Marten Gustawsson provided us with the details of this deal from R6 of the d’Orsi Trophy:
South led the [H]5 and declarer took dummy’s ace and played a club for the king and ace. When declarer tied to cash the [H]Q South ruffed and exited with a diamond for the king and ace. If North plays a heart, South can overruff, but that will be the last trick for the defence. North carefully exited with a diamond to dummy’s queen and now declarer took his only chance by playing a spade to the king, hoping to collect a singleton queen. It was a remote chance, as if North’s spades had been [S]A53 he would probably have tried a third heart, hoping for a promotion.
After taking the heart lead in dummy, declarer must avoid running the [S]10 as South will win, return a diamond to partner’s ace, score a heart ruff and exit with a diamond. Declarer cannot take two black suit finesses and must go one down. The solution is to play the [S]2 to the jack at trick two. South can win, play a diamond, get a heart ruff and exit with a diamond but now declarer can run the [S]10 and then take advantage of the club position to record 10 tricks. Editor.
