I'm not Greedy, but...

[OliverC]

I'm not by nature a particularly greedy person, but then again, doubled overtricks are worth quite a lot, LOL. Take this hand, on which you are North, EW Game, Dealer East.

South (Dummy)
  AJ10954
  KQJ5
  AQ
  4

  10 led

North
  K72
  987
  KJ6
  J632

Bidding
East     South     West     North
No        1          No         1 ⁽¹⁾
No        1NT⁽²⁾     No         2 ⁽³⁾
No        2 ⁽⁴⁾     No         3 ⁽⁵⁾
No        4          X           No
No        No⁽⁶⁾     

(1) 8+ Balanced
(2) Beta
(3) 0-2 Controls
(4) Iota in Spades
(5) HH or Hxx in Spades
(6) I was highly tempted to redouble this on the basis that 2 Spade losers are impossible on this bidding (Partner must have KQ Stiff or Qxx or Kxx), and I can't construct a hand for North that has no Controls that is still a positive. As I said at the top, though, I'm not overly greedy by nature and it would be just my luck to find Partner with Qxx, !X xxxx, Jx, !X KQJx and everything wrong

Anyway, Back to the hand: East leads the 10 of Diamonds and you win trick 1 in Dummy with the Ace (West plays the 2). How do you plan the play? It is sounding like West has most of the outstanding high cards, so it's reasonable to provisionally place them with the AK and Ace, but that doesn't sound like it's enough to justify their Double, so I feel it's also reasonable to place them with Qxx(x) in Spades.

At trick 2 you lay down the Ace of Spades (West follows with the 3 and East with the . On the Jack, West plays the 6. There are not one but 2 very good reasons why you should run the Jack here:

• As discussed above, it's highly likely that West has the Spade length
• (and most importantly), finessing here is a win/win proposition, because if the finesse loses, you now have the Spades splitting 2-2 and can ruff Dummy's 4th Heart if the Hearts don't split 3-3

Be that as it may, Partner (in the North seat) thought for a while and then went up with her King (East discarded the 5). At this stage Partner was still assured of one [doubled] overtrick, by cashing her two winning Diamonds and getting rid of Dummy's Club loser, but instead Declarer played the Jack to Dummy's Queen and then led the Jack from Dummy.

This, to be honest, is crazy play. As it turned out, it was East who had most of the outstanding high cards and West had doubled on a balanced 5-count with Qxx. If the Hearts are not 3-3, it's absolutely essential to save yourself that losing Club trick once you've got the Spades wrong, just to ensure that you make your doubled contract. Why wouldn't you play a Heart towards the KQJx in Dummy, just in case the Ace was on your left and you could persuade East to rise with the Ace?


Anyway, 4 X making was an excellent score, but 2 doubled overtricks would have been really nice!