North would have bid four diamonds at his second turn if he wanted to play in that suit. His actual four club bid was a cue bid in support of spades. Had South been able to find out about partner’s king and queen of trumps, he would have bid seven spades. Nothing wrong with that contract, but on this lie of the cards, even 12 tricks would be a challenge.
South won the opening club lead with dummy’s ace and cashed the king of spades, getting the bad news. South needed East to follow to three rounds of diamonds to have a chance, so he led to his ace of diamonds and cashed two more high diamonds right away. So far, so good. Declarer led a heart to dummy’s king and ruffed a club with the five of spades. Next, declarer cashed the ace of hearts and ruffed a heart low in dummy.
East was down to nothing but spades at this point and South had nine tricks in the bag. A club was led from dummy, ruffed by East with the 10, and over-ruffed by South with the ace. A diamond was ruffed in dummy with the queen of spades as East helplessly under-ruffed, and another club was led. It didn’t matter whether East ruffed high or low, South couldn’t be prevented from scoring his twelfth trick with the nine of spades. Well played!
