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Our famous detective did not allow his partner’s 4♥ jump deter him from bidding slam. For some reason Holmes made a seemingly peculiar 4♠ control bid before finding his way to 6♥.
Diamond Lil (West) led her ♦K, following Kantar’s rule of leading the King rather than the Ace when defending a contract at the 5-level or higher. (If the Ace is led it denies the King.) Declarer Holmes ruffed the opening lead, cashed 2 rounds of hearts ending in dummy and took the club hook knowing that his slam was already unbeatable. Lil took her King and shifted to a spade, but she was too late. Holmes won the trick with his ♠A, cashed his remaining clubs, pitching dummy’s spade losers, and claimed. Only an initial spade lead would have beaten the contract.
Despite obtaining a top score, Dr. Watson was not at all happy with the auction. “You were quite lucky that they didn’t find a spade lead, sir, nor do I understand why you thought you had any chance to make slam knowing that I did not hold the ♠K nor the ♣K. Even my beautiful ♠Q109 didn’t assure your contract. What were you thinking?” Watson hesitated before posing that question, since he was afraid he would be encountering a long-winded response.
Holmes started simply with “I’m so glad you asked, my dear Watson, since I would have made this contract, or at least would have had a decent play for it, if you held as little as: ♠xxx ♥J9xx ♦xxxx ♣xx, for example."
Watson grimaced, exclaiming: “You knew you had 3 possible losers in the black suits and you knew I couldn’t cover at least 2 of them. Surely I held better cards than your example hand, but so what if I did - if I had 4 unremarkable spades and only 3 diamonds, for instance, you might have had no play whatsoever.” And besides, what in the world was that 4♠ call of yours? Surely you understood I had no controls to show.”
Indeed having more to say, Holmes began: “Don’t call me Shirley. As I believe you know, Watson, my name is Sher-LOCK! Furthermore, let me outline my presumptions and let’s see if you can solve this case, my friend. Perhaps you were not listening to the auction as perceptively as I had been:
- Yes, I understood that your 4♥ bid promised at least 4 pieces and 2+ cards in each of the other suits but no Aces or Kings in the side sides.
- The diamond bids by Diamond Lil and Diamond Jim clearly indicated to me that you held at least 4 diamonds, so your black suits must total 5 or fewer cards, i.e., you should be 3-2 or 2-2 in the blacks.
- Once I knocked out the ♣K, my fine club suit and my ♠A would take care of all of your black suit losers. Assuming trumps broke 2-1, ruffing 2 spades in dummy would be no problem, even if your hand was as sad as the one I just showed you.
- My biggest concern: what if my ♠A was gone before I got rid of the opponents’ ♣K? I hoped to eradicate that issue with my very astute 4♠ call. I believed that unless my LHO held ♠KQJ, she would not dare lead a spade. Quite frankly, I did not care what you bid next, I was always planning to land in 6♥.
- Even if the opponents did find a spade lead, if the ♣K were indeed onside and you had a doubleton spade, I could still make my contract. In fact, it might be makeable if you held 3 spades, as long as I could find a couple of trump entries to your hand for some club finesses!
Do you have any other questions, Watson?”
“Why certainly I do, sir. Can we please return to your point #2? I do not recall any diamond bids by Lil and Jim. Were you daydreaming about a different auction while our opponents were passing each time?”
“Watson, do you recall the ‘curious incident of the dog in the night-time,’ the one in which the barking that did not occur actually helped us solve the case? Didn’t you find it curious today that my void in diamonds indicated there were 13 diamonds outstanding, yet our opponents who were actually named Diamond Lil and Diamond Jim, sitting at favorable vulnerability holding the ♦A-K and perhaps some other diamond honors along with the ♣K and ♠K, had nothing whatsoever to say? Lil uttered not a peep over my 2♣ call, and Jim didn’t double your 2♦ bid nor attempt to preempt in diamonds. When I grasped the significance of the silence of the opponents, my brilliant deduction was that you were exceedingly likely to hold 4 or 5 diamond cards yourself along with your 4-card heart suit.”
Sherlock’s intuitive realization had in fact been spot on. He was correct that if his partner held 5 or fewer black cards and trumps were 2-1, the hand would be a virtual laydown as long as he could avoid a spade lead.
“Well done, Holmes!” conceded Watson.
“Elementary,” was of course the reply.
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