Stand by your partner

"Sometimes it's hard to be a woman" sang Tammy Wynette in September 1968 and then listed a whole catalogue of her partner's weaknesses. Well, sometimes it's hard to be a man, too, I thought. East looked even more exasperated than usual after this deal.

Bidding
   

West	North	East	South
1♠(1)	Dbl	Pass	2♥
Pass	2♠(2)	Pass	2NT
Pass	3♥(3)	Pass	3NT
Pass	Pass	Pass

(1) Five card major
(2) Forcing, showing a very good hand
(2) ....with three card heart support

Aftre a little head scratching, East led ♣J and declarer won in dummy. A second round of clubs revealed the favourable break and South proceded to run all the clubs followed by three  rounds of hearts, ending in hand. This was the end position with four cards remaining.

	♠ 2 ♥ ♦ A102 ♣
♠ AJ ♥ ♦ KJ ♣		♠ Q ♥ ♦ 876 ♣
	♠ K ♥ 6 ♦ Q9 ♣

On the last heart, West looked very uncomfortable for a while and, then, rightly fearing that he would be thrown in if he bared his ♠A, discarded the ♦J. Dummy's last spade was thrown and the spotlight turned to East. Thinking her three little diamonds worthless, she quickly threw a "useless" ♦6. Declarer who knew that East had come down to a singleton ♦K, then led the ♦Q from hand, scooping up the king and neatly unblocking the suit. After cashing dummy's ♦10, the ♦2 duly took the thirteenth trick.

"Why didn't you lead a small spade at trick one, partner? I held the queen" said East.

West tried to make a sound, but it just wouldn't come out.