Break the rules

One of the rules they teach you when you are learning bridge is don't give declarer a ruff-sluff. I was playing at the club last night with Beverly, and she doesn't believe in rules (deal rotated):

                ♠ 8 7 4
                ♥ Q 8 2
                ♦ A 8 4 2
                ♣ 10 7 2
♠ A 10                          ♠ Q 6
♥ A K 10 6 3                    ♥ J 9 5
♦ K 7                           ♦ Q J 10 9 5 4
♣ J 8 6 4                       ♣ 9 3
                ♠ K J 9 5 3 2
                ♥ 7 4
                ♦ 6
                ♣ A K Q 5

       West   North   East   South
                      2♦    2♠
       2NT    Pass    3♦    3♠
       All Pass

Beverly led the ♥A (ace from A-K) and continued with the K♥ and then another. Declarer discarded a club and led a spade to her jack, forcing Beverly's ace.

Now partner broke the rules. She led a fourth round of hearts, giving declarer a (useless) ruff-sluff. I ruffed with the ♠Q, forcing the king and setting up partner's ♠10. It was "only" a saved overtrick, but a nicely thought-out play indeed.

The play is called an upper cut. Here's the definition from Wikipedia:

Uppercut -- To ruff in the expectation of being overruffed, when the overruff will cause a trump in partner's hand to become a winner.

An uppercut is often confused with a trump promotion, but that is a different maneuver. Go here and scroll down.

Here is the deal in HandViewer mode (from Bridge Base Online):



You can (repeatedly) click on "next" to see the play of each trick.