Deal 42:
East-West bid their way to 4S. South led a high club and shifted to a heart which I won in hand. I gave away a club, won the trump return in dummy, ruffed out clubs as well as hearts, and pulled another round of trumps ending in dummy. Fortunately the trumps broke 2-2 and I played a diamond to the 9, endplaying south. Note that this would work even if north had three trumps and south had one, but not the other way round as south would have the trump as an exit card. Also note that north should put up a high diamond on general principle - that would prevent the endplay if my third diamond had been lower than the 9.
The defense can beat the contract by playing trumps early. That way, the entries to dummy would get used up prematurely and I would be forced to fall back on the diamond finesse, which does not work here.
Deal 45:
North-South reach 4S and west leads out his high hearts. The third heart is ruffed in dummy and over-ruffed by east; a club return strands declarer in dummy, with no way to return to hand to pull the trumps before cashing the diamonds. He is forced to run diamonds straight away and hope for a 3-3 diamond break, which does not happen. In reality, I did not find the club shift (don't ask me why).
Declarer can avoid this communication problem by refusing to ruff the third heart. This way, he can win the club shift in dummy at trick 4 and return to hand via trumps.
Cheers
Prashanth.
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