Another Three-suited Squeeze

West lead the ♠ 4, and East won the queen when declarer played low from dummy.

Clearly, from East's point of view, continuing spades wasn't much help, so he shifted to the ♦ 4. Declarer ducked, West won the ♦ 9, and continued with the ♦ 5 to East's jack, declarer ducking again.

East got out with a safe club, and declarer ran his club tricks. West pitched a spade on the third club, but at the fourth club, West was in a bind:

			♠ A K 9 ♥ Q 8 2 ♦ — ♣ J
♠ J 10 5 ♥ J 10 ♦ K Q ♣ —						♠ Q 8 ♥ K 9 4 3 ♦ — ♣ 10
			♠ — ♥ A 7 6 5 ♦ A 10 8 ♣ —

Declarer has won four tricks and has four more top tricks. If West pitches a diamond, declarer gets another diamond trick. If West pitches a spade, declarer gets another spade trick. So West is forced to pitch the ♥ 10.

This pitch allows declarer to cash the top spades, pitching another diamond and a heart, then lead the ♥ Q. East is forced to cover, and West's ♥ J is pinned. Declarer can either duck, leaving East endplayed in hearts, or win. Either way, South can set up a second heart trick.

This line was found while we were kibbitzing double-dummy. Is there any reason to take this line rather than simply playing for the 3-3 diamond split? I don't think so.