Fake Compression

Board 18 from Monday’s club duplicate:

Showing the foresight to prevent a club ruff for declarer’s tenth trick, West led the ♠T.

Declarer won in dummy and called for a club.  West won, perforce, and continued with the ♠A and a third spade, won in dummy.  Declarer called for ♥A, then ♥K (carefully pitching a club), and ruffed a third heart, noting the 5-2 split.

Projecting the actual layout of the club suit, declarer led a second club, won perforce by West.  West played a diamond.  Declarer called for the ♦Q from dummy, winning the trick.  A fourth round of hearts was ruffed, reaching this three card end position:

The ♠Q executed a double squeeze.  West had to keep the ♥J and so discarded a diamond.   Declarer discarded the threat heart from dummy.  East had to keep the ♣Q and so discarded a diamond.  The ♦A and ♦8 won the last two tricks for +620.

Well done!

… Except that it did not happen that way.  Oh, this was the actual layout and the first five calls were as shown.  But South chose to pass 1NT and instead of +620, NS scored -90.  What a missed opportunity for  South!  (Although, had South balanced, perhaps North might have contented himself with a game try rather than a game bid, and surely South would not accept.)