[quiddity]

There was a hand in yesterday's SF pairs game with an interesting defensive theme that I hadn't seen before. Unfortunately the hand wasn't very good as instructional material (since some of the bidding was insane), but here is the theme:

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You are West, defending a 3♥ contract. You lead the stiff club, dummy plays low. Partner wins the ♣A and returns a middle club. From the bidding you can place partner with exactly one more ace somewhere. How do you defend?

[quiddity]

No bites? East is placed with exactly one more ace and the middle club return suggests that it is the ♥A. West can see 3 trump tricks (one ruff and the H-AK), unless East also has ♥J. In that case West can ruff, cross to East's J, and get another ruff. The ♥A will be the fourth trump trick. But how will East know to stick in the J? His tendency will be to fly ace to give partner a second ruff. The answer is for West to ruff with the ♥K at trick two. If East does have the ♥A, I don't think this play can cost.

This was the actual hand from the pair games in SF a couple of days ago:

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Declarer also has an interesting problem if West ruffs low and returns a side-suit. Maybe the best play is to win in dummy and lead a low heart off the board hoping for East to fly ace (if he has it).