Errare Est Humanum, luckily

Remember, when defending, that declarer is human; he is prone to error. Give him enough rope, and he might hang himself. On today’s deal from a team game, effective pre-emptive bidding by East-West drove the auction to the five-level. East’s two-heart overcall looks dangerous, but his opponents were playing two-over-one gameforce, so East was in a defensive, not constructive, position. At the first table, West led the club five, an obvious singleton. Declarer won in hand and cashed his two top trumps, revealing the 4-1 break. Now he turned to the diamond suit, and luckily he found West with three. What could West do on the fourth round of diamonds? Whether he ruffed low, ruffed high or discarded, South would lose only two tricks, either one spade and one heart or two spades. Plus 650. At the other table, West led a heart to his partner’s ace, and East, seeing no future in the minors, made the excellent play of returning a second heart. This conceded a ruff-and-sluff but put declarer in danger of losing trump control. This defense should have made South suspicious of a bad spade break. He should have ruffed in hand and immediately led a low trump toward the jack. But he actually ruffed in hand and cashed his two top trumps. He was banking everything on a 3-2 spade split, but the actual 4-1

division defeated him. He had to lose one heart and two spades. Minus 100. The swing was 13 international match points.