Declarer ruffs the heart lead, cashes the A-K-Q-J of trump and ruffs another heart. He then plays the ten of spades, and West, who cannot afford to discard a heart, discards a diamond. (The outcome is the same if he parts with a club.) Dummy also discards a diamond, and let’s say East discards a heart.

Declarer next leads a diamond to the ace, cashes the ace of hearts, discards a club and ruffs a heart to produce this position:

South now plays the spade nine, forcing West to discard a club. Declarer discards the now-useless heart from dummy, whereupon East finds himself in serious trouble. If he discards his diamond, South scores the last two tricks with the four of diamonds and ace of clubs, while if East discards a club, dummy takes the last two tricks with the A-2 of clubs.

Tomorrow: All roads lead to Rome.