Here is the bidding, NS passing throughout, East dealer:
East West
1S 2C*
2D 2H
3D** 4N
5C***6N
*Game Forcing
** Showing 5 cards
*** 0-3 Key cards
West East
♠ J2 ♠ AKT853
♥ AQT4 ♥ 76
♦ KJ ♦ Q9754
♣ KQJ64 ♣ Void
Opening lead Club 10
West is declarer. What do you discard from dummy?
While you are thinking about that, let’s discuss the
bidding, which was deplorable. The first four bids were fine, 1S-2C-2D-2H.
East’s rebid of 3D to show at least 5-5 in the two suits was worse than awful,
for several reasons. One is that in a game forcing auction like this, after
showing his tentative shape of at least 5-5, his first obligation is to show
that he has a six card spade suit. And it is a very good suit, headed by the
AK. His diamond suit is terrible. There’s no reason to show a weak 5 card
diamond suit before showing a strong 6 card spade suit. When he confirms he has
6 spades, West can confirm spades as trump since he’s holding two and the
bidding proceeds from there. West’s bid of 3S shows slam interest. Since they
are in a game-forcing auction, 3S is much stronger than jumping to game in 4S.
It went from bad to worse from there. East forgot that they
were playing 3014 key card and responded in 1430, showing 1 or 4 key cards
(since Trump had not yet been agreed upon, east was responding as if diamonds
were trump). West thought he was showing 0 or 3 and assumed it was 3 and went
straight to 6N, lacking two aces.
North was on lead. North was one of the best players in Los
Angeles, if not the world and made the best lead that could give West a chance
to make it, the club 10. Why was it so good? Two reasons: First, it wasn't the diamond ace. Second, it pulls the club ace without having to force it out by playing the King, which, it turns out, would have doomed the slam because clubs would produce only two tricks instead of three.
Now back to my original question, what do you discard
from dummy? If you said one of your two little hearts, you just lost any chance to make the slam. You have to discard a diamond because you have
to retain a heart on the board to make the heart finesse. If you discard a
heart initially, the only remaining heart will be gone if south leads her
heart and there’s no way to get her king.
East took her ace and returned the jack of hearts! Manna
from heaven! You are holding the AQT4. If North has the king of hearts, you are
down two. If he doesn’t, you can make it if spades break correctly, so you have
no choice. You must take the heart finesse.
When it holds, showing that South has the king, you first
try to run your clubs. You find out that North has six clubs and you only get
three club tricks. But that’s OK because you discard three diamonds on those
three club tricks and then lead the jack of spades. North covers, so you run
the spades, getting rid of your two diamonds and two remaining clubs in your hand on the
long running spades and then lead the remaining heart on the board to finesse
south’s king and you end up getting six spades, three clubs and three hearts,
making a slam that has only a 5% chance of making, at best. If south returns a
diamond, you’re dead because north will get the ace he failed to cash at the
beginning. In bridge as in any other game it’s better to be lucky than good.
As to the bidding, here’s the way it should have gone:
East West
1S 2C
2D 2H
2S 3S
4S 4N
5H* 5S
6S P
*Two key cards without the queen
Even though West signs off because he knows they are lacking
two key cards, East goes to 6S because of the club void, even though it’s in
partner’s first bid suit. As long as the spades behave, which they do, 6S is a much easier play than 6N, losing only the diamond ace so long as the heart and spade finesses work.
Here are all four hands:
North
♠ Q7
♥ 985
♦ A2
♣ T98532
West East
♠ J2 ♠ AKT853
♥ AQT4 ♥ 76
♦ KJ ♦ Q9754
♣ KQJ64 ♣ Void
South
♠ 964
♥ KJ32
♦ T863
♣ A7
♣ A7
