JOHNNY

MEETS
HIS MATCH

WHEN

OPPONENT
STEERS 
HOME
A SEEMINGLY
DOOMED
CONTRACT

This proved to be a bad board for Johnny. If this 3NT contract could be defeated , then his name was on that trophy.
Sitting East , he had opened the bidding with 1H , but soon found himself having defend 3NT.  In a flash his partner West plonked down his jack of hearts as the opening lead, but declarer dived in with the queen to take the trick. Two rounds of clubs saw East discard a small spade . This gave declarer a very important clue.

On the bidding Johnny was marked with a probable 6 card heart suit, a singleton club and surely 4 spades.....for to throw a spade away from a three card holding would not have been a sensible move.  Surely , East had to have the king of diamonds for his bid......but what was it Kx or Kxx ?

If the holding was Kxx , declarer figured the contract was dead in the water because he needed to harvest the suit for 4 tricks....and East would certainly hold off from taking the first diamond trick . Yet , even if East had the Kx , then West with his four to the 10986 would have the suit stopped anyway !

But there was a way to harvest 4 diamonds tricks if East did hold Kx............and that was to duck the first diamond trick letting West in with his 6 or 8 ! Now when a second heart comes back declarer can take  the trick, play over to the Ace of diamonds dropping Johnny's stiff King, and enjoyed 4 diamond winners, to go alongside 3 C and 2H , for the contract.
When Johnny pointed out to declarer that this line would have failed if he held Kxx , South   looked at him the eye and said  "  your partner's play of the heart jack at trick one convinced me he had a doubleton, giving you a 6 card suit. Moreover, his play of the diamond 8 suggested he was looking to force dummy to play the jack , suggesting that he also possessed the 9 and 10 of diamonds as well. So everything pointed to you having a 4-6-2-1 distribution. "
So Johnny for once had truly met his match....but who was this the unknown bridge maestro ?