Before picking up his cards, TB sitting North checks the score and declares he's going to bid whatever he has. Then he opens 1♦. But wait! It's not his deal. West exercises his right as dealer to bid first, and opens 1♥. The full auction is:
| NC | TB | JW | ID |
| W | N | E | S |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1♥ | 2♦ | - | 2♠ |
| - | 4♠ | - | - |
| - |
After the 2♦ overcall ID sitting South is able to reply 2♠, and North doesn't hesitate in bidding game. It's pretty clear they were going to bid game whatever the hands, so there is a temptation for East-West to double. In fact, they're getting egged on to double. But West makes a dignified pass, and leads the ♣7 against 4♠. This is what declarer saw:
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Well there's only seven trumps, but it's not a terrible contract. Especially when, on the first trick, declarer played low from dummy and East popped up with the King. Declarer won the ♣A, and now had three Club winners.
Next declarer anxiously drew trumps. It all looked good when they split 3-3. Now he turned to the Diamonds. If it's your lucky day they'll also split 3-3, like this.
| ♦ A 9 7 6 3 | ||
| ♦ x x x |
 | ♦ x x x |
| ♦ 4 2 |
The right play is to duck the first Diamond, then win the second round with the Ace, ruff one in hand, and finally cross to dummy with the ♣Q to get the last two Diamonds. If you win the ♦A on the first round you then don't have enough entries to set up the suit and get back to it.
Declarer lead a low Diamond from his hand and, paused, and ... found the textbook play of ducking. West won the trick, and the spotlight was now on NC. If he gets it right, the defence can take the next four tricks in Hearts. If he gets it wrong though, and leads any other suit, then declarer can make it by using dummy's Diamonds to discard two Hearts. The contract, and the whole week, depends on his next card. After the briefest of pauses, West found the killing defence and took the next four tricks, for two off. The full deal was:
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Was it possible to make 4♠? You'll need Spades 3-3 and Diamonds 3-3 to have any chance. Also, you need a bit of luck on the opening lead, and you get it when the defence produce the ♣K. It's now best to play the Diamonds before drawing trumps - not because you want to use your trumps to ruff Hearts, but because you want to keep a trump in dummy for protection. But even then, it's not quite going to work against best defence. West can win his ♥AK and lead a third Heart, forcing declarer to ruff in dummy. If he ruffs low, East can overruff. If he ruffs high, then he can't draw trumps and the defence will get a trump trick anyway.
On the actual deal, declarer was two off, which meant that East-West won the day and won the week. But had the defence slipped up, it could have been very different.
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