He bought it despite the evidence

John Adams said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

Sometimes, though, recognizing the evidence is the hard part. Against four hearts, West leads a club to East's ace, and East shifts to a spade: jack, queen, ace. What now?

North's three-club rebid was fourth-suit game-forcing. His jump to four hearts was a mild slam-try. (If he was interested only in game, he would have rebid four hearts, not three clubs. If wishing to make a serious slam-try, he would have bid three hearts over three diamonds.)

Declarer should crossruff. He discards a diamond on the club queen, ruffs a spade, pitches a spade on the diamond ace, ruffs a diamond, ruffs a club, ruffs a diamond and ruffs a spade. When West cannot overruff, South ruffs his last diamond and takes one more trump trick. He loses only one club and two hearts.

However, our opponent adopted a slightly different approach. After a club to the ace, a spade to the ace, the club queen, a spade ruff and the diamond ace, South played a heart to the queen. My wife (East) defended beautifully by playing low smoothly. Declarer was deceived. He ruffed a spade and led another heart, but East took her two trump tricks and returned a club. Now the contract went down two because I collected both the diamond king and club jack.

What evidence did South miss?

When West didn't overruff at trick seven, surely he did not have a trump.