West leads the ♥Q against your optimistic 4♠ contract, East following with the ♥9. When you cash the ace and king of spades, West discards a diamond. There seem to be four inescapable losers now; can you think of a way to restricting yourself to three losers?

Solution:
In this column, the deals featured illustrate application of bridge technique. In this deal, there is no legitimate technique that can help you succeed; you need to resort to deception. When this deal was played in an online match, after declarer cashed the ace and king of spades, getting the bad news, he played a low heart from hand. The West player, who was an expert, placed the ♥K with his partner, and played low, and dummy's ♥10 won the trick, East refusing to ruff.

The contract can now be made, but declarer nevertheless needs to exercise care. If declarer continues with a heart to the king, ♣A and club ruff, in order to ruff a heart, he will lose control. When he leads a diamond to the queen, East will win the king, cash the master trump, and force declarer with a club. When declarer plays another diamond, West will win and cash a club trick. In order to avoid this, after winning the ♥10, declarer should play a heart to the king and lead a diamond. Now he will always maintain control, and make his game.

Analysis:
Bridge Baron's double dummy solver confirms that there is no legitimate way to make the contract. The double dummy analysis also confirms that continuing the ♣A and club ruff in dummy after stealing the heart trick would result in losing control of the hand.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 3♠ by North-South.

Bridge Baron deal No : N1762-24775-69415-82496-90825-14333