Bad luck?

Routine auction, where South’s three-club bid gave North a chance to show three-card spade support. The defense started with three rounds of hearts, South ruffing the third. South led a diamond to the king. Had West held the ace of diamonds, South could develop a club discard on a diamond. East won with the ace and led a trump. South won in dummy with the king of spades and led a spade to his jack. He then started on clubs. This would have succeeded if the clubs split 3-3 or if the player with only two clubs was out of trumps. He could then ruff his fourth club in dummy. West, however, ruffed the third round of clubs and the contract was defeated.South could have done better. This was another overlooked dummy reversal. After he led a spade to the jack, he should have led a diamond to dummy’s queen and ruffed a diamond. He should then cross back to dummy with a club and ruff dummy’s remaining diamond with his last trump. Another club to dummy would allow him to draw the last trump and make his contract. This line would fail if an opponent with a doubleton club could discard one on the fourth diamond, but then the contract was never makable. Too bad. Published - October 01, 2026 11:25 am IST