Greed is a bad thing, but at least one can understand it and have probably been guilty of it on many occasions. Declarer's play on this hand is mystifying, though:
You are vulnerable and with no opposition bidding have landed in a contract of 3NT:
Dummy 642
A2
AKQJ52
Q6
You J83
KJ1076
96
A74
The bidding went 1
- 1
- 3
- 3NT. LHO leads the Jack of Clubs. What's your plan?
"Next hand!" is my plan. I take my 9 top tricks and concede the rest
In a little more detail...
In case the Opening lead was from KJ10, I cover but RHO produces the King, so I win. If I want to get creative, I might lead the Jack of Hearts, hoping to induce a cover from LHO, but if they don't cover I revert to plan A, hop up with the Ace and go about the Diamonds. Now, if I was
really desperate for a small swing (at the risk of a huge loss), I might take the Heart finesse on the way back, but it's right up there with Trump giving up the Presidency and opening a drop-in centre for illegal Mexican immigrants.
What I would never, in a zillion years, remotely consider doing is
ducking at trick 1. As it happens, I was RHO on this layout. I knew Declarer had the A
(Eszter would never lead the Jack from KJ10, because we play Strong 10's). Declarer must have either the Ace of Spades or the King of Hearts and they're
much more likely to have the K
on this bidding, so I switched to the K
from KQxx. Eszter encouraged and we took our 4 Spade tricks to take this iron-clad contract one off for nearly 8 IMPs.
Count your tricks! Barring a 5-0 Diamond split, you start and finish with 9 tricks. Who knows, RHO might have
Qx and you end up with more but that's in the lap of the Bridge Gods. If the 5-0 Diamond split materialises, you can start thinking about Heart finesses.