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How would you have played this contract?
WITH
North holding the king and queen in the spade suit,  South have fared
well by passing out the double. There was no reason to expect this and
South decided to leap all the way to game in hearts. How would you have
played this contract after West leads a low spade, the nine appearing
from East?
The best idea that East
holds three trumps (a 60 per cent prospect when spades are 5-1) and to
lead a club at Trick 2.  West wins with the queen and delivers a spade
ruff, but this causes no problems at all. East is ruffing from a natural
trump winner. You ruff the second round of clubs and draw in two rounds.
You can then cash the ace of spades and lead the spade 10 for a ruffing
finesse through West’s jack. Drawing two rounds of trumps at the
beginning have led to defeat. Suppose you next played the spade queen.
East would refuse to ruff with his master trump. When you ducked a round
of one of the minors, to establish a route to hand, East would win and
draw dummy’s last trump. With an unavoidable spade loser, you would be
one down.
— David Bird
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