Once In A Lifetime?

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Once In A Lifetime?

Playing at a table of fine players, I made the following unusual play. Everyone else gave me strange looks at the end of the hand, so perhaps I have misanalyzed the situation. See what you think.

I held:

KQJxx

Q9x

10xxx

x

My partner opens with 3 Clubs, which is doubled on my right. I pass, and lefty bids 3 Diamonds. After some thought the doubler decides to pass this, so 3 Diamonds is our final contract. My partner tables the king of clubs, and this is what I see:

dummy A 10 x x K 10 x x x K x A x
	me K Q J x x Q 9 x 10 x x x x

Well, I told you they were fine players. Even though the take-out doubler didn't get the major-suit response he was hoping for, he didn't dig a hole for himself by bidding 3 Hearts or 3 NT.

Declarer wins the opening lead in dummy, and after some consideration, plays a second club. I signal in spades as my partner wins the trick and returns a spade through dummy. Declarer wins the ace and makes the odd play of a low heart off dummy to her jack, which forces my partner's ace. He plays a second spade to me, and I try a third spade, which declarer ruffs with the 8, partner discarding. Now declarer leads her third club, ruffing high on the table in the following position:

dummy 10 K 10 x x K x ---
	me K Q 9 10 x x x ---

When declarer ruffs her losing club in dummy high with the king, what should I discard? If I pitch my spade, dummy's ten is high; declarer can then pick up trumps by finessing against my ten, a marked finesse as my partner couldn't overruff her on the third round of spades we played earlier. If I pitch a heart, declarer will pick up trumps as before and drop my now unguarded queen of hearts; I must have that card as on an earlier round of that suit declarer’s jack forced my partner’s ace.

So by process of elimination, I discard a trump, underruffing the K of diamonds! I suppose I could have predicted my partner's next comment, which I still find humorous to this day:

“Uh, what’s trumps again?”

The point is that by discarding a trump, I now maintain both my major suit guards. Since I discard after dummy, I can not be squeezed if declarer runs out all her trumps. In the endgame, I simply pitch whichever major declarer discards from dummy. It only prevents an overtrick but it felt great -- a play you only make maybe once in a lifetime. Here's the whole hand:

	A 10 x x K 10 x x x K x A x
x x A x x x K Q J x x x x		K Q J x x Q 9 x 10 x x x x
	x x J x x A Q J 9 8 x x x

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