8 never, 9 ever?

[ArtK78]

There is an old saying in bridge (which I first heard from Eddie Kantar, but I don't think he originated it) that you never put down an 8 card side-suit in the dummy (another old saying - What do you call an 8 card suit? Trump!).

 

My partner did this one better the other day.

 

[hv=d=s&v=e&n=sxxxhdxckq9xxxxxx&s=sjtxxxxhxxxdqxcjt]133|200|Scoring: IMP

2♠* - (3♦) - 5♣ - (5♥)

P - (6♥) - 6♠ - Dbl

All Pass[/hv]

 

* At this vulnerability, our one-bids are 10+ HCP, so our weak twos are 3-9 HCP and can be bad suits.

 

As is obvious, the opponents are cold for 7♥ and 7♦ (since West declares 7♦ there is no heart ruff). In practice, it is far from trivial to reach the grand in a high-level competitive auction.

 

The play in 6♠ was sort of interesting. West led a high diamond and shifted to his singleton club, won by East with his singleton Ace. Trump were 2-2 (East having KQ), so they could not pull trump as my clubs are good. So they forced the dummy with a diamond. Now, I cannot play a trump since this will allow them to pull dummy's trump and run three heart tricks. So I led a small club off of dummy. Double dummy, East could pitch and West could ruff this with his Ace, lead his low spade to his partner's KQ, and they could cash three hearts. But this is nearly impossible in real life. In practice, East ruffed with his Q, cashed his ♠K and led a heart. I ruffed in dummy and played another club, pitching a heart. West ruffed in with his ♠A and cashed a heart - down 1100, winning 8 IMPs against the 1460 our teammates scored.

 

It is true that 7♣ does one trick better. My partner could not tell that was the case, and he thought that bidding 7♣ might convince the opponents to bid the grand, while bidding 6♠ could leave them with some doubt about his ability to take a trick on defense. Whether you agree with his logic or not, he made the winning call.

 

I wonder whet Kantar would have thought about laying down a 9 card side suit in the dummy?