Look for possibilities

When things look hopeless, look for a small chance. Playing online bridge last night with Kate, I had an opportunity to do that (hands rotated):

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

The opponents bidding was short and sweet: 2♥ pass 4♥ all pass. I led the ♠A and the ♠K. Dummy was so strong that I could see no chance for two more tricks except in the trump suit, so I led my ♠10 forcing dummy to ruff.

Declarer led the ♥J and Kate won her ace to lead a fourth round of spades, promoting my ♥9 into a trick.

Setting 4♥ was worth 7.72 IMPs for the good guys. There were a bunch of 420s when 4♥ was allowed to make. In one rare case it made six. I had to find out how, so I checked. My hand was opening leader and led the ♠10 which ran around to declarer's jack! I wonder what he was smoking.

You can see all the results if you click here.

Here is the Handviewer presentation from BBO: