Reading Eagle – Aug 29, 2006
West dealer, North-South Vulnerable
Opening lead — 
K
Assume you become declarer at four spades after West opens the bidding with one heart. West leads the king of hearts and shifts to a trump. How would you play the hand?
Since West is virtually certain to hold the ace of clubs as part of his opening bid, his trump shift poses a real threat to your contract. Without the trump lead you could have negotiated a club ruff in dummy after losing two clubs, thereby limiting yourself to three losers.
But the trump shift has put a serious crimp in that plan, since there is now danger that persistent trump leads by the defenders will exhaust dummy’s trumps before you can ruff your third club.
A substitute plan is therefore needed.
When the deal occurred, South found the answer. He won the spade at trick two, drew trumps. Cashed the K J of diamonds and led a diamond to the queen. The queen of hearts was then led and a club discarded. West took the queen with the ace, but found himself in a most uncomfortable position.
If he returned the jack of hearts, declarer would ruff, cross to the ace of diamonds and discard another club on the established heart nine. If he returned a low heart instead. South would obtain the club discard immediately. And if he led a club, declarer would score a trick with the king of clubs. All roads thus led to 10 tricks.
South’s play was noteworthy on two counts. First, he recognised the potential of dummy’s Q98 of hearts and took full advantage of it, Secondly, he handled the diamonds perfectly, cashing three rounds of the suit to make sure West couldn’t exit with a diamond when he was thrown on lead. At the same time, South retained a diamond entry to dummy so that West couldn’t exit safely with the heart jack.
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