| West | North | East | South |
| 1♠ | |||
| Pass | 2NT | Pass | 3NT |
| Pass | 4♣ | Pass | 4♦ |
| Pass | 4♥ | Pass | 4NT |
| Pass | 5♣ | Pass | 5NT |
| Pass | 6♣ | Pass | 7♠ |
| All Pass |
You open 1♠ and, after North’s game-forcing raise promising four-card spade support, your 3NT showed extras while denying six spades and indicating no singleton or void in a side suit. After some control-bidding, you asked for key cards and then confirmed that the partnership had them all by bidding 5NT. When North showed that he held the ♣K by bidding 6♣, you bid what you thought you could likely make. West leads the ♥10. How will you get to 13 tricks with these cards?
Solution
When dummy came down, declarer counted 12 winners and saw that, if trumps were no worse than 3-1, he could draw the trumps, discard a diamond from dummy on the fourth round of hearts: and ruff the ♦Q in the dummy. So, declarer played low from dummy and won the first trick in hand with his king. He played a low trump toward dummy. When West discarded a diamond, declarer won the trick with dummy’s ♠8. Declarer saw that trying to ruff a diamond was too dangerous a policy to pursue. Instead, he decided to ruff two clubs in hand without using the ♥A as an entry. So, he cashed the ♣A and ♣K, then ruffed a club with the ♠K.
Next, he led the ♠Q to dummy’s ace and ruffed dummy’s last club with the ♠J. Declarer’s remaining trump, the 5, was now led to dummy’s 9. After drawing East’s last trump
with dummy’s ♠10, declarer claimed 13 tricks: four trumps, four hearts, a diamond, two clubs and two club ruffs.
Note that the bad heart break meant that if declarer had been careless with his trump entries to dummy he would have gone down when he tried to cross back to dummy in hearts. The full deal: