A twist to ruffing in Dummy

West leads ♠ A and East signals with ♠ 10, because he can potentially overruff dummy on the third spade. West continues with ♠ K, then ♠ Q. What do you do?

Ruffing low is sure to fail, East having advertised that he will overruff. You will also lose an unavoidable late club. Ruffing high (with ♥ Q) is better, but you would then be reliant on a 2-2 heart split. On the layout, you would lose to East’s ♥ J and, later, the third club. Down one.

How about discarding a club from dummy at trick three (key play). This is a loser in any event, but by throwing the club, you are swapping ruffs. You can win any return (say ♦ 4). You then play ♥ Q and back to ♥ A; then ♣ 3 to ♣ A, ♣ 6 to ♣ K and peacefully ruff ♣ 7.

Note that this elegant Loser-on-Loser play would not work if East held a club fewer, as he would also throw a club on the third spade and be able to overruff in clubs. But then 4 ♥ would be unmakeable.

Ps  If West plays a fourth spade, try trumping with the h2 in the dummy at trick four.

East must overtrump, or declarer can simply throw her losing club.
So trick 4 goes spade, h2, h9, hK.
Declarer then plays a club to the Ace, a club to the King, and trumps the club 7 in dummy with the heart 6.
Now just draw trumps - HQ, diamond to the Ace and the HA is ten tricks and game made.