The suit points to the key play

Salvador Dalí wrote, “The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: It is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.”

That might be true for memories, but only occasionally for the jewels in a bridge deal.

What jewel of a play may occur in this deal, where West leads the diamond jack against four spades?

East opened with a textbook vulnerable weak two-bid, promising a good six-card suit and 6-10 highcard points. South, assuming his partner had six or seven high-card points, jumped to four spades. He considered bidding three no-trump, but knew that that would surely require his partner to have both the spade king and something in clubs.

When the dummy appeared, South saw 10 winners in spades and hearts. However, he also knew that West had led a singleton — a fact that East did not know when South made a jewel of a play, smoothly dropping his diamond king under East’s ace. Now East, seeing the club queen in the dummy, understandably shifted to the heart nine.

That was all the help declarer needed. He drew two rounds of trumps, unblocked his remaining heart honors, entered dummy with a trump and cashed the heart jack. He won 10 tricks via six spades and four hearts.

Note that if South had played the diamond four at trick one, East would have returned the diamond five at trick two, his lowest diamond being a suit-preference signal for clubs. After ruffing, West would have cashed the club ace and played another club to defeat the contract.