HCL Pairs Finals – a sorry tale of lost opportunities, poor decisions and more.. – morning session

A few boards later, another lead resulted in a poor score.

You hear the following auction:

 I’m not sure if partner fully inquired about the meaning of the bids, I have not discussed it with him yet. But on 3♠ , 3NT by North would be a spade cue bid, and so 4♣ denied a spade control. In light of this explanation, his actual lead would not make much sense so I do think his understanding of auction was not quite clear. He chose to lead the ♦ A, and declarer had an easy ride to 12 tricks. Here’s the full hand:

 It’s not impossible to make 12 tricks after ♠ Q lead, but the likely play is that declarer would win and start on clubs. The sight of ♣ K would be a dampner. He can try to ruff a spade in dummy and then play for ♦ A to be rightly placed, but on this line he would lose ♣ Q if ♦ A is off. He might try ruffing a ♣ high in case that king was a false card (in which case he can cross to a ♥ and ruff another ♣  and then test trumps. If  ♥  are 2-2, he’d discard 2 diamonds on clubs and ruff the 3rd spade. If, as here, ♥ are 3-1, he’d pitch a spade and a ♦ , but then he’d have to play diamond from dummy for 11 tricks. When he sees the showout, he’d have to draw trumps, pitch ♠ on ♣ Q, ruff a ♣ back and and play a ♦  towards king for 11 tricks.

Even if declarer goes after the right line of playing a ♦ to king immediately, he runs into a trump promotion while trying to ruff a ♠ and a ♦ . You can win the ♦ A and play back ♣ K.