Learned to play bridge in 1958 by reading "Point Count Bridge Complete" by Charles Goren. Started playing duplicate in 1960. Conservative: I still believe in "opening bid facing opening bid should offer a good play for game" which restricts my notions of what constitutes an opening bid. Often offer my opinions as a BBO VG commenter.
Going into the 7th set BATHURST led DIAMOND by 62 IMPs. At the “Commentary Table” we already knew that Greco and Hampson had reached the reasonable (given the state of the match) but doomed on the lie of the cards grand slam. Hurd and Wooldridge bid 6♥ instead of the much easier 6NT. Some were already counting 17 more for BATHURST.
Gitelman led the ♦8. At the table Hurd won the ♦K and led the ♥2. Gitelman played the ♥5 and Hurd went into a long trance. He emerged, apparently muttering, “I’m going to be wrong whatever I play.” He went up with the Ace and was right. It was wrong on this hand, as East showed out. He went on playing, trying for a trump endplay, which would be possible if West had three or four spades and he could guess the shape, but it was not to be. Down one and a push.
The standard safety to avoid two trump losers with this suit is to play low towards one of the honors and, if the next player follows, cover. Either your card wins, and the Ace and King will leave only one trump outstanding or if it loses there will be only two hearts left outstanding, which can later be picked up with the Ace and King. Of what was Hurd afraid?
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He was afraid that the 10 would lose and a diamond back would force him to guess whether the lead was a stiff. He would therefore have to decide whether to ruff a diamond return with the K or the 9. Then if he ruffed with the K, he would have to decide whether to run the ♥9, protecting against a remaining Qx or Jx on his left, or to play to the Ace to drop the other honor. How could he have improved his play?
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He should plan to play the first heart from the dummy. If East follows he can play the 9, and nothing West plays can hurt (since he can overruff a diamond if necessary). If East shows out he can win and play a heart towards the dummy. When West splits he wins the Ace and continues the ♥10. Does it matter which black suit he used to get to dummy?
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No. Whatever black suit he used, when East wins and plays a black card, the ♥98 mean he can ruff a diamond high and draw the last trump.
Suppose his hearts were K97 instead of K98. Would it matter which black suit entry he used first?
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Again no. But it requires more care. Suppose he uses a club and the play continues ♥3-K-5 (East’s cards omitted because irrelevant), ♥2-J-A. Now if Declarer plays the ♥10-4-Q, West can play a club and either declarer has to strand the ♣Q by overtaking the ♠Q to draw the last trump, uppercut himself with a diamond, or attempt to cash the ♣Q before overtaking the ♠Q – and that gets ruffed. To avoid all this declarer has to make sure to cash the ♠Q and two high clubs before exiting with the ♥10. This “dentist’s coup” extracts West’s exit cards thus eliminating the danger that declarer gets stranded in dummy. But he will still go down if West’s shape was 7-4-1-1.
Could Hurd have avoided all these complications?
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Yes. If he wins the ♦A at trick one, he is where he wants to be, and when the ♥10 is led from dummy he cannot be isolated from his extra club winner. If West wins the trick and plays a club he can overtake the ♠Q to draw the last trump and later pitch the small spade on the ♣Q. In a way too many high cards embarrassed declarer. If the ♦K were a small one, he would have made the hand without breaking a sweat.
Why would 6NT have been easier? In 6NT declarer starts with four spade tricks, three clubs, and two diamonds. He therefore needs only three hearts to complete his twelve, and all the complications of ruffs and communication disappear. So, no matter where he wins trick 1, he can start the heart safety play without worries.
To John’s great credit, he went on to play the remaining 12 boards of the set impeccably, not dwelling (as far as we could tell) on the lost opportunity.
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