[kenrexford]

A deal came up last night with a principle that my partner missed and that therefore seems worthy of sharing, for the B&I. You end up playing in 6♣ with a heart lead, and this is the layout:

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After winning the heart on whichever side you think best, you pull trumps in three rounds, LHO showing up with 3 and RHO with 2. What is your line?

Spoiler

The key is to strip out the red cards from LHO before hooking the spade. So, you end in hand and hook the diamond, which works, and then ruff the third diamond with your last trump in hand. You then strip the hearts, as well, ending on Dummy. You then hook the spade.

If LHO is out of hearts, clubs, and diamonds, he is forced to return a spade back at you. If he started with all six outstanding spades, or five of them, he has the Jack, and you can hop the 10. If LHO started with four spades, then RHO only had two, which means that the Jack could be falling. But, the odds when it matters are 3:2 that LHO has the Jack in that situation. If the spades turn out to be 3-3, then LHO has a red-card exit anyway.

This is a strip and endplay without requiring a trump on each side. In fact, having a trump on each side would be a bad thing on this layout, because LHO would just play a diamond and give yopu your ruff anyway. You just need him out of red cards.

If he has a red card, you ruff that in Dummy and hope for the Jack to be doubleton anyway. Nothing lost.