A Hand That Might Have Been

When I play with Sylvia she sends me analysis of the deals afterwards.  It is always fun to read and it usually raises some interesting points.  She is an easy person to discuss things with.  We don’t always agree but the discussions are always cordial.  The discussion is focused on bidding and defense and not on declarer play.  Here is a deal that I played.  There was not comment on our bidding but we obviously got very high.  I have been trying to figure out the best way to play this hand.  My approach did not work.  I am going to rotate the deal.

Dealer: Vul:	Sylvia ♠QJ6 ♥ J8 ♦AQJ62 ♣ 743
West		East
	Linda ♠ AK983 ♥ A103 ♦ 7 ♣ AKJ2

Sylvia opened a 10-12 notrump and I invoke forcing Stayman.  Sylvia showed three spades and five diamonds as we arrived at 4♠ .  Should I bid more?

Should the five card diamond suit turn me off?   Maybe I should consider that with a great hand for me Sylvia would have cuebid instead of bidding 4♠ .   Is there a sensible way to proceed?  I just decided to bid blackwood and ended in the spade slam.  In retrospect as we past comments back and forth I thought maybe I should just bid 5♣ and if Sylvia bids 5♦ bid 5♥ and then honour a signoff from her.  What do you think?

Anyway the problem is how to play this sucker on a trump lead to the 10 and your ace.  One way is to play for a heart ruff.  You duck a heart.  Now if West wins and returns a trump he will be eventually squeezed in the minors.  Lets say West returns a diamond to break up the squeeze.

Dealer: Vul:	Sylvia ♠QJ6 ♥ J8 ♦AQJ62 ♣743
West ♠ 52 ♥ K95 ♦ K943 ♣ Q865		East ♠ 1074 ♥ Q7642 ♦ 1085 ♣ 109
	Linda ♠ AK983 ♥ A103 ♦ 7 ♣ AKJ2

Deducing that East has the ♥ Q since West did not lead a heart you win the ♦ A and finesse the heart.  You throw a club on the ♥ J and crossruff.  If West ducks and lets East win the heart, East cannot return a diamond and the squeeze will eventually operate against West.

At the table I did consider some of this.  I decided that West did have most of the high cards because of the trump lead.  But I didn’t quite work out the idea of playing hearts right away.

I decided to play to bring the diamond suit home for four winners and failing that fall back on the getting three tricks from the club suit.   So I finessed the ♦Q and ruffed diamonds.  This doesn’t quite work.  But there is an interesting option in the end game that I missed.  East had thrown a club fatally.

Dealer: Vul:	Sylvia ♠Q ♥ J8 ♦ J ♣74
West ♠ – ♥ K95 ♦ – ♣ Q86		East ♠ 7 ♥ Q7642 ♦ ♣ –
	Linda ♠ 9 ♥ A10 ♦ ♣ KJ2

I arrived at this ending.  What I did was cash the ♣ A cross on the high spade.  I threw a heart on the ♦ J.  And so did West.  If West has all the remaining clubs then if  I can cash the HA and duck a club to West.  Notice that West was squeezed out of his heart exit as he had to hold all his clubs.  I sort of saw this at the table but I didn’t quite get there.  When East had played the ♣ 9 and ♣ 10 I should have realized that he probably didn’t have another one.

Well it is still an interesting hand even if I didn’t play it right.  I had my chances.  Now I have my regrets.