“Brightness falls from the air; Queens have died young and fair.” - Thomas Nashe

On the lead of the spade queen, marking East with the spade king, today’s four-heart contract presents a problem in elimination.

The assumption would be that West has all the missing honors in the minors.

At trick one you duck the spade queen.

Let us assume that East finds the most challenging defense of overtaking and returning a diamond. (Any other play by East would allow you to bring about an endplay on West rather more straightforwardly.)

You must play low from hand and win West’s diamond 10 with dummy’s ace.

After one round of trumps you cash the spade ace and ruff a spade.

As the spades are now eliminated, you can safely exit with a diamond.

West takes your queen with the king, only to face the familiar dilemma.

If he plays a spade or a diamond, the ruff and discard allow declarer to pitch a club from one hand or the other, holding his losers in that suit to one.

And if West plays back a club, declarer can run it to his hand and again hold his club losers to one.

The key to the deal is that if East does win the spade lead to shift to a diamond, declarer must not put up the queen from his hand.

If he does so, East subsequently will obtain the lead in diamonds to play a club through declarer.

Now if West plays correctly, the defense always can collect two club tricks and defeat the game.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Raise to two spades.

The trump support is too good to ignore, particularly when the alternative is to rebid a moth-eaten suit like your diamonds.

Partner may be expecting four trumps, but three and a ruffing value is a fair exchange.