Don’t trip over your own cards

Noel Coward had a good sense of humor. For example: “My dear boy, forget about the motivation. Just say the lines and don’t trip over the furniture.”

In this deal, South must try not to trip up in his efforts to make four hearts. What should he do after West leads the diamond ace and continues with the diamond king?

In the auction, North’s threediamond cue-bid announced heart support and at least game-invitational values. East was tempted to bid four diamonds with four-card support and a singleton, but having no points and being vulnerable dissuaded him. (Five diamonds doubled will cost 500 if North finds an early trump lead.) South, of course, jumped to four hearts.

Things looked straightforward. South seemed to have five heart and five club tricks. So, he ruffed at trick two, cashed the heart ace and played a heart to dummy’s queen. East’s spade-two discard was a surprise. Could declarer still succeed?

South saw that he could not afford to draw trumps, because that would have left him with none. He could have then cashed dummy’s top clubs, but the defenders would have taken the rest of the tricks for down two.

Instead, declarer needed to unblock and run the clubs. Since he could pitch only one club from the board (on his fifth heart), he had to hope that West held at least two clubs. South played off the club ace and club king. Then he drew trumps, throwing the club queen from the board. Finally, he ran his clubs to take those 10 tricks.