My teammate Jeff Aker sent me today’s deal, where he declared four spades on the diamond king lead and a diamond continuation, which was ruffed in dummy. Declarer crossed to the heart ace, ruffed a diamond and led the heart queen, ruffing when East followed low. He then ruffed his final diamond before trumping another heart in hand. Now Aker was down to the A-K-J in spades and A-x-x in clubs. How should he continue, needing four more tricks?
It is best to exit with a small club from hand, which all but ensures the contract. If East wins the club trick and plays back a trump, declarer can rise with the ace and then play the ace and another club, forcing West to lead into the spade K-J. If, instead, West goes in with his honor on the first club, he finds himself endplayed then and there.
As Aker noted, his choice of the club ace and another club would have left him with a guess if West had hopped up with his king and led another club to East’s queen. Then, declarer would have had to decide whether to finesse on the trump play at trick 11. Alas, West played low on the second round of clubs, and now the contract was guaranteed again. Granted, declarer might have guessed right anyway after West’s opening bid and line of defense.
Earlier on, though, maybe West should have found a trump shift at trick two, cutting down on dummy’s ruffs. His spade queen was hardly a surefire trick, and switching to that card would still protect East’s J-x-x if declarer were intent on ruffing diamonds.