The hard way

The other day I played my first game of real, live bridge in nearly a month. We played my partner's normal system: old-school Schenken-style forcing club with four-card majors. Sadly, the system didn't come up very often.

We had a great time. On two separate occasions we went +500 the hard way.*

The opponents had the uncontested auction 1C - 1S - 2C - 2NT - 3NT. I was on lead with:

♠ AJ86 ♥A2 ♦K542 ♣752
What would you lead? I decided that as little as the ten of spades and an entry would help my spades run, so led the six of spades. Dummy came down and I saw:

♠ none ♥ QT3 ♦ J97 ♣ AQJ9643
	♠ AJ86 ♥ A2 ♦ K542 ♣ 752

A heart was pitched from dummy. Partner won the king and pushed back the ten of spades. Declarer covered with the queen, I won, and a diamond was pitched from the table. I had a problem. If pard had the spade nine, as the ten would suggest, I should cash the jack and lead the eight back to him. But if declarer had it, as the quick cover of the queen would suggest, I should switch to whatever partner's entry would be. After some thinking, I switched to a low diamond. My heart sank when this ran around to the queen. I thought I'd blown it-- it looked like declarer now had the AQ of diamonds and seven clubs for her contract.

Declarer led a club up to the queen, and partner won the king! We might be setting this after all... Partner played a low spade through declarer. I won the eight and cashed the jack. The nine dropped from declarer. Partner had made the fine play of the ten of spades from KTxxx! I cashed the ace of hearts and led a hopeful low heart. Pard won the king, cashed his long spade, and exited a heart. Declarer had to give me a diamond at the end for a satisfying down five. Here's the whole hand:

	♠ KT752 ♥ K652 ♦ T8 ♣ KT
♠ none ♥ QT3 ♦ J97 ♣ AQJ9643		♠ Q943 ♥ J987 ♦ AQ63 ♣ 8
	♠ AJ86 ♥ A2 ♦ K542 ♣ 752

*The hard way is down five vulnerable, undoubled. Down ten nonvul, undoubled is the really hard way.