South was happy to accept North’s invitational bid and was pleased with the sight of dummy. The contract looked to be rock solid until the defense took an ominous turn. East overtook the king of diamonds opening lead with the ace and fired back the two of hearts.
What could this be but a singleton heart? South captured West’s jack of hearts with dummy’s king and took a moment to plan the play.
East would not have defended this way with a singleton trump, so it was pointless to lead a tru mp as Eastwould get his heart ruff regardless of who held the ace of spades.
In fact, East almost certainly held the ace of spades for this defense. East was planning to win his ace of trumps and cross to partner with a diamond for a heart ruff.
Could anything be done to prevent this? Yes! South led a club to hisace and then overtook the queen of clubs with dummy’s king. He led dummy’s 10 of clubs and was happy to see East cover this with the jack.
South elegantly discarded his last diamond and allowed East to win the trick. East led a diamond, but South ruffed and led the king of spades.
There was no heart ruff available for the defense and South couldn’t be prevented from drawing the trumps and claiming his contract. Nice play!
