From                 9th August, 2006, Board 5

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr North           N-S Vul

West leads the K♦.

One possibility is to go after some Club ruffs in Dummy.  You would win the A♦ on the first trick, and lose a Club immediately.  You can expect a trump to come back, which you will win in hand ... then ruff a Club, cash the A♥, ruff a Diamond, ruff a Club, ruff a Diamond, ruff a Club.  Now 10 tricks are assured, and you'll make 11 if trumps turn out to be 2-2 (and Clubs were 4-3).

Can you do better?

SOLUTION

It seems better to set up Dummy by establishing the Hearts.  If West has at least one Heart honor, and the suit is no worse than 4-2, we can ruff Dummy's Diamond losers, take a couple of Heart finesses, ruff a Heart, and 11 tricks will roll in.  Even if both the Hearts are off-side, we'll still make 10 tricks.  Piece of cake.  Well, it seemed that way until the deal turns out to be as follows:

Well, our suggested line of play turns out to be a dismal failure!  We win the A♦, ruff a Diamond, run the T♥ to the Queen.  East returns a trump, which we win in our hand West showing out.  Now we take the second Heart finesse, but East ruffs and returns another trump.  When the dust has cleared, it's down one!  So much for making 11 tricks!  Most unlucky!

How would that "inferior" cross-ruff line of play work out?  Let's see ... win the A♦, lose a Club to West (who cannot return a trump), ruff the Diamond return, ruff a Club, cash A♥, exit a Heart ruffed by East, win the Spade return in hand, cash Q♣, and merrily cross-ruff your way to 11 tricks.  Oh, well!

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