Don’t get distracted

Today’s deal is from an IMP match. N-S pair in the Open Room reached 4H in quick time and
declarer went down in the contract. He got distracted by an irrelevant issue which did not allow
him to concentrate on the job at hand.

Test your skill in the hand below on the lead of the Club Queen

 

Bidding Analysis

The 3NT bid was artificial promising 4 or more hearts and 12-14 hcp. As it were, South had a minimum opening and bid 4H.

Before commencing the play, declarer found that in 3NT there were nine top tricks. He felt that ten tricks in hearts would require west to have both the spade honors. He was very worried that their opponents at the other table would contract for 3NT and it would be a certain loss of ten IMPs on the board.

The Play

Declarer won the opening lead, removed trumps in three rounds, and exited with a club. East won and shifted to a spade to the two, queen, and the ace. Declarer exited with his third club now. West won and played a second spade. Declarer tried the ten but east won the Jack. With a certain diamond loser declarer had to go down.

Result: + 50 to E-W.

After the deal was over, declarer kept insisting that the partnership should have contracted for 3NT instead. North, however, said that the result may be duplicated in the Closed Room as well, as it is only normal to play in a major suit contract when there are nine trumps in the combined hands.

When our team-mates came out after scoring, they were surprised to know that my partner had gone down in 4H. As we had not bothered to inspect the four hands at our table after the play was over, we had no idea if there was an opportunity to make the contract that my partner had missed. The complete hands were:

 

At the other table, declarer had played a diamond from dummy after removing trumps. As you can see, East who had both the King and the Queen was forced to split his honours, enabling declarer to set up a diamond winner for discarding his losing spade.

Admittedly, while it was a slim chance to find East with both the diamond honours, it was a chance nonetheless. Declarer, a very fine player, would have found the play if he had not unnecessarily got distracted by the alternative contract.

Moral of the hand: Do not allow your mind to wander. It will distract you.

Do let us know your views on the hand in the comments section below

Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.