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.