West   North   East   South
                                 1♦
pass     1♥      pass   2♠
pass     3♥      pass    5♦
all pass

You reach 5♦ with no opposing bidding. West leads the ♣A, East encourages with the ten as you ruff. Plan the play.

Solution:
You have two spade losers and one heart loser. The heart suit offers very little chance; the defense has to hold up just one round to kill the suit. A 3-3 spade break will see you home, but you should give yourself an extra chance.

After ruffing the opening lead, you should play a heart to the king. For all you know, the defense may win the ♥A and solve all your problems. No such luck this time, as West signals with the nine and East holds up his ace. The correct move now is to duck a spade before playing even one round of trumps.

You can win any return, and cash the ace and king of spades. If spades are 3-3, you will draw trumps and claim 11 tricks. On this deal, West has four spades along with three diamonds, so you can ruff fourth spade in dummy to make the game. Note that if you drew one round of trump before ducking a spade, West can play a second round of trump when he gets in with the spade. Thanks to L.Subramanian of Chennai for this deal.

Analysis:
Bridge Baron's double dummy analysis points out that an initial trump lead defeats the contract. Indeed, when you duck a spade, West can win and play a second trump to prevent you from ruffing your spade loser in dummy.

Bridge Baron's Line of Play
Bridge Baron ruffed the opening lead, and immediately played a heart to the king, which held the trick. Bridge Baron now ruffed a club, and found the key play of conceding a spade to the defense. When the defense played the ♥A and a heart, Bridge Baron correctly ruffed this as West threw a club, cashed one round of diamonds, cashed the ace-king of spades and ruffed the spade loser in dummy to make the contract.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 4♦ by North-South.

Bridge Baron deal No : N5231-72720-78132-48869-07348-25076