The opening heart lead was won by East perforce, and East had to consider his shift. A switch to diamonds would have defeated the contract, enabling both a diamond ruff for partner and a heart ruff for himself. The queen of diamonds in dummy made the diamond shift potentially very dangerous, so East shifted to a low spade instead.
South won the spade shift with the ace and led a low club to dummy’s jack. East followed smoothly with the nine, trying to look like a man who started with 10-nine doubleton. This play is known as an “obligatory falsecard,” a play that must be made in order to give declarer a losing option. Had East not played the nine, or the 10, South would have had no choice but to cash the ace of clubs and hope for the king to drop — a play that would have worked on this deal.
Declarer gave the nine a suspicious look, but decided that it was an honest card. He crossed back to his hand with the king of spades and led the queen of clubs. This fetched the king from West but not the 10 from East, and the defense had a trump trick. South cashed the queen of hearts and led a low diamond. East stepped up smartly with the king, cashed the 10 of clubs, and led a third round of spades. This forced dummy’s last trump, and declarer had another diamond plus a heart to lose. Down one.
