Puzzle This

Playing matchpoints, as South, you encounter this spirited auction:


West North East South
1♠ 2♣ 2 4
4♠ Dbl Pass 5
Dbl All Pass

West leads the ♣7. What’s your plan?

North
♠ K 7 6 5 2
5
J 6
♣ A K J 10 9

South
♠ —
K Q J 10 8 7 6 4
2
♣ Q 4 3 2

View Solution

You have one loser in hearts and one in diamonds – but danger is lurking. The club lead looks like a singleton. If East has the A, he can return a club for West to ruff. So to give yourself a chance at making the contract, place the A with West.
Your play at trick two is critical. If you lead a trump to drive out the A, West wins, puts partner on lead with a diamond and then scores a club ruff for down one.

The solution is to sever the communications of the opponents with a loser-on-loser play. From the bidding, you expect West to have the ♠A. At trick two, lead the ♠K and discard the diamond loser from your hand. West wins the spade and the ♥A, but can never reach East for the setting trick.