Declarer Error #1

It's 12:29 PM. I stand outside, waiting for the last snowflake to hit my tongue. 

It misses, hitting my sweatshirt.

I lick it off my my shoulder.

Mmmm.

I love winter.

This next hand has a little bid of everything. Bad sac potential, a defensive error and a declarer error.

So I'm playing in a relatively new partnership. We play most of my favorite gadgets but we haven't discussed certain bidding sequences in depth. 

Then I pick up this lovely little hand in 4th seat both vulnerable:

Lefty opens 1D, my partner overcalls 2C. Righty passes.

I have a few options. I would like to bid 2D as forcing and inquiring further about partner's hand. We play 2D as a limit raise or better so when partner rebids 3C and I bid my hearts, I'm not sure where that gets us. Probably 3NT, if I'm lucky, partner might have 4S. I don't think this is a good hand for NT.

I decide that we are playing hearts. I trust that my partner has close to an opening hand so we should probably be in game. Our club fit is important - note how important it is that I trust my partner isn't overcalling on Ace - empty or J107. 

With 16+ he would double so slam looks impossible. Partner probably isn't void in hearts, but if he is I have my apology ready. 4H by me, swish.

The Ace of diamonds is led to:

Partner delivers. I sit and make my plan. The diamonds are wasted. I need a decent break in hearts and need to setup clubs before messing around in spades. I have a good guess on the points with lefty's opening bid.

I ruff the diamond in hand and as I sit and think, lefty leads a low diamond. This is a huge advantage to me because I can accept the lead (which many people don't realize) and get a finesse in diamonds I'm not entitled to, probably getting to pitch two spades on the diamonds instead of just one.

But I don't roll like that. My opponents are good people, it's club bridge and it was an honest mistake. Lefty picks up the diamond and I decide to play trump. I don't really gain from screwing around to get to dummy to hook a heart and I have no reason to believe the QJ of hearts are on my right - even so I don't gain. I hate to just plop down my top two hearts but I need a good heart split to make the contract. I don't want anyone ruffing in on a club or spade.

On the Ace of hearts lefty plays the 9, righty the 3.

On the King lefty drops the Jack, righty the 5.

Lefty could easily have started with QJ9 and the 3-3 heart break would be a welcomed miracle, but 4-2 isn't bad.

I play the 8 of hearts from my hand, lefty pitches a diamond, righty wins the Queen.

On my 2nd and 3rd hearts I've pitched one spade and one club.

Righty switches to a low spade, I duck, lefty wins the Ace and returns a spade, which I have to win on the board.

This was probably my first mistake. I could have saved another spade on the board and alleviated my transportation issues.

I play the king of diamonds, pitching a low spade from my hand.

So I've lost one heart and one spade and I'm left with:

K10-10x-none-qxx 

opposite

none-none-Jx-AJ1097

It is at this point that I realize I'm in trouble. 

I can ruff a diamond, draw the last trump and take the club hook, but if it loses and righty returns a diamond I'm down. 

I can play a low club, giving up the king and "guarantee" that I make 4, assuming righty doesn't have a stiff club. Or if righty had it the whole time, I'm not losing anything and I still guarantee the contract. But now I'm never making 5.

Will other people be in 4H? Does 3NT make more? Do I need to make 5? These are all thoughts that did not cross my mind. I decided that this is match points and you don't get a top board by making a safety play (lolz) and plus, lefty opened, she has to have the King of clubs, right?

So I play the jack of diamonds, righty ruffs, and I have to stop myself from putting the 4 of hearts on the table.

I over ruff and play the queen of clubs toward dummy. Lefty plays a diamond, righty wins and I claim making 4. Phew. I'm glad I played trump before setting up clubs.

All 4:

First things first.

Defense. 

As it turns out it doesn't make a difference on this hand, but righty should never ruff the diamond. He knows his partner has the queen, he knows I'm out and never gains from ruffing. Maybe he figures it doesn't matter and that one more spade trick is out there after the club hook loses.

Switch the Jack to the Queen and he must alwaysalwaysalwaysalways ruff as to avoid giving me a discard. This is a key defensive play on certain hands. Sometimes it's painful to ruff with what may be a natural trump trick, but you are promoting tricks for partner. We'll come back to a hand like that later.

If I pitch on the Jack of diamonds I don't gain from it, and the club is still off. 

Declarer play.

At this point I should probably take the safety play. Righty probably has something outside of the Queen of hearts. But I misplayed before that.

As stated before I can leave another spade on the board. I should realize that the opponents are going to be forced to attack spades and that I can pickup the jack and that's just as good as pitching on my long clubs. Once lefty shows out on the 3rd heart I should pitch a club. K109 opposite Qxx is huge, especially when I know righty will be on lead. If he plays a heart back instead I have more time to setup the clubs. 

I've been debating whether I should have setup my clubs first. A 4-0 break is rare, but the spades never hurt me so maybe I do better to get trump out first and figure out clubs later.  

Bidding:

I don't know how the bidding went at other tables. I suspect some people may have wiggled into 3NT, stopped below game in hearts, or raised clubs. 

I think the East hand is too good to open anything but 1D. 4 or 5 might make the opponents guess but partner is guessing too. 1st seat, colors are bad, suits not great I don't think opening this 3-5 diamonds is ideal.

This is the perfect hand not to Sac with.

Again, the colors are bad. What makes you think you can go down 2? You already have 4 losers and holes in your suit. Sometimes you get lucky and partner has the king of diamonds, but sometimes you eat 1100.

If the auction went the same way at our table, I'm not convinced that 4H is making. This is a crazy distributional hand. My 8 diamonds are a secret, maybe it's better that way. If I clue in the opponents that the distribution is horrible, chances are they play it better with that in mind. Maybe partner is short in diamonds and can score a ruff. 

If lefty opens 4D and I'm playing 4H, I'm never playing a club before pulling trump. Sometimes I might. That's why I dislike weak 2 suited bids and bad pre-empts. You tell the opponents how to play the hand and how to  bid it. 

Switch the 10 of diamonds to the King and I have much more sympathy for a sacrifice with this hand. 

Don't fish or make a wish.

Fin.