Do not put all eggs into one basket

Isaac Bashevis Singer said, “The waste basket is the writer’s best friend.”

We all know the expression about not putting all of our eggs into one basket. How does that apply in this deal?

South opened and closed the auction with four spades. West led the club ace. What should have happened after that?

Especially opposite a passed hand, South’s four-spade opening was sensible. It was unlikely his side had a slam, and the bid rated either to silence or greatly inconvenience the opponents. West wanted to bid, but decided the risk didn’t justify entering the auction. If he had doubled, East would have advanced with four no-trump, showing two places to play; West would have bid five diamonds; and East would have converted to five hearts. Here, that contract would have been a lucky make when the trumps split 2-2.

Now back to four spades. At trick one, East signaled with his club seven. If West had a second club and treated this as encouraging, that was fine. Or, if West had led a singleton and read it as a suit-preference signal for hearts, that worked also. However, after West led his second club, what did East do?

Note that if East had led another club, hoping for a trump promotion, South would have ruffed high, drawn two rounds of trumps ending on the board and discarded a heart on the club queen.

Instead, East carefully cashed the heart ace. West, knowing this meant that South was also out of clubs, encouraged enthusiastically with his 10. Then a heart continuation defeated the contract.