 10 7 6 3
 K 2
 K Q 6 5
 J 10 2 |
||
| K J 9 5 4
Q J 10 8 7 5
10 7
— |
Q
9 4
8 4 3
K Q 9 8 7 4 3 |
|
| A 8 2
A 6 3
A J 9 2
A 6 5 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 3 |
3NT | ||
| Pass | Pass | Pass |
Q
West led the queen of hearts. Declarer counted only eight winners and put into action a plan to make a game-going second trick in clubs. Declarer’s idea was to strip East of his non-clubs and then endplay him in clubs. Assuming that East held all seven of the missing clubs, this would always work if East had at most two spades, at most three hearts, and thus at least one diamond.
After allowing the queen of hearts to hold, declarer took the heart continuation with dummy’s king and put the next part of his plan into action by ducking a spade. West overtook East’s queen of spades with his king and continued hearts with the jack. After winning with the ace of hearts, declarer cashed the three high diamonds and the ace of spades. Declarer was now in safe territory as East was marked with an original distribution of 1=2=3=7 and had only clubs remaining.
So declarer played a diamond to the king to lead dummy’s jack of clubs. East covered this with the queen and declarer followed with the five. East had to lead a club and that ensured that dummy’s ten of clubs would be declarer’s extra trick. Declarer made a spade, two hearts, four diamonds and two clubs for a total of nine tricks.
