Bridge - The Scotsman 29/08/2012

West’s pre-empt had little effect on this occasion – South simply bid 4S. West led her singleton diamond, and East cashed ace-king and gave partner a ruff. West continued with the king of hearts to the ace. Declarer drew trump, noting that West had, annoyingly, taken a ruff with her singleton trump. There was no entry to dummy’s winning diamond, so his game looked doomed unless West was 6-5 and East had the doubleton queen of clubs. Not very likely, and there was no rush to test clubs. Declarer ran the rest of her trump, forcing the defenders to discard. West threw lots of hearts; East discarded both her remaining diamonds. This was the position when the last trump was played:

What should West throw on the last trump? If declarer still has a heart she has just two clubs and West should throw a club. If she has no heart and AKJ of clubs West must throw the queen of hearts and keep her clubs. West reasoned that even if declarer had three clubs partner might have the jack, and threw a fatal club.

In the post mortem West was apologetic, but the blame lies squarely with East. She should tell partner what she needs to know by discarding her second heart at the first available opportunity. Now West knows declarer has no hearts left and can happily discard her queen.