This is a famous deal from long ago. South was the legendary Italian expert Giorgio Belladonna.
This is a surprisingly complicated hand. A spade finesse? A heart finesse? A regular club finesse or a ruffing finesse in clubs? There are many options for declarer, but they all seem dangerous. A foul lie of the cards can lead to defeat, although all of these plays have reasonable chances. In a pair competition, you’d have to choose a line of play that gave you a chance for an overtrick or two. Merely making your contract might not be good enough. This deal was played in a team competition, however, where overtricks are not very important. Making your contract is the key. Belladonna found a line of play that was guaranteed to make his contract on any lie of the cards. Can you spot it?
Belladonna won the opening diamond lead with his ace, crossed to dummy with the ace of clubs, and led a low heart away from dummy’s king! Should East play an honor, Belladonna would have 10 tricks. The worst result would be for South’s jack to lose to West’s queen. West would have to shift to a trump to prevent a heart ruff in dummy. That would give declarer 10 tricks whenever trumps split 2-1. Even if West started with three spades to the king, South would just win in dummy and lead the king of hearts. East would have no trump to lead if he won the ace and West couldn’t lead another trump without giving away his trump trick. A perfect line of play!
