| West | North | East | South |
| Pass | Pass | 1♠ | |
| Pass | 2♣(1) | Pass | 4♠ |
| All Pass | |||
(1) Your partner’s 2♣ was the Drury convention, showing a good raise in spades so you bid 4♠.
West starts with the ♥J. Do you see a way to 10 tricks on this deal?
Solution
West’s lead turned out to be unfortunate for his side. Declarer won with dummy’s ♥A, drew trumps with the ace and continued with the ♥K and ♥Q, on which he discarded one of dummy’s clubs. After ruffing the ♥4 in dummy, declarer called for dummy’s remaining club. East rose with the *♣A and, when declarer followed with the queen, he relied on his partner to give him count in the suit. After West signaled an odd number of clubs, East decided to believe that the ♣Q was a singleton. So, he shifted to the ♦A and another diamond. West took the second diamond with his king and exited with the ♦9. Declarer claimed the balance, making 10 tricks: five trumps, three hearts, a heart ruff and a diamond.
If East had exited with a club at trick eight instead of a diamond, declarer would have thrown a diamond from hand and ruffed in dummy. As a result, he would have lost only two diamonds and a club, also making his contract. Note that there would have been no happy ending for declarer if West had led a club. The full deal:
