The good trade for declarer
Stanislaw Lec said that each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty. If a contract dies, sometimes each trick is in itself innocent, but more often one can point the finger and say, “That was the trick where the declarer imploded.”
How should South have played in five clubs after West led the spade king?
East’s four-spade raise put South under pressure. As it was, he would have done better to double four spades, collecting 200. Instead, South bid five clubs as an each-way bet: Perhaps it would make, or it might be a cheap sacrifice. If he had played more carefully, he would have been plus 400 (duplicate scoring).
Declarer won the spade-king lead with dummy’s ace, drew two rounds of trumps and continued with three rounds of diamonds. However, it wasn’t difficult for East to find the heart-jack switch: down one. Assuming West had five spades for his vulnerable overcall, South had to be out of the suit. Which was the fatal trick?
The contract was in danger only if West had the heart ace. Then East had to be kept off the lead while the diamonds were established. This could have been accomplished by playing low from the dummy at trick one.
Suppose West continues with another spade. Declarer discards his low diamond on the spade ace, draws trumps with two honors in his hand, cashes the diamond ace-king, leads a club to dummy’s 10 and ruffs a diamond. Finally, declarer returns to dummy with a trump to the king and discards two heart losers on the established diamond winners.
Fight hard to keep the danger hand off the lead.