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North Deals Both Vul	♠ Q 10 9 ♥ A Q 10 ♦ A 9 7 5 4 ♣ K 8
♠ 7 3 ♥ 9 8 6 3 ♦ K 10 2 ♣ J 7 5 4	N W   E S	♠ 6 5 4 ♥ K 5 4 2 ♦ 8 6 3 ♣ 10 6 3
	♠ A K J 8 2 ♥ J 7 ♦ Q J ♣ A Q 9 2

West	North	East	South
	1 ♦	Pass	1 ♠
Pass	1 NT	Pass	3 ♣
Pass	3 ♠	Pass	4 NT
Pass	5 ♥	Pass	5 NT
Pass	6 ♦	Pass	6 ♠
All pass

6 ♠ by South 

In some ways, it might be easier to make all 13 if you had to do so. If you presume that West has not led away from the K, then you need to set up diamonds. So, win the A, play a club to the ace and take the diamond finesse. South can make it slightly awkward by covering. Win and play a second diamond to the jack, club to the king, ruff a diamond with 8 and then play 3 rounds of trumps finishing in dummy to play your two established diamonds to discard a heart and a club…all a bit scary but the news is all good.

However, you only need 12 tricks. So, maybe, just take the heart finesse at trick one. You have too few hearts between your two hands for anything bad to happen. East wins and returns probably a trump. Now, you have a place for your second diamond: on the A. However, why not tempt West to cover with the K if they hold it? So play Q, intending to play the ace whatever West plays. If the king appears, draw trumps and discard the possible club loser on the A.

Oh, we had not mentioned the club suit up to this point. When you first saw dummy, you would realise you had 3 possible losers, one in each side suit. You need to deal with East’s 9…and if you have not set up diamonds for two discards, then you need to play three rounds of clubs before drawing trumps, or at least draw only 2 rounds, so that a club can be ruffed in dummy.

The point of tempting West to cover the Q was to save you the need of ruffing that club, the slight danger of clubs breaking 5-1 or 6-0. The less suits you need play before drawing trumps the better.

I suspect that those declarers who failed in 6 ignored the club loser until trumps had been drawn.

Finally, a word about the opening lead. The unbid heart suit lead was fine but I wonder would have happened had West led the 2 or even the cunning 10. North had opened 1 and was likely to hold the ace. You would not as declarer be tempted to take the heart instead of the diamond finesse, would you? Declarer should play A followed by a second diamond…but declarers do not always do what they should, do they?!