Give them their due a little too early

The theme of today’s deal could be summed up in the line, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”

The International Bridge Press Association’s Gidwani Family Trust 2017 Defense of the Year went to Cédric Lorenzini (East) and Jean-Christophe Quantin (West) from France. The deal was originally written up by Mark Horton from England.

In the auction, South’s two-club rebid was Gazzilli, either natural or any hand with 16 or more points. Two diamonds showed hearts and enough points to wish to be in game opposite 16-plus. (That was an overbid, especially given the singleton spade.) Four clubs, four hearts and five diamonds were control-bids.

When the dummy came down, declarer anticipated winning these 11 tricks: eight spades, two hearts (by taking two finesses) and one club.

As you can see, declarer seemed destined to succeed. However, West found the killing lead when he chose a low heart. His seven was either third-highest from an even number of cards or lowest from an odd number. South tried immediately for his 11th trick by playing dummy’s queen, but East took the trick with his king. What did East do next?

Lorenzini found the only defense when he immediately returned a heart into dummy’s ace-10.

If South had tried to cash his second heart winner, East would have ruffed. Instead, declarer took a club finesse at trick three, hoping East had the king and queen or one honor singleton or doubleton. No luck.