Several North-South pairs bid aggressively to three no-trump in this deal from the round of 64 of the 2024 open teams in Poznan, Poland. Despite the even split of points, this contract proved tougher to defeat than one might imagine.
The key to the defense lies in the opening lead. The heart eight is a natural choice, given the bidding. Having already raised hearts, West’s high-card lead shows weakness. Thus, when East wins the heart ace, he can imagine South with K-J-9-x. No switch appeals to him as he looks at that dummy, so rather than go looking for tricks of his own, East tries to limit declarer’s winners. If West has a diamond honor, it may be essential to attack declarer’s entries before dummy’s diamonds have been unblocked. Spades look unrewarding, so East tries the effect of a club shift at trick two.
Say declarer lets this run around to the queen and ace. He is apt to lead the diamond jack from dummy now, and then jettison the 10 on the next round, unblocking in the hope of a 2-2 split, but as long as East does not cover the diamond jack, this leads to failure. Declarer fares no better if he cashes the diamond ace first, since East can win the second round and then continue clubs to kill the South hand.
In the event, most East players returned a heart at trick two, after which declarer could play the diamond ace and another diamond, win the club shift in dummy, unblock dummy’s diamond and then come back to hand with the club king to realize nine tricks.