Operation Failed Patient Lived

Pages: Page 6 of 7

Dealer: West
Vuln: N-S
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spade9 6
  2. heartA Q 9 5
  3. diamondQ 10 4 2
  4. clubQ 4 2
  1. spadeK 7 5 3
  2. heartJ 6 4
  3. diamondA 9 8 6
  4. clubA 8
Green square in centre
  1. spadeA Q J 10 8 2
  2. heartK
  3. diamondK 5 3
  4. clubK 7 5

Contract: 6spade
Declarer: West
Lead: spade6
  1. spade4
  2. heart10 8 7 3 2
  3. diamondJ 7
  4. clubJ 10 9 6 3
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1NT* Pass 2heart~ Pass
2spade Pass 3spade# Pass
4club Pass 4diamond Pass
4spade Pass 5club Pass
5diamond Pass 6spade Pass
Pass Pass

* 12-14
~ transfer
# GF, slam aspirations

Declarer was aware that North might be having a little joke by underleading his queen, but decided against running around to her jack. Instead she ruffed the heart and ran all the spades to squeeze North in the red suits - taking the final trick with diamond5 in the dummy. The operation - i.e. the bidding, failed. The patient, 6spade, lived to clock up 11 IMPs.

As you can see, abiding by the old motto Attacking leads against small slams would have saved the day for the defence. A diamond lead at trick one and continuation when in with heartA would have destroyed the vital entry for the squeeze to operate.
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