safer 5 diamonds. Every one of South's bids was alerted. That must be an awfully difficult partner to bid with. Even a pass is alerted, and God only knows what it means.
And then, declarer either miscounted the trump or thought there'd be some danger in clearing his hand completely of trump. Whatever. These guys are getting sophisticated in the wrong thing. All those bids don't mean much if you can't find the best contract, and they don't mean much when you find at least a suitable contract, and throw it away.
There's nothing really better than the nitty-gritty, count-to-thirteen play for the best use of your cards.