North’s one no trump rebid showed 12-14 points with a balanced hand. South should probably have contented himself with a game, but South was the greedy type.
South won the opening diamond lead with his ace and took stock. He was going to need a 3-2 trump split and he would have to ruff a diamond in dummy. He still needed another trick. A 3-3 split of the six missing hearts would do it, but a 4-3 split of the seven missing clubs was more likely. He didn’t have the entries or the trumps, however, to ruff three clubs. After some thought, he saw a solution that required only two club ruffs.
South led the queen of clubs at trick two and played low from dummy when West covered with the king. Declarer won the jack of diamonds continuation and cashed the king and ace of trumps. He ruffed a low club in his hand and ruffed his last diamond in the dummy. Another club ruff confirmed the 4-3 split in that suit. South drew the last trump while discarding a low heart from dummy.
The king and ace of hearts, the ace of clubs, plus the established club got South up to the 12 tricks that he needed. Greed is good!
