Serendipity

Main Entry: ser·en·dip·i·ty Pronunciation: \-ˈdi-pə-tē\
The faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.

I played at the bridge club Saturday afternoon and my opponent held this hand:
♠A K Q J 7 6 4 ♥ --- ♦A 7 5 ♣J 4 3.

Her partner opened 1♥ and she bid 4♠! I'm not sure what her hurry was -- maybe she had a plane to catch.

That ended the auction and I led the ♣2 and this was her dummy:

                ♠ 5
                ♥ A K 9 4 3
                ♦ K 10 6 3 2
                ♣ A 9
===
                ♠ A K Q J 7 6 4
                ♥ ---
                ♦ A 7 5
                ♣ J 4 3

Notice that she has 12 top tricks: seven spades, two hearts, two diamonds and a club. The play was as uninspired as her bidding. She won the ♣A and played the ♥A K to discard two losing clubs. On this, her right-hand opponent played the ♥J then the ♥Q. Declarer now drew trumps and conceded a diamond to make plus 480.

Do you agree with how she played it. She could have at least played all seven of her spades. Maybe a squeeze would develop or the defenders would misdefend -- it happens all the time. This was a rather hideous lazy line of play.

Actually a better line may be to play another round of hearts at trick three. By doing so, you may isolate the heart menace. That gives you several squeeze chances. If you do this, you fall into one of those serendipity things: the ♥10 ruffs out and the ♥9 is good!

Here are all four hands:

                ♠ 5
                ♥ A K 9 4 3
                ♦ K 10 6 3 2
                ♣ A 9
♠ 9 2                         ♠ 10 8 3
♥ 8 7 6 5 2                   ♥ Q J 10
♦ 4                           ♦ Q J 9 8
♣ Q 8 7 6 2                   ♣ K 10 5
                ♠ A K Q J 7 6 4
                ♥ ---
                ♦ A 7 5
                ♣ J 4 3

After the game, I looked at the score sheet. The board was played 13 times and one pair bid slam -- good for them. There was one 510. I found the declarer and asked him how he played it because all three of my blog readers demand to know. He didn't play a third round of hearts, but when he ran his spades, his RHO was squeezed in the red suits. The ♦5 took trick 13.

The rest of the numbers on the scoresheet were 480s. The definition of serendipity says "things not sought for," but you have to at least give fate a chance. I'm just sayin'.