From                   23rd August, 2006, Board 6

                                          Theme                Throw-In Play

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          Dlr East              E-W Vul

West leads the K♦ and shifts to a low Heart.  You play the King from the board, taken by East's Ace, and the T♥ comes back and is won by Dummy's Queen.

There are three Aces to be lost, so you cannot afford to lose a second Heart trick as well.  The only hope is that East started with all 3 Aces (quite likely, considering the bidding and the opening lead) and only 2 Hearts.  That will avoid 4 quick losers as the defense has no access to West's Heart winner.  But, even so, you still only have 9 winners ... where is the tenth trick coming from?

SOLUTION

One possibility, after winning the Q♥, is to play a Club to the Queen, draw trumps, and finesse the T♣.  This provides the 10th trick whenever the J♣ is with West, as there is still a trump entry to reach that established Club.  This line has a 50% chance of success, but why settle for that when there is a 100% line of play (assuming that East actually does have those 3 Aces and only two Hearts)?

The winning line is to win the Q♥, ruff a Diamond, draw trumps in two rounds and exit with the Q♣.  East wins but is now end-played.  He can concede a ruff and sluff by returning a Diamond, or else give up a second Club trick.

Keys to Success

   - Realizing that the hand could not be made unless East had the missing Aces and two Hearts

   - Eliminating the Diamond in order to set up the end-play against East