Option to Go Wrong

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: West
Vuln: N-S
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spade5 4
  2. heartQ J 10 9
  3. diamond10 7 5
  4. clubA 10 9 2
  1. spadeK 10 8 6 3
  2. heart—
  3. diamondJ 8 6 3
  4. clubK 7 6 4
club diamond heart spade NT
N 1 - 4 - 2
S 1 - 4 - 2
E - 1 - 3 -
W - 1 - 3 -
Green square in centre
  1. spadeQ J 7 2
  2. heart8 4 3
  3. diamondA Q 9
  4. clubJ 8 3

Contract: 4heart
Declarer: South
Lead: spade3
  1. spadeA 9
  2. heartA K 7 6 5 2
  3. diamondK 4 2
  4. clubQ 5
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
Pass Pass Pass 1heart
Dble 2heart 2spade 3diamond
3spade 4heart End
It seems natural to allow West hold the trick with spade10 - after all he has a easy club exit, but Kit Woolsey of the USA realised that on the bidding South must have diamondK. Declarer would discard a losing diamond to leave West on lead, forcing him to open up the diamond suit or concede a ruff and discard. Woolsey overtook spade10 with spadeJ and switched to diamondQ. This gave declarer a losing option and he duly took it. Placing diamondA with West, he played low on diamondQ and again when East continued with diamond9. 4spade minus one!

This was poor card reading by South, who ought to have realised that West would have opened 1spade with diamondA, but credit East for giving him the chance to go wrong - any chance is better than none!
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