Prevent a Ruff by Jon Brown

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Dealer West E/W Vul.

 6 4
 A Q 10 8 7
 Q J 9 3
 A K
 A K Q 8 3
 K 9 6 4 3
 A 5
 9
 J 9 7 5 2
 J 5
 6
 8 6 5 3 2
 10
 2
 K 10 8 7 4 2
 Q J 10 7 4

The Auction:

West North East South
1 Double 4 5
End

West led his singleton club, which dummy’s king won. South read the lead as a singleton. Should a trump be led, West would win and underlead his  A K Q and East would gain entry with his knave and give his partner a ruff, thus setting the contract.

South therefore played dummy’s A followed by the Q on which, when East could not cover, he threw his singleton spade.

After this the contract cannot be defeated for as West has the A East cannot obtain the lead in order to give the ruff. This entry killing play of throwing a loser on a loser can be very profitable at times. Its aim is, of course, to keep out of the lead one opponent whose lead value rank higher that that of his partner.