Problem

The Auction:

You reach the contract of 6♥ after an uncontested auction. East leads the ♣10. After seeing your partner’s hand you realize you have two losers – a spade and a diamond. How do you proceed?

Solution

You ruff the first trick with the ♥2 although the notion of discarding either a spade or a diamond from dummy is alluring, you cannot take a chance. West might have the ♣A and you cannot afford to lose the lead as the opponents have the ♠A too and this way you might go down immediately.

To make the contract you need to get rid of one of your losers, meaning you must somehow find a way to discard either spades or diamonds. Although you can win one trick in clubs, which offers the possibility to discard, this is not sufficient.

First you pull the trumps, leading the ♥A from dummy. Then you play the ♠5 from dummy, hoping either West plays the ♠A and you get two additional winners in spades or if East has the ♠A you have still established your ♠K as a winner.

West plays the ♠2 and the ♠Q from your hand wins the trick.

Your only opportunity now is to lead the ♣K in the hope of taking down the ♣A and promoting you ♣Q to winner. East covers the king with the ♣A, you ruff and lead a small diamond from dummy as you need to get the lead back to your hand with the ♦A.

Now you take a trick with the ♣Q discarding the ♠K, and can claim as having found a way to discard dummy’s last spade you are only going to lose one trick in diamonds.

What would have happened if West had played the ♠A in the third trick? You would still have made it as now you would have the possibility to discard the diamonds – one of the dummy’s diamonds on the ♠Q and the other one on the ♣Q after taking care of the ♣A.

The method of giving the opponents a choice when either decision costs them a trick is called Morton's Fork.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this deal is 6♥ by North/South.