East played the jack of hearts under West’s ace of hearts lead, but West couldn’t be sure who had the singleton. West shifted to the ace of clubs and East played the queen. This is a standard carding convention promising that East could win the next club as long as West had the king. Not wanting to lead another heart from his hand, West underled his king of clubs at trick three to East’s nine. East returned his remaining heart, ruffed by South.
Obviously, the contract depended on the diamond finesse, so declarer drew trumps in three rounds, ending in dummy. South led the queen of diamonds from dummy and was delighted when that held the trick. He triumphantly led another diamond to his 10, but was crestfallen when West showed out. The king of diamonds was right there where he needed it to be, but he had no way back to dummy for another diamond finesse.
He had to concede a diamond for down one. South was certainly unlucky to find the diamonds splitting 4-1, but he could have timed it better. The eight of spades in dummy was an asset that he overlooked. South should have cashed the ace of spades and then led a low spade to dummy’s eight. A low diamond to his nine would work, and he could still return to dummy with the king of spades to run the queen of diamonds. Poor timing loses another contract. Will it never end?
