Quite a Disparity
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 A 9 6 2 |
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 9 7 5 |
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 4 |
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 K J 10 7 5 |
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| 3 |
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K 8 5 |
| J 10 8 6 4 2 |
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A K Q 3 |
| Q |
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J 9 7 2 |
| A Q 9 8 2 |
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4 3 | | | Vul: No | one |
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Q J 10 7 4 |
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------ |
| |
| A K 10 8 6 5 3 |
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6 | | |
| West | North | East | South |
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1 |
1 |
| 2 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
| 5 |
Pass |
Pass |
5 |
| Dbl |
All |
pass |
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|
An interesting hand, played in any number of ways, in both directions. (In the two cases where I checked the bidding when the final contract was four hearts, spades hadn't even been mentioned!) I was struck by the disparity between two declarers in 5 spades, both doubled, one redoubled. One went down four while the other made (or at least so it says). To top it off, the one who went down 4 got a favorable lead, while the one who made 5 didn't. (The latter declarer was the North hand above, which I will indicate when I give the end position.)
Opening lead was the singleton queen of diamonds. The hand should now have been pretty much of a cakewalk. Declarer should ruff a diamond at trick two. The 9 will protect him against any overruff except the king, and if both opponents follow, diamonds are established, and declarer can guarantee his contract simply by cashing the ace of spades and leading a low spade. When West shows out, declarer now ruffs low -- with the 6 if West happens to ruff with the three -- ruffs a heart, ruffs a diamond, cashes the ace of spades and leads dummy's last spade. He now has two trump to East's last trump, and so can handle any lead (though one club must be lost), draw the last trump and run diamonds.
Here's how declarer managed to hold his winners to seven. Spade hook at trick two into the king. Ruff a heart return. Finish drawing trump -- which would have been fine had diamonds split 3-2. But now he had no hope. He can ruff only one diamond in dummy and get back to the closed hand just one time. Which is to say that that long and powerful diamond suit will be lost to him except the top two cards! His winners are going to be two diamonds and a diamond ruff, with 4 spades in the long hand (well, the ace takes one of them), losing a trick to the king.
Some years ago, I postulated the notion that -- within some limits -- you should be glad for bad breaks. They not only add a little spice to the game, requiring just the acumen about the best line of play that makes the game fun, but it's just such bad breaks that allow you to rise above the careless player. Yes, yes, within limits. Here it looks as if heart leads, combined with the bad break in diamonds, would do a declarer in, and he can't be happy about that. But this declarer didn't get a heart lead, and had a rather easy path to 11 winners. He only had to take care to set up his powerful side suit and not assume he could run it when he felt like getting around to it.
There are several lessons to be noted here: Voids aren't necessarily the route to nirvana and even powerful nine-card suits aren't going to last forever. (I'm always amazed when people ask "How" when I say you can lose tricks where you have a void in a trump contract. Second to that is people saying "how's that?" when I say voids don't win tricks.)
The other declarer, in a 5 spade redoubled contract, got the opening lead of a heart, ruffed in dummy (remember, that is played from the North hand). He played the queen of spades, eschewed the finesse when LHO didn't cover, cashed his top diamonds and ruffed a diamond, ruffed a heart, ruffed a diamond, ruffed a heart. After 8 tricks, the hand had to look like this:
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J |
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------ |
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10 8 6 |
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6 |
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| K 8 |
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------ |
| K |
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J |
| ------ |
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------ |
| 4 3 |
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A Q 9 8 |
| 9 |
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------ |
| ------ |
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K J 10 7 |
At which point, declarer evidently claimed and was awarded the rest of the tricks, minus one for the king of spades and one for the ace of clubs. (Nothing shows after trick 8.) There is no other explanation. Were they in a hurry to get onto the next hand? I don't know.
Declarer, of course, should have been down. He has eight tricks at that point and it looks as though he can't be prevented from getting two more. But that's not making 5. Almost anything West does will bring the defense three of the last five tricks. Declarer ruffs a diamond in his closed hand? West sluffs a club. Declarer has to lead a club backwards to the A Q. East wins as cheaply as possible and continues the suit. Declarer ruffs and West has the rest of the tricks with trump. Or West overruffs the diamond ruff and plays the K of hearts. If declarer ruffs, he has to lose a trick to the A of clubs, and West holds the last trump, for the third of those five tricks. If declarer sluffs off on the K of hearts, West leads a club. If declarer ducks, that's the third trick, and if he ruffs in, West has the last trump and a club to lead to the ace.
It looks like a bogus claim to me. But the main point is the first declarer's play. Please note that had diamonds split 3-2, this declarer would have come out smelling like a rose even though playing the hand poorly. This is a very common thing, that our goofs will sometimes be wiped out by favorable breaks or perhaps defensive goofs in return. But then perhaps more often, they come back to haunt us. And then it hurts. But this is a new way of "making" a contract. And it's not the first time I've seen it.