East started the fun at Trick 2 by ducking the Diamond!  Now Declarer had a choice to make.  Should he play West to have started with ♦KJx, in which case the Diamonds will run?  Or, should he play for 3-3 Clubs and get to 9 tricks that way?  Declarer decided to try Diamonds first and led a second round of the suit.  Now West realized that playing low would be fatal for the defense, making it plain to Declarer that West had not started with ♦KJx, that the Diamonds were not coming in and therefore that Dummy’s Ace must be played.  So, to keep the deception alive, West squandered the Jack on the second round of Diamonds!  Our duped Declarer confidently finessed Dummy’s Queen, which was taken by East’s King.  Dummy was now officially dead and Declarer was down.  There’s no shame in being deceived by that clever false-carding from East and West, but there was a better way to play the hand.  What was it?

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