Bridge - The Scotsman, 20/10/12 - News - Scotsman.com Simple-looking hands may contain hidden pitfalls. How would you tackle this game contract? After an unexciting auction North cashed the king and ace of diamonds, South petering with the five and four to show an even number. North then switched to the eight of clubs. Declarer won the ace and cashed the ace and king of spades, but North showed out on the second round, so there was a trump loser. Still, all would be well if declarer could discard all three of his hearts on dummy's winners. The king-queen of clubs stood up, and declarer tried a third diamond, hoping that South would follow - he might ruff the fourth diamond, but that would allow declarer to discard his last heart. Unfortunately, South had only two diamonds, so he ruffed the third diamond and cashed the ace of hearts. Obviously, declarer does better to finesse in spades, but he has no real reason to ignore the "nine never" maxim. Is there an alternative winning line? A better shot is to keep control of the trump suit. After winning the ace of clubs declarer should cross to the king of spades, then play a winning diamond without cashing another trump. If everybody follows to the jack of diamonds he takes one heart discard, cashes the ace of trumps, then crosses to dummy with a club to take two more discards, not caring whether a defender can ruff the fourth diamond. If South ruffs the jack of diamonds, declarer can overruff and draw the last trump before taking two discards. He loses one heart trick, but no trump tricks. If South discards a club on the third diamond instead of ruffing, declarer should cash his club tricks before playing the fourth diamond - you do not want South to ruff the third club. The suggested line fails if North has two spades and a doubleton diamond, but in view of South's peter that is quite unlikely.