South’s jump to game was a reasonable decision. He caught a miserable dummy, however, with not much to work with. The opening heart lead went to East’s ace and South won the heart continuation with his king. He cashed the ace of spades, relieved to see the suit splitting 2-1. Still, it looked like he had four losers. South cashe the king of spades, drawing the last trump, and led a spade to the jack. He ruffed dummy’s last heart back to his hand. There wasn’t much to be done, so South decided to run the rest of his spades and hope something good would develop. This was the position after all the spades had been cashed:

South might have tried cashing the ace of diamonds now. He might have caught West napping. Instead, he led a club to dummy’s king and a diamond back to his ace. West was not napping now. West realised that the king was a dangerous card to keep — he could be end-played with it. He alertly played it under the ace and South had no winning options.

Published - August 06, 2026 11:54 am IST