Carefully planned hand

South begins with the three top spades, North following suit with the ♠J on the third round.  You ruff the third round in your hand.

Assume that your objective on this hand is to make your 3♥ contract.  (In point of fact, the hand arose in a club matchpoint duplicate and both sides are vulnerable, and so your targeted number of tricks might well be eight and not nine.)

How do you continue?

You have lost two spades and with surely at least one loser in each minor suit, you must assume that trumps split.  Given that South passed as dealer holding ♠AKQ, you can be pretty sure that the ♣K and ♦A are with North.  If clubs are 3-3, holding your club losses to one is automatic.  But if clubs are 4-2, you will need to lead toward the ♣QJ twice.  And you need to lead toward the ♦K once, too.

How can you produce enough entries to that dummy to allow for three leads toward your hand?

Well, if the ♥9 is a second entry in the trump suit, you will have the extra entry you need.

One possible play line is this (remembering that three rounds of spades have been played, and that you have ruffed the third):

4. ♥ A
5. small heart to dummy’s ♥9, hoping that the ♥J is onside, with each opponent following suit
6. small toward your ♣QJ, winning the trick
7. ♥K, drawing the last trump
8. second small toward your ♣QJ, North winning the ♣K but leaving you with stiff ace opposite Jx.
9. Win return with ♣A
10. Lead ♦J toward your king, with North hopping with the ♦A
11. Claim last three tricks with long heart, ♦K, and ♣J

As it turns out, luck is with you, the whole hand (Temple Reyim club game, morning of October 14) being: