Hand of the Week
| West | North | East | South |
| 2♠ | |||
| 3♥ | 4♠ | All Pass |
West leads the ♥K and East plays the ♥3, indicating and odd number of hearts. West continues with the ♥A and ♥Q. How will you continue?
Solution
When this deal was played the cards were as shown below:
Declarer ruffed the third heart with ♠2 and cashed the ♠K followed by the ♦A and ♦K. His next move was to try and reach his hand by ruffing a diamond.
This turned out to be the wrong move. West overruffed the third diamond and exited with a club, locking the lead in dummy. Declarer had no safe way to reach his hand to draw the outstanding trumps. Whether he played on diamonds or clubs, West would get another trump trick. The contract was defeated.
Did you spot the winning line? After playing the ♠K and top two diamonds, declarer should have played the two top clubs. Even if West ruffed one of these winners, the contract would be safe, and as the cards lay it would prevent West from endplaying dummy with a club after he took his overruff.