The opening jack of spades lead went to the queen, king, and ace. South saw that he would need a successful diamond finesse to get up to 12 tricks. That would be easy enough if the diamonds split 3-2, or if East had the singleton king. But what if East had four or five diamonds? That would require three finesses and entries to dummy were hard to come by. The only possible entries were in the club suit.
South cashed the king of clubs and led the queen of clubs. When West followed to the queen, it became perfectly safe for South to overtake the queen with dummy’s ace. South held his breath and led a diamond to his 10. Success! He led a low club and inserted dummy’s nine when West played low. A diamond to the jack won. And the poor split in diamonds made South’s care in the club suit important. Declarer led a club to the jack, took one more diamond finesse, and claimed his contract. Well done!
Many players go down in deals like this one and then kick themselves. Why walk around with bruises? Just give it a little more thought in the first place and you can wear shorts tomorrow! At least if the weather is good.
