JOHNNY

SHOWS

THE

NUMPTIES

HOW

TO
DO
IT
...
...
The hand above saw 3NT bid at most tables , but strangely this contract was going off all over the place. Clearly there were numpties out there who think they can play bridge but can't. So let's look at a couple of the horror stories.
The jack of hearts was the opening lead almost on every table.
Numpty 1 won the lead , cashed the king of clubs and then finessed the club 10 . If this worked ten tricks were there....but it didn't. East pounced with the queen , returned a heart , and in the fullness of time , South ended two light.
Numpty 2 did a little better . On winning the heart , he played the jack of diamonds pinning his hopes on making 4D,2C, 2H and 1S to bring home the bacon. This required the diamonds honours to be split with West holding the Kx or Qx doubleton. Moreover, this line of play still left him with the option of falling back on clubs should East win with his doubleton Kx or Qx. As it happened East did win the trick but now whatever declarer did , his goose was well and truly cooked. 
Thankfully , there were one or two declarers who knew how to play the cards....and Johnny was one of them. He also appreciated that chances in both minor suits needed to be combined . So after taking the opening heart , he led the four of clubs to the jack . Had he been up against a poor defender, this line would have worked , if East jumped in with the queen.  Johnny of course would be thrown back in with a heart ,  but now the king of clubs can be overtaken by dummy's Ace to harvest the 9 tricks required ( 5C,2H,1D and 1S ). 
But this East was up to Johnny's standards in defence and wisely held off . However , Johnny was now in dummy, and in position to take the first of two diamond finesses, making sure he kept the 10 for the second finesse . Whether East rose with the King or not , Johnny could not be stopped from harvesting  4 diamond tricks  , being quite prepared to overtake his club king if a second entry to dummy was needed. 

( Footnote : the decision to play the 10 of diamonds on the second finesse covered the possibility of West having a stiff honour ,  leaving declarer with no problem at all in  successfully finessing East next time round )