It’s unusual for the weak twobidder to have as strong a hand as the over-caller, but both bids were reasonable.
South won the opening spade lead with dummy’s ace and drew trumps in three rounds. He then led a spade to dummy’s queen and East’s king. East shifted to a low club, South played his 10, and West won with his jack. West cashed the ace of clubs and the ace of hearts, but that was it for the defence. Dummy’s jack of spades provided a parking place for declarer’s third club.
We don’t know how often the final contract would be three diamonds in a duplicate contest, but we would expect to see the same defence at many of those tables.
It is a lazy defence, however, and we think West should have done better. East made a good play when he shifted to a low club. The defence would have had no chance had he shifted to a high club. From West’s point of view, it was certainly possible for South to have the queen of clubs rather than the queen of hearts, but how could the defence prevail after West wins the jack of clubs? West should see that the only chance for the defence was to win the club shift with the ace and return the jack. That would have led to down one.
Always be on the lookout for an unusual play that can’t cost and might be very successful.
