| West | North | East | South |
| 1♠ | |||
| Pass | 3♠ | Pass | 4♠ |
| All Pass |
After North’s limit raise in spades, you had an easy continuation to game. West leads the ♥10 hearts and you play low from dummy. East wins the ♥A and continues with the ♥7 to your jack and West’s 6. Now what?
Solution
The contract looked easy until the king of trumps was played and West discarded a club. Declarer had nine tricks, and the tenth trick appeared to depend on West holding the ♦K. Declarer did not, however, rush to explore that possibility as he saw an extra chance: from the carding in hearts, East appeared to have exactly three cards in the suit. If that were the case, declarer saw that a partial elimination might work.
After playing the ♠A, declarer crossed to dummy via a club to the ace. He continued by cashing the ♥K throwing the ♣Q from hand.
Then he ruffed dummy’s remaining club, thereby eliminating the suit. Now, instead of playing a diamond, he exited with a trump. East found himself on lead with only minor-suit cards remaining. If he played a club, declarer would discard a diamond from hand and ruff in dummy: he would lose only a trump, a heart and a diamond. In practice, East exited with a diamond and this ran to dummy’s queen. Declarer claimed 10 tricks, conceding a diamond. He made five trumps, two hearts, two diamonds and one club. The full deal: