Yesterday, Sanya complimented me for making hands seem to easy. In truth, the hand she was referring to really wasn't a difficult one, but it's one you
might make more complicated than it is. At Game all you are South, the dealer.
South 
AJ972
KJ82
J2
AJ
The bidding is swift: You open 1
, West comes in with a WJO of 3
and Partner finishes the bidding with 4
.
West leads the 7
and Partner puts down
North 1084
A65
AKQ5
843
7
led by West
South AJ972
KJ82
J2
AJ
How do you plan the play? The 7
looks suspiciously like a singleton or doubleton. You could win the A
in Dummy and run the 10
, intending to take the Heart finesse later on. How does that sound?
Well it's a plan, I suppose. The only real problem with it is that West wins the Spade trick, gives Partner a 1st-round Club ruff (the Clubs are 8-0), gets a Heart ruff, and gives partner a second Club ruff.
There are two things about this hand: Firstly you have
oodles of tricks (3 Hearts on the opening lead, 4 Diamonds, A
and at least 3 Spade tricks). You can
afford to lose 2 Spade tricks. What you
cannot afford is for both Opps to potentially start ruffing. Playing Ace and a small Spade towards the 10 is pretty much cast iron for 11 tricks here, whatever the Spade distribution (even 5-0 with East).
So no magical plan here, just the realisation that the
only thing that can cause me problems is a distribution similar to what we actually had when the Clubs were 8-0 and the opening lead was a singleton. I cannot afford to try for 12 tricks when it potentially means I might make only 9, especially when I am absolutely
certain of 11 tricks if I play it safe. West would have to have
exactly KQx,
7,
x,
KQ109xxxx to stop 11 tricks and even then I'm still certain of making 10. Worth noting that even an opening Club lead doesn't cause me a problem unless the Diamonds are 6-1. Whether East ruffs the lead or not, I an
still certain of my 10 tricks as long as I don't get cute and try for a Spade finesse.
