There are few hands where the bidding doesn't help declarer make a
decision in the play. Here is a hand where declarer didn't stop
to think about the auction and soon regretted it.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #1
Dlr
N
Vul
N/S
J65
10754
J7
KQJ9
7432
93
A108
7643
AK109
KJ
Q9532
82
Q8
AQ862
K64
A105
West
North
East
South
Pass
1
1
Pass
2
Pass
3
Pass
4
All Pass
BIDDING: After North's
raise, South made a game try and North accepted.
PLAY: West led a low
spade and East quickly won the first two tricks. At trick three,
East led a low diamond and declarer, expecting the ace of diamonds to
be on his right, rose with the king. West won the ace and led
another diamond to East for the setting trick. Was it just a
guess or was there enough information for declarer to find the
correction play? Just as the great Sherlock Holmes asked "Why
didn't the dog bark?", declarer should have wondered why West didn't
lead his partner's suit. The answer is leading an ace often
works out poorly, so West simply tried to find a safer one. As you can
see, if West had led the ace of diamonds, declarer would have no
problems.
Another thought is that declarer needed the king of hearts to be on his
right and East may have opened 1NT holding the top two spades along
with the heart king, diamond ace, and a jack.
