Magnificent Hamman But No Justice

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: East
Vuln: N-S
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spadeJ 9 7 6
  2. heart10 9 7 6
  3. diamond10
  4. clubK J 4 2
  1. spade10 8 2
  2. heart8 3
  3. diamondA K J 6 5
  4. clubQ 8 6
club diamond heart spade NT
N 2 - - - -
S 2 - - - -
E - 5 1 3 2
W - 5 1 3 2
Green square in centre
  1. spadeA K Q 4
  2. heartA Q 5 4
  3. diamondQ 9 7 2
  4. club7

Contract: 5diamond
Declarer: East
Lead: diamond10
  1. spade5 3
  2. heartK J 2
  3. diamond8 4 3
  4. clubA 10 9 5 3
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
2diamond* Pass
2heart~ Pass 2NT# Pass
3club~ Pass 3diamond! Pass
4club+ Pass 4heart^ Pass
5diamond End

* Roman 2D, 17-24 three suits
~ tell me more
# short clubs, 17-20
! 17-18
+ How many controls?
^5 controls (A=2,K=1)

Bob Hamman saw that there was an extra chance of returning to hand without incurring another trump lead from South. He led heartQ from dummy! If North held this then he could not prevent declarer from ruffing a third round of hearts back to hand to enable a final club ruff.

That was the brilliant theory. What actually happened was that South did win the heart queen with the king to return a third round of trumps, but Hamman was still not finished. Winning the trump return, he first cashed spadeAK to see if spadeJ dropped. No luck. Hamman continued with heartA, ruff a heart and played his last trumps. North was squeezed in three suits. Finito. Good defence, magnificent declarer play. In the other room the Naturalist West received a lucky spade lead against 3NT - nine tricks. No swing. No justice.
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