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One of the neatest plays in bridge is known as the "loser on loser," whereby declarer finds a way of telescoping two potential losers into one.
Six diamonds was a poor contract, though it should be noted that the A-K of clubs facing a void was an unfortunate duplication of values.
West led a spade, and when East played the ten, the indications were very strong that West had led a singleton. Declarer won with the ace and was faced with the problem of how to get rid of one of his two spade losers.
The only information available at this point was that West had overcalled with one heart -- very likely a five-card suit -- and probably had only one spade. Starting with this as a basis, South embarked on a line of play designed to make the contract if it could be made.
He began by leading a heart to the ace and ruffing a heart. Then, after playing the ace and king of diamonds, he ruffed another heart. The A-K of clubs were next cashed, two spades being discarded from dummy, and a club was ruffed.
Dummy's last heart was then led, and when, as expected, East showed out, South discarded one of his two spade losers. West won but had to return a heart or a club. This allowed declarer to ruff in dummy as he discarded his other spade loser, and the slam was made.
The end result was due to careful planning. The loser-on-loser discard had to be timed so that the North and South hands would have no hearts or clubs left when dummy's last heart was led.
Tomorrow: Test your play.