Crocodile Hunger

Here was Board 14 of Tuesday’s club game.

East was declarer in 3NT after an auction of 1♦-1♠; 1NT-3NT.  South led a small heart, small from dummy, queen from North, king from declarer.

Declarer ran five clubs.  North pitched his three remaining hearts, East pitched a small diamond and South pitched his two remaining hearts and a diamond.

At this point declarer could settle for ten tricks by establishing a diamond trick (with a heart entry to such trick should a high diamond honor lose to the ♦A) and refusing the spade finesse (1+3+1+5).  However, at matchpoints it is difficult to avoid the temptation for an extra trick by taking the spade finesse.  Alas, there is a potential danger in the parlay of establishing a diamond trick AND taking the spade finesse.  What if the ♦A is held by South, South chooses to withhold the ace, the spade finesse loses to North, and North then returns a diamond through the remaining high diamond honor of East?  In that case, the defense might win THREE diamond tricks and a spade trick, holding declarer to only nine tricks.

At the table, declarer chose to lead not a diamond at the shown position, but rather to lead a heart to his jack and take the spade finesse, losing to North’s king.

North might possess enough clues to choose to now return the ♠J.  East opened 1♦ and yet has four clubs, leaving East with no more than five major suit cards.  South’s failure to have discarded a spade suggests that South holds exactly four spades and is maintaining parity with dummy’s spade length.  If South were dealt four spades, then a return of the ♠J both unblocks the spade suit and could possibly pin a doubleton ♠T in declarer’s hand.

At the table, however, North chose to return a diamond to declarer’s high honor and South’s ace.  South returned his smallest remaining spade to dummy’s ♠A, giving North a second opportunity to jettison the ♠J.  North instead played the ♠9.  Declarer now cashed the ♥A, and, being locked in dummy, presenting North with a third opportunity to discard the ♠J.  That opportunity was declined, and a third spade from dummy placed North on lead with the ♠J.  With only diamonds left in North’s hand, the forced diamond return provided declarer a steppingstone to the stranded diamond winner.  Ten tricks.

Had North jettisoned the ♠J on the second round of spades, a third spade from dummy would have allowed South to execute a Crocodile Coup by opening the jaws of his ♠T to swallow his partner’s ♠9 and then closing the jaws to cash the ♠8, winning three spades as well as the ♦A.  Sadly, however, the crocodile remained unfed.