| Dlr: North | ♠ Q 7 5 | |
| Vul: None | ♥ A 6 5 | |
| ♦ K Q 5 | ||
| ♣ Q 10 9 3 | ||
| ♠ A K J 6 4 | ||
| ♥ 7 | ||
| ♦ A J 10 | ||
| ♣ J 7 4 2 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♣ | Pass | 1♠ | |
| 2♥ | Dbl (1) | 3♥ | 4♠ |
| All Pass |
(1) Three-card spade support
West leads the ♥K against your spade game. The contract looks solid if the opponents’ trumps are split 3-2. What is your plan if trumps are 4-1?
Solution
After viewing the opening lead, declarer paused to take stock. He could count nine top tricks and 11 would be easy if trumps were 3-2. So declarer took the first trick with the ♥A and cashed the ♠Q and played a spade to his jack, discovering the 4-1 trump split when West discarded.
The bad trump break might have been a mild setback to some declarers, but not to this one. At trick four, he played a low club to the 6, 10 and king. After ruffing the heart continuation, declarer played a second club. West rose with the ace to play a third heart.
Declarer had to ruff this – otherwise West would have set the contract by giving East a club ruff. Declarer played a club to the queen, East discarding a diamond, and played a diamond to the ace, followed by a fourth round of clubs, extracting a second diamond discard from East. Next came a diamond to dummy’s king. East could do no better than ruff this and exit with a heart; declarer discarded the ♦J from hand and ruffed in dummy with the carefully preserved ♠7. Declarer took the last trick with the ♠A. He had taken five trumps, a heart, a heart ruff in dummy, a diamond and two clubs. The full deal:
| Dlr: North | ♠ Q 7 5 | |
| Vul: None | ♥ A 6 5 | |
| ♦ K Q 5 | ||
| ♣ Q 10 9 3 | ||
| ♠ 9 | ♠ 10 8 3 2 | |
| ♥ K Q J 8 3 | ♥ 10 9 4 2 | |
| ♦ 8 7 4 3 | ♦ 9 6 2 | |
| ♣ A 8 6 | ♣ K 5 | |
| ♠ A K J 6 4 | ||
| ♥ 7 | ||
| ♦ A J 10 | ||
| ♣ J 7 4 2 |