South's 3NT was a sensible call, with stoppers in all suits and scattered values throughout. West leads the ♥10, dummy's king winning the trick. Next up, should you tackle clubs, diamonds or spades? Think about your next move before you read the next paragraph.

West has apparently led from heart length, and threatens to establish heart winners. Therefore, the West hand is the danger hand, and the right play is to take an immediate diamond finesse. If the finesse wins, you are home (why?). On this deal, West wins the ♦K and cashes the ♥A and plays another heart, on which East discards a club. Plan the play.

Solution:
When the deal came up at the table, the declarer correctly took the diamond finesse at trick two, so as to lose the lead to the danger hand first. If the diamond finesse had won, then three club tricks are enough to bring the trick count to nine. When West cleared hearts, thereby revealing that he has six cards in the suit, the declarer tried to keep West out of the lead again, and led the ♣10, intending to pass it. As West showed out, declarer could score only three club tricks, but he nevertheless succeeded, as the ♦J dropped doubleton. It was suggested that South should have foreseen the scenario where West is void in clubs, and led a club towards the jack rather than playing the ♣10, in order to be able to score four club tricks.

The best play is not obvious. Since West has six hearts, he is likely to be short in clubs, and East's club discard suggests this as well. South should therefore plan to play the ♣A and run the ♣J. Before doing so, South should take the precaution of cashing the ♦A, to see whether the ♦J drops. If the ♦J does indeed drop, the ♦10 is the eighth trick, and South can finesse clubs into the East hand for the ninth trick.

Analysis:
As with most real-life deals, a double dummy analysis is not suitable for this deal; knowledge of all four hands would trivially solve the two-way club guess.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 4NT by North-South.

Bridge Baron deal No : N1356-75467-22180-06254-66592-63248