Nine tricks may turn into 10

Calvin Coolidge said, “If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.”

If you need 10 tricks to make your contract but can see only nine, do not jump into a ditch. Try to find a 10th winner from somewhere.

In today’s deal, South is in four hearts. West leads the diamond king. Declarer takes that trick and cashes his two top hearts, but West discards a diamond on the second round. How should South continue?

North’s four-heart rebid was questionable. With such a balanced hand, he should have settled for three no-trump (though that contract probably would have gone down).

South seems destined to lose two hearts and two diamonds. But how many winners does he have?

He has two spades, two hearts, one diamond and (given the good split) three clubs off the top.

The right line now is to cash the spade ace-king, ruff a spade in hand and play the three club tricks ending in the dummy. (If East ruffs in, the contract was unmakable.) Now declarer has taken nine tricks: two spades, two hearts, one diamond, three clubs and one spade ruff. He retains two trumps and two diamonds; East has two high trumps, a diamond and a club. But when dummy’s last spade is led, what can East do?

If he discards, South ruffs for his 10th trick. If East ruffs, declarer pitches a diamond loser and must collect another trump winner. Effectively, East has to ruff one of his partner’s diamond tricks. South generates an extra trump trick with a coup en passant.