When the deal was played, West led a low heart, South captured East's Queen with the King. South continued with a the ♦A and a diamond, West produced the Jack, and dummy's Queen lost to the King. East now played back a heart to his partner's Jack, ducked in dummy. West cleared hearts, dummy's Ace winning the trick. Declarer now played the ♠Q, ducked by West. Any thoughts on how should declarer continue?

Solution:
West's hand is an open book. He has to have the black aces to justify his opening. He is marked with 3 hearts, 2 diamonds (he wouldn't play the Jack if he had 3 of them), 4 spades (remember, he bid 1♠), and hence 4 clubs. These are the cards that remain (the exact club spots don't matter):

	♠ J8
	♥ -
	♦ 4
	♣ K765
♠ A73		♠ 105
♥ -		♥ 10
♦ -		♦ 9
♣ AJ108		♣ 932
	♠ K9
	♥ -
	♦ 10763
	♣ Q4

If declarer plays a spade now, West will win the Ace and play back a spade. When declarer cashes his diamonds, West will discard all his clubs, and take the last two tricks with the ♣A and the thirteenth spade. Playing a club results in the same fate; West will win the ♣A and play back a club. When he gets in with the ♠A, he will have a good club to cash. Declarer can turn the tables on West by cashing diamond winners. On the first diamond, West can safely discard a club. On the second diamond, West will be forced to unguard a black suit, say spades. Declarer can now cash the last diamond (not necessary, but makes life easier), and play a spade, the suit that West unguarded. West can win his Ace, but cannot prevent South from winning a trick in the other black suit, i.e. clubs.

Analysis:
This is a complex deal to analyze, and Bridge Baron's double dummy solver was invaluable. North-South can always make 8 tricks as the cards lie. When declarer played ♦A and a diamond to the Queen at trick 2, East could have restricted declarer to 7 tricks by letting the Queen hold! This will destroy declarer's communications. Having erred by winning the King, East could have held declarer to 8 tricks by playing a club through declarer's queen. However, none of this was obvious, and a majority of defenders would continue with a heart. Also, West found the only lead, a heart, to restrict declarer to 8 tricks. On any other lead, 9 tricks can be taken. There are many variations in the play, you can experiment them by playing the deal in Bridge Baron.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 2NT by North-South. After a heart lead, 8 tricks can always be made if declarer plays a diamond to the Queen without cashing the Ace.

Bridge Baron deal No : 35852019261731760557277416275