Not just bad luck
At a club Swiss event yesterday, I held this hand following partner’s weak 2♦ opening as dealer: ♠AKQJ97, ♥A4, ♦T, ♣T973.
I responded 3NT. One can envisage many hands opposite with better play for nine tricks in notrump than play for ten tricks in spades. And partner held one of those hands.
I won South’s heart lead in hand, played ♦AK, both following suit but no queen appearing, and then played a spade to hand. When South failed to follow suit on the second round, I cashed out for down two. The whole hand was:
At my teammates’ table, the same auction was conducted. (I would open the West hand 1♦ and not 2♦, but obviously I am a supporter of my teammates’ opponent’s 3NT response.) My teammate made the more normal lead of a fourth best spade into the tenace and so my teammates were -400 to my -100.
Unlucky, I was thinking, not only that my table opponent found a heart lead but that spades were 5-1.
But more careful analysis proves that bad play contributed more than bad luck to my losing 11 IMPs on this hand.
I doubt I would have even recognized my error had spades split, but surely it is better to have played spades at Trick 2 than to have played diamonds. When I get the bad news about spades, I can next try for ♦Qxx onside. When that effort proves lucky, I would emerge with eleven tricks and gain 2 IMPs instead of losing 11 IMPs.
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As the victim here, I’m wondering what you do with a D lead!
Hi, Don.
Yes, a diamond lead would almost certainly be devastating on this deal. But if I led a diamond against this auction I would find the opposing two hands to be something like xx, KTx, KJxxxx, xx opposite QJ, AJx, ATx, KQxxx. I’d be watching declarer guess the HQ and rattle off nine tricks in the red suits when a spade lead — what your wife/partner led as my teammate — would have produced the first six tricks for the defense!
At the table, I gave no thought to South having the pointed suit cards he held. Instead the extent of my thought process (?) was no deeper than maybe North might have to pitch on the second or third good diamond trick and might choose the “idle fifth” of spades. I think the Caplins were victims, alright, but victims of that shallow thought process!
Jeff, you said it yourself. The books always tell us to “combine our chances” but it’s easy in the heat of the battle to take things for granted (like, in this instance, running spades). I commend your ‘fessing up to this one 🙂