In the second session of the Rosenblum round of 64 the trailing teams must have been happy to see this type of deal appear at an early stage:
6[D] is clearly a good contract – but it is not quite a laydown.
East led the [S]K and declarer won with the ace, cashed two trumps and played two hearts pitching dummy’s spades. East ruffed and returned the [S]Q and declarer ruffed and passed the [C]J, +400.
East led the [S]K and declarer won and cashed the [D]K. When the jack appeared one option he must have considered was to play three rounds of clubs, ruffing, then take the top heart to pitch a spade, the line followed by Tony Forrester (amongst others) in another match. In fact he played a second diamond to the ace, and then cashed the hearts, pitching a spade. When East ruffed it appeared that declarer would have to find the [C]Q, but East exited with a club and declarer claimed, +920 and 11 IMPs.
Those who missed the line of ruffing a club did not always make 6[D]. You can squeeze West in hearts and clubs, but there is no particular reason to do that and some played East for the [C]Q and went down.
