A variation on the theme

Doug Larson, a newspaper columnist and editor, said, “What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living.”

Yesterday’s deal featured an unusual second-hand-high play that would have killed dummy’s diamond suit. Today’s deal is a variation on the theme.

Somehow the original South got very high, to four spades. I have dreamed up a sequence.

West led the diamond ace. He continued with a low diamond, declarer ruffing East’s queen. Now if South had been able to play a heart to dummy’s 10, he probably would have made the contract. East would

have won with the king and returned a spade, but whether South finessed the nine or queen, or put up the ace, he would have found 10 tricks dropping into his lap. The fall of the heart queen and the lucky 3-3 spade split with the jack onside would have left the contract unbeatable.

However, West foresaw that possibility. At trick three, he put up his heart queen. Now declarer’s contract was dead. He won with dummy’s heart ace and played a spade to his nine, but West won with the king, put his partner on play with a heart to the king and received a heart ruff to defeat the contract.

If you study all 52 cards, you will find that, at double dummy, there were two mistakes. West would have defeated the contract with a shift to the heart queen at trick two. South would have gotten home if he had crossed to the club ace at trick three and returned a trump to his 10 (or nine or eight, of course). Both are tough plays to find.