Vulnerable and with a poor suit, West decided to open two hearts rather than three hearts. It didn’t matter much on this deal, as North-South were likely to reach the same spot anyway. The problem was more in the play than in the bidding.
East won the opening heart lead with his ace and returned the suit to West’s king. West shifted to a tricky low club. He was hoping to induce a missguess if his partner held the queen and declarer the jack. That wasn’t the case and declarer rose with dummy’s king, winning the trick. South led dummy’s jack of spades, which was quickly covered by the queen from East, and won in hand with the ace. South was a little puzzled at how quickly East covered the jack. East couldn’t know for certain whether South had six spades or seven. The cover might have crashed his partner’s king if South had seven spades. East would surely cover with four spades to the queen-nine, to protect his nine as a possible trick. South decided that the cover was more likely with four spades than with three.
To counter this, South cashed the ace of diamonds and led a diamond to dummy’s king. When South led dummy’s queen of diamonds, East had to ruff or South would start discarding his clubs. South over-ruffed and led the queen of clubs, forcing West to win the trick. There was nothing West could do to prevent South from ruffing his remaining club in dummy. Declarer could then draw the outstanding trumps and make his contract. Nicely played!
