[gszes]

The minority report assigns any blame to east AFTER kudos to reaching 7h. Passing 7h vs bidding 7n seems wooden to me. It is true that east was systemically endplayed throughout the bidding but we need to pause and think about west's actions before deciding to pass. West decided to keycard with no diamond control. This is really only justifiable if they have a truly massive hand and it is inconceivable the east hand would not have a dia control.

Once we realize west has to have a massive hand we need to look a bit further. West did not ask for the heart Q meaning they have it or extra length so they do not care. West has NO CLUE we have 4 spades yet we know there are 4 spade tricks. P made no effort to ask for kings so they must have felt they could come to 13 tricks (somehow) in hearts. This fact alone makes those 2 extra spade tricks golden. Another consideration is that if p intended to try and set up your clubs for a 13th trick that is bound to fail. The only reason to pass 7h is if east feels the dia AK is going to be magically worth the 13th trick via a ruff. That seems just too small a probability to me.

Hard to quantify the blame though since 7h alone is normally a really good MP spot and 7N more of a gravy train. What little blame there is seems to be about 10% east and (imho) about 20% system for not allowing for more flexibility in the bidding.

[jdonn]

So is the question, west guessed at the final contract and guessed wrong when he could have investigated further and consulted his partner's judgment, ATB?