Something occurred to me on this hand, but I decided against it. After the hand was over I realised that I'd actually missed the best line for 10 tricks:
Game All, Dealer WestNorth 
974
853
J
AJ7542
South KJ6532
-
AK106
983
BiddingWest North East South1
No 1
1
2
2
3
4
No No X All Pass
Since it was very unlikely that Eszter had that much in the way of points, I placed her with not much in Diamonds (2 at most) and length in Clubs. I had hoped for a 4th Spade and perhaps a tiny bit more in
(
KQJxx was the image I had in my mind), but when Dummy went down I was disappointed because the Spades were likely to be at least 3-1, albeit onside so 4 !SX was going to be tough, but more importantly, I'd gone too needlessly high, because I could see that 4
was almost inevitably off. That means I have to try to
make this improbably contract
West led the
King, which I ruffed in hand. What now?
It did occur to me to try a
small Diamond to the Jack at trick 2, in the hope that West would duck, placing Partner with the AK of Diamonds. If that worked, I could now lead a Spade and finesse the Jack if East didn't play the Ace, ruff my 10
, and lead Spades again. Against that, I was giving up a Diamond trick if West just went up with the Queen anyway. I didn't think long, because a long trance would probably give the game away, and in the end went the other route, which was to Cash the
Ace, ruff a
, ruff a Heart (to shorten my trumps in case the
were 4-0), ruff a second Diamond, and
now lead a trump. The second
ruff was fatal, as it happens, because now when I lead a Spade East can rise with the Ace and lead another Heart to force me.
Worrying about whether to underlead my AK of Diamonds distracted me sufficiently, that actually I didn't see the
best line for 10 tricks, which places East with
AQx, a singleton or small doubleton Club and 3 Diamonds, and West with
KQx and exactly 1 Spade. What I should have done was the same as I actually did up to and including the second Heart ruff in my hand. Now the position would be as follows:
North 97
8
-
AJ7542
South KJ65
-
K10
983
I've taken 4 tricks and Opps none. Now I should cash the
Ace, discarding Dummy's last
Heart and then lead a
Club. If West plays low I insert the Jack and hope my estimation of the layout is correct. If, as seems more likely, West splits their Club honours, I need to
duck, and now West is stymied. If they play another Club East will ruff, but now I'm in control: A red suit lead puts me back in Dummy with a ruff to lead a Spade through East's AQ and East has no answer.
I should have thought of this line, because it's entirely consistent with the bidding (West having both Club honours). Ho hum.... (Another one for Roger's list). Still, enough people were being allowed to
make 4
that 4 !SX -1 was still a small plus score, but 4 !SX
making would have been worth a whopping 14 IMPs.
The moral of this tale is that thinking outside the box is all very well, but sometimes there are much more straightforward solutions that one ought to be aiming at...
