Thanks for today’s deal goes to Larry Cohen and his great web site — larryco.com. The auction above is a possible route to six hearts — a pretty good contract despite only 26 combined high-card points. South wins the opening club lead in dummy and leads a low trump. East follows with the two and declarer must decide what to do. The safety play in the trump suit is to play low, guarding against East holding all three of the missing trumps. Should this play lose to West, the ace of hearts will draw the last trump later and declarer can then take the spade finesse for his contract. But is that the right play here?
We don’t think so. Declarer should rely on the normal 2-1 split in trumps in order to greatly improve his chance to pick up the spade suit without a loser. South should play his ace of hearts and is in great shape when West follows. He should then lead a diamond to dummy’s king, ruff dummy’s remaining club, and then cash two more diamonds. He can then exit with a trump.
Should West win the trump, as in this deal, it is all over. West must yield a ruff-sluff or lead a spade into declarer’s king-jack. Should East win the trump, he would also have to lead a spade rather than give a ruff-sluff. South plays low from his hand and makes the contract whenever East has either the queen or the 10 of spades. If it turns out that East has the last trump and both spade honors are with West, South can go talk it over with Hard Luck Louie. The contract was not makeable on that lie of the cards with normal play
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