Q64
                                                        AJ65
                                                        AJ9
                                                        QJ5
                      85                                                            97
                      10842                                                      Q93
                      KQ1082                                                  754
                      AK                                                          98732 

                                                       AKJ1032
                                                        K7
                                                        63
                                                        1064

Contract 4 Spades, opening lead the King of Diamonds:

Well here I am, in four spades  - it looks like a fairly common contract. If it is teams I would have claimed by now, conceding a diamond and two clubs... but this is pairs.. can I do better than most people sitting in my seat?  What about the bidding?  Michael has opened on my left.  There are only 14 high card points missing - has Michael got them all?  There is room for Kevin to hold 2-3 points - has he got the Queen of hearts?.... possibly, or the Ace or King of clubs?  Just a minute ..........Michael has led the King of diamonds - surely holding the A and K of clubs he would lead one to both see dummy and gauge partner's reaction?  Surely he would.... therefore Kevin must have either the Ace of King of Clubs and the Queen of hearts must be on my left!  I can therefore draw trumps, finesse the jack of hearts and throw away my diamond loser making 11 tricks!

Having satisfied myself on my analysis I did as planned and finessed the heart Jack.  I watched in horror as it lost to the Queen, the Jack hastily gobbled up by a surprised Kevin on my right.  It didn't take long for a club to come back and Michael cashed them both for one down.  We opened the score sheet and surprise surprise, I was the only one to go down of course for a complete 'bottom'.  A much safer line would have been to play Ace and King of hearts and ruff a heart with a high trump to see if the queen drops - keeping the Queen of spades in dummy as an entry.  As you can see, that would have been successful.  You can also see why Michael didn't lead a high club - he can't lead a third one for partner to ruff and the bidding tells him that partner has virtually nothing - so he should try and set up a diamond winner - very sensible wasn't it (as he explained to me at the end of the hand)!

What did you do?  Settle for 10 tricks?  Ruff out the Queen of Hearts?

Mike looked on during all this mayhem.. perhaps he was too stunned to say anything!!!   Will he play with me again I wonder?
 
 
 

Clive Keep, February  2010