Easy Road?

After a couple of control-bids and the application of Roman Key Card Blackwood, you placed the contract in the great spot of 6♠. West leads the ♣2, an obvious singleton. Can you see your way to 12 tricks on this deal?

Solution

Declarer saw that there would be 12 easy tricks if trumps were 3-2: he could draw trumps, concede a club to East and then take a ruff in a red suit for his 12^th trick (he would make eight tricks in the black suits and the three red-suit winners in addition). With that in mind, declarer turned his attention to what could be done if West had four trumps. After realizing that it would be best to ruff a heart in hand if that were case, declarer began by calling for the ♣8 from dummy at trick one. After drawing two rounds of trumps with the ace and jack, discovering that West did indeed have four trumps, declarer cashed the ♥K and ♥A before leading a low club toward dummy. West discarded a diamond because ruffing would give declarer the same easy road to 12 tricks that would be there if trumps had been 3-2. Declarer won the trick with the ♣K and continued with a club to East’s queen. East exited with the ♥J and declarer overcame this by ruffing it with the ♠Q. Next he led a low trump and covered West’s 8 with dummy’s 9. After drawing West’s last trump with dummy’s king, declarer led dummy’s carefully preserved ♣6 to his 7 to cash the ♣5 for his 11^th trick, discarding dummy’s remaining heart on it. The ♦A was declarer’s 12^th trick. You should note that declarer’s unblocking plays in clubs were necessary on this layout. Failure to do so would have seen the contract fail. The full deal: