This Real Deal was human dealt on my Asian cruise this spring. It occurred in a small Swiss teams event. We were crossing from India to Oman on the Arabian Sea, having undergone a“pirate safety drill” the same morning! I wondered if the players in my group would have kept playing bridge if indeed there was a pirate attack. Both vulnerable, South held:

A9542
Q103
2
AKQ6

His 1 opening was raised to 2. Vulnerable at IMPs, you need to be very aggressive with game bidding. I never forget the exact quote given to me when I once asked Jeff Meckstroth (a teammate at the time), why he keeps bidding all of those games on "nothing." His sarcastic reply: "They pay a good bonus for a vulnerable game." Still, I don’t think this hand should jump to 4; a game try feel about right. South bid 3 (“help suit”) and North raised to 4. North would raise with 4 hearts (attempting a 4-4 fit), so South correctly went back to the known 8-card fit by bidding 4. The J was led:

876 K974 A763 74

A9542 Q103 2 AKQ6

How do you assess your chances? You need spades 3-2 and also must find the J. The actual declarer cashed 2 high clubs and ruffed a club in dummy. Do you like that start? This was careless management of the black suits. If an opponent started with 2-2 (for example) in the black suits, the player with 2 trumps could ruff high (or overruff dummy) on the third club. Now, the other opponent would still have 2 natural trump tricks. Even worse, the player who ruffed high, might be able to cross in hearts for another club play. How can declarer avoid this?

At trick two, he should play a low trump from both hands. He can win any return and then bang down the spade ace (happy if they are indeed 3-2). Then he can safely trump a small club in dummy (if they overruff, it is with the outstanding high trump).

Then, declarer would have to turn his attention to the J. Who should he play for it? How? For one thing, it might depend if the A is still in dummy. For another, it depends on how the black suits behave. I’d play for the person who had the fewest black cards to have the J. He is likely to have more hearts, and therefore likelier to hold a certain card in the suit. A look at the full deal reveals more:

Vul: Both Dlr: South	876 K974 A763 74
Q103 A2 Q108 J10982		KJ J865 KJ954 53
	A9542 Q103 2 AKQ6

The actual declarer went down 2 tricks. After prematurely ruffing a club in dummy, East overruffed, crossed to his partner's A and scored his K on another club play. West still had 2 natural trump tricks. Declarer lost the A and four(!) trump tricks.

Let's try it with proper technique. Declarer wins the club lead and ducks a spade from both hands at trick 2. East likely returns a club and declarer wins and lays down the A with gratifying results. Now, he ruffs a club in dummy, discovering that West started with 5 clubs. With East known to have more "missing" cards than West, declarer will likely play East for the J and make his contract for a well-earned +620. At the other table in the match, North-South made a spade partscore, so the misplay at this table cost almost 20 IMPs (North-South lost 8 instead of winning 10).