Another interesting hand.

On this board West managed to totally deceive Declarer (Cliff Vince) and defeated 3NT.

The bidding was

W    N    E    S

P    1C   P   1H

P    2D   P  3NT

West led a deceptive D9. (I don't recommend this lead, but it added to Declarer's misreading of the hand.)

Declarer played the DQ from Dummy, taken by the DA. A diamond return was won by the D8 and the D10 was played to Dummy's DK.

A spade was then led to the SA. The heart finesse followed and the HA dropped the HK. Now Declarer can count 9 tricks. He continued with the remaining three heart tricks, and West discarded, in order, C3, S10 and C8.

West, had the following cards, after discarding the C3 on the HJ.

S Q10, H -, D J, C KQ8. 

Since East had shown the DA, it was clear that South must have the SK, and probably the CJ & SJ as well.

Recognising that she was going to be badly squeezed by 2 more hearts, West cleverly discarded the S10 before finally throwing the C8 on the last heart. If one is being squeezed, it is good practice to visualise the ending and discard an important card early, leaving one less important card for the final discard. (East played her part, by not discarding a diamond.)

Declarer was fairly certain that West's last 4 cards were DJ6 & CKQ. So he led to the CA and finessed the SJ, hoping for 1 or 2 overtricks.

West won the last 3 tricks, for 1 off. Well played East/West.