Counting the hand

[OliverC]

Another good hand on counting:

Love All, Dealer West

South (Dummy)
7
A874
A854
J654

10 led

South
AQ1082
KJ96
Q10
K8

Bidding
West     North     East     South
1NT       2 ⁽¹⁾     No        3 ⁽²⁾
No         4         All Pass

(1) Majors
(2) Pre-emptive

I think Eszter and I were on the same wavelength here: With a genuine invitation I can bid a slow 3 , so my fast one  is more pre-emptive than anything else, but North has values to spare.

On the lead of the 10, West played low and your King wins the first trick. How do you plan the play? The bidding has told you where all the high cards are. If West's 1NT is 15-17, then there is no room for East to have more than a single Jack, so the location of the King, Queen, King and the AQ should not be in doubt. How, therefore, should you play the hand?

Eszter played a Heart to Dummy's Ace and another Heart back, capturing West's Queen on the second Heart. Now the Ace and a Spade ruff allowed her to lead a Diamond towards her Queen. West took their King, cashed the Ace and tried to cash the Queen, but Eszter was in control: She ruffed, cashed the Queen, ruffed another Spade, cashed the Ace and the Jack was her 10th trick.

Good enough, and few NS Pairs bid this game, so 10 tricks was a decent result. At the end, though, Easter left the Jack alone at trick 12, when actually she could have cashed it and discarded the Queen for an 11th trick (East had the last Heart and a Club left). There are a number of decent lines for 11 tricks here, mostly based on taking the finesse instead of a second round of Hearts.

(In fact, 12 tricks can be made on this hand, based on the bidding, our count of the hand, and a little luck: A to the Ace at trick 2, then the Spade finesse and a Spade ruff without cashing the Ace. Now a small Club off the table almost endplays West and leaves them with no decent option except exiting with the Queen. Now another ruff and a Club ruffs out West's Ace and Declarer can draw East's last trump, cash all the Spades and enjoy Dummy's Ace and Jack for the last two tricks.)

Opportunities for endplays (and squeezes) abound when you know for a fact that one defender holds everything, as here. In such circumstances it's always worth trying to come up with a line of play that puts such a defender under as much pressure as possible and takes advantage of their predicament.