A Fitting End

by Ted Muller

Spades are trump.  East to lead and win two tricks on defense.

I included this real-life situation just in order to show that a 3-card end-position can be interesting.

Let's look at east's options.  Declarer would ruff a heart lead; it would not matter whether west overruffed, because he would be compelled to lead to a good dummy.  A diamond lead by east would fare no better, as it would set up declarer's hand.

The answer is a club play, yielding a trick to a dummy that declarer could not reach himself!  South discards a diamond as he wins dummy's ace, but finds himself caught in a trump coup on the next trick.  The key operative here?  Set up partner's suit!