How much stock should you put in an opponent’s hesitation while playing online? They could be answering the phone, letting the dog in or losing connection, to name but a few reasons. However, in today’s deal, I felt the pause was genuine and, at my own risk, drew an inference.
East’s preempt pushed me to the four-level to show my second suit. When four spades came back to West, time stopped for a good 10 to 15 seconds before he passed. Coupled with the preempt, I felt this meant trumps were breaking badly.
West cashed the heart ace and then played the club king to my ace. When I cashed the spade ace, East followed with the 10. Rather than draw more trumps at this stage, I turned to diamonds. West surely did not have another heart, so if I could divine the diamonds, I might be able to ruff a heart in dummy.
Since West might have bid over one spade with a 14-count, I led a diamond to the ace and a diamond back, collecting the queen.
Now I crossed my fingers and advanced the diamond jack. My assessment of the layout was confirmed when East discarded. I continued with another diamond for a heart discard. What could West do? If he ruffed in and returned a trump, I would win and play another diamond, discarding dummy’s final heart. I could not be denied a heart ruff on table.
Had I taken a second round of trumps before playing on diamonds, West could have defeated me by ruffing and playing his final trump to kill the ruff in dummy.