Bridge in Oz

A tragedy is serious stuff, often concerning death, and bridge is just a game. Maybe this deal would be a light-hearted tragedy if such a thing existed!

Also posted to Bridge Winners.

IMPs, nobody vulnerable.

East led the ♥Q, won in dummy. A trump to the Queen holds.

At this point the contract can be guaranteed by cashing the ♠A and losing at most a trump and two clubs. But overtricks are worth an IMP each and it seems almost without risk to re-enter dummy and repeat the finesse.

Alas, East ruffs your diamond at trick 3 and then leads another heart, ruffed by West's ♠K!

Alright you're not down yet. You need two club tricks.

East's pattern is 2-9-0-2 and West is 2-1-7-3. East failed to bid hearts so probably does not have the ♣A in addition to seven heart winners.

You can eliminate the remaining diamonds and play a club to the Queen in this position:

♠ AJ3
♥ --
♦ --
♣ K654

♠ 8754
♥ --
♦ --
♣ Q107

West takes the Ace and returns a club. Now it's a pure guess who has the Jack.

In the tradition of tragic ambiguity, I'll just leave it there.