It is easy to forget a switch

In last week’s columns, as I was doing my final check of the page proofs, I luckily spotted that I had “spade queen” when it should have been “club queen.” I had flipped suits around and forgotten to change the text. Maybe that explains the error by the original columnist on this deal.

How should South play in six notrump after West leads the spade jack?

It is fun bidding a slam without Blackwood or Gerber.

Declarer starts with 10 top tricks: three spades, two hearts, four diamonds and one club. If the missing clubs are splitting 3-2, South will have no trouble establishing three more tricks there and cruising home. So, it is clearly right to attack clubs immediately — but how?

Declarer should cash the club ace first because the king might be a singleton. Then he leads toward his jack. If East wins with the king, that provides four club tricks. If East discards and West captures the jack with the king, South can finesse dummy’s nine next and again get those four winners for his contract.

Here, though, East ducks and declarer wins with his jack while West discards. Now the contract is assured by playing a diamond to the dummy and returning a heart to the jack. South must get three spades, three hearts, four diamonds and two clubs.

However, the writer recommended, at trick four, playing a heart to the 10, finessing straight into the hand with the club king to cash! Why?

My guess is that he switched the heart 10 and heart jack in the deal diagram after writing the text, and he forget to make the necessary alteration.