The best laid plans….

Our hero found himself in 4 spades, and dug deep to find the best line of play to overcome most adverse layouts. However, an unforeseen development gave pause to his technically sound line of play.

 

 

 

Here were the cards:

 

North
♠	Q873
♥	Q1053
♦	K3
♣	J75
South
♠	AK542
♥	A4
♦	A542
♣	K3

 

The bidding had been quick and practical. No one vulnerable, West opened 3 clubs in first chair.

 

West	North	East	South
3 C	Pass	Pass	Dble
Pass	4 C	Pass	4 S
Pass	Pass	Pass

 

Perhaps North, in his effort to find the best strain, overbid a tad with 4 clubs, but partner had coverage galore, and 4 spades was a sound contract.

The opening lead was the 8 of hearts, presumably from shortness. Dummy’s ten forced East’s jack, and our hero won the Ace in hand.

Assuming spades no worse than 3-1, declarer could count 5 spade tricks, the two top diamonds, and a diamond ruff. If spades were 2-2 (not so likely on the auction) then declarer could ruff two diamonds in dummy for ten tricks.

South looked a little deeper into the hand and understood the diamond ruffs were a distraction. A better line of play would be to build up a club trick for the game going trick.

South played ace of spades, and a spade to dummy’s queen, and sure enough, West showed out on the second spade. South now played a club to his king, losing, as expected, to West’s Ace. Back came a diamond. South won in hand and led another club towards dummy’s jack – fully expecting the queen to pop up. At that point, nothing would beat his contract.

However, West played the club ten on the second round of clubs, giving South pause, to say the least. Hmm, could West be 6-5 in the minors? Had East begun life with Qx of clubs? If yes, South had better duck this club completely.

Of course, our hero had not come this far just to play the club jack from dummy and go down in his now ‘cold contract’.

So he played low from the dummy, but the expectant club queen from East was in fact a small heart!

NOW came the club queen from West, and South had no answer. There was no club trick at hand, and only one diamond ruff was possible. The ironclad contract was down 1 – thanks to West’s diabolical play of the club ten, rather than his “known” queen.

The full layout was as follows: 

Dealer: East Vul: None		North
		♠	Q873
		♥	Q1053
		♦	K3
		♣	J75
West				East
♠	6			♠	J109
♥	8			♥	KJ9762
♦	J876			♦	Q109
♣	AQ109842			♣	6
		South
		♠	AK542
		♥	A4
		♦	A542
		♣	K3

 

South had the right idea all along. Trying to ruff diamonds in the dummy would have yielded a swift down one. But West found a way to break a seemingly impregnable contract, and left South talking to himself for the next few hands. The real hero on this hand had been West all along.