Playing matchpoints, as South, you encounter this spirited auction:
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♠ | 2♣ | 2♦ | 4♥ |
| 4♠ | Dbl | Pass | 5♥ |
| Dbl | All Pass |
West leads the ♣7. What’s your plan?
You have one loser in hearts and one in diamonds – but danger is lurking. The club lead looks like a singleton. If East has the ♥A, he can return a club for West to ruff. So to give yourself a chance at making the contract, place the ♥A with West.
Your play at trick two is critical. If you lead a trump to drive out the ♥A, West wins, puts partner on lead with a diamond and then scores a club ruff for down one.
The solution is to sever the communications of the opponents with a loser-on-loser play. From the bidding, you expect West to have the ♠A. At trick two, lead the ♠K and discard the diamond loser from your hand. West wins the spade and the ♥A, but can never reach East for the setting trick.
