South won the opening spade lead with dummy’s ace and drew trumps in three rounds, West discarding two high spades. West was sure of the spade position, as South would not have asked for aces with more than one low spade in his hand.
Declarer, who was cold for his contract if diamonds split 3-2, was in no rush to start on diamonds. He led a club to dummy’s ace, a club back to his king, and ruffed a club with dummy’s last trump. West discarded another high spade. South now knew that West started with 6-1-4-2 distribution — bad news for his contract. He ruffed a spade in hand as West followed with another high spade.
Declarer crossed to dummy with the ace of diamonds and led dummy’s last spade. East followed with the eight and South was pretty sure that West had discarded enough high spades that he would not be endplayed if South discarded a diamond now. Instead, South ruffed the spade with his last trump — West following with the three — and exited with a low diamond.
West won with his nine, but he was end-played after all. Despite his brilliant effort to avoid an end-play, West now had to lead from his queen of diamonds into South’s king-jack. Beautifully played and defended!
