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Board 118, EW Vul. Del. E

--------Martel
--------S 3
--------H T9754
--------D JT4
--------C Q962

Rodwell-----------Meckstroth
S AJ976-----------S T
H KQJ-------------H 8632
D 63--------------D K9875
C AJ5-------------C T84

--------Stansby
--------S KQ8542
--------H A
--------D AQ2
--------C K73

E S W N
P 1S 1N P
2C 2S Dbl All pass

This is the decisive board of the semifinal of
USBC. Only 3 boards to go, Meltzer's team leading
by 14 IMPs. Badly needing a score, Rodwell whipped
this shaky 2S by Stansby. Stansby would have locked
their win had he made his contract.

Rodwell led the King of hearts. Stansby won per
force and played the King of spades, a clever
manoeuvre to grab a timing. Since any return would
cost a trick or help declarer to shorten his trumps,
Rodwell correctly let the King hold. Stansby then
played a club to Queen...

At this point, the only way to make the contract is
to lead Diamond J or 10 from table, requiring DK onside,
finesse the King without costing an entry.

unfortunately, stansby called a heart and ruff in hand,
then exited with 8 of spades, Rodwell won the 9, and was
said, for 3 minutes, he's replaying every cards in his
mind before he exited with J of spades at the following
situation.

--------Martel
--------S
--------H T97
--------D JT4
--------C 96

Rodwell----------Meckstroth
S AJ6------------S
H Q--------------H 86
D 63-------------D K987
C AJ-------------C T8

--------Stansby
--------S Q54
--------H
--------D AQ2
--------C K7

Rodwell still had Queen of hearts to exit if he got
thrown-in again. There's no escape for the declarer.

Some commentators argued that Stansby should be able
to "know"the King of diamonds was onside when the CQ
held, since Rodwell was known to have SA, SJ, HK, HQ,
CA... Well, I am not conviced, there's still room
for the King of Diamonds in his hand, because,
at least, you have no idea where the missing
jacks(HJ & CJ at the moment)are.

Later, I found out that, actually, 2S can be made
regardless the position of Diamond King. I guess
unless one has met the situation before, it's very
hard to spot it at the table.

You win the opening lead, play SK and it holds, now,
comes the most crucial and sensational play, the
Queen of Diamonds!

East can't duck this one. And since your clubs is
intact at this point, a club return can't hurt you.
The best East could do is to return a diamond, which
you win in dummy... and then a one way straight
line to reach the following situation, at which point
you 've taken 6 tricks already:

--------S
--------H T9
--------D J
--------C 962

S AJ96----------S
H ---------------H 8
D ---------------D 987
C AJ------------C T8

--------S Q85
--------H
--------D A
--------C K7

Now you throw out the Ace of diamonds, no one can
prevent you from scoring another 2 tricks.

In the situation one is playing a low level contract,
and threatened by very long trumps in opponent's hand,
the general idea, I think, is to score one's trump
AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE and grab the side suit tricks
along the way. Also, one needs to prevent defenders
from shortening their trumps.The play of Queen of
diamonds serves a double-shot purpose, if it holds,
it scores an extra trick, if not, it create an entry in
dummy so that declarer can shorten his trumps enough to
endplay West.

one more thing, it won't work if you play DQ before
drawing one round of trump. Since east could return
a trump, and with diamonds unlocked, west would grab
the ace and exit with no cost. The difference here is
that you didn't score a high trump before the endplay,
and therefore it won't work, try it yourself if you
are in doubt.