No one made a bad bid, but the obstructive East-West bidding jockeyed North-South into a game contract that was far from cold. The opening club lead was covered by the queen and king and ducked by South. East shifted to the king of hearts, won by dummy’s ace. Declarer led a spade to his queen and West’s king. West led his remaining heart — low, eight, ruff. South led a diamond to dummy’s ace and led a spade. There was nothing East could do to defeat the contract at this point. He won and led a club to South’s ace. Declarer drew the last trump and then took the marked diamond finesse for his contract.
East could have defeated the contract by shifting to his singleton diamond at trick two. Leading into dummy’s ace-king-jack might seem like a dangerous play, but we don’t think so. On the auction, South didn’t need much help in playing the diamond suit. Also, didn’t West rate to have a spade entry? Did West really open the bidding with just one queen and one jack?
South could have made it more difficult by winning the opening lead and leading the queen of spades from his hand. A diamond shift would still defeat the contract, with best defence, but that shift would be much harder to find from the West hand.
