Declarer took ♥K, ♥A, and successfully ruffed the third heart with ♠9. The ♠AQ followed, but declarer had no way back to hand to draw the last trump. Eventually West gained a diamond ruff. Was declarer just unlucky?
No! Again, there is no need to ruff the losing heart, because it will get discarded on a winning diamond once they are established. Win the first trick in hand with ♥A, draw trumps in three rounds and then play on diamonds. Even if an opponent does hold up the ♦A until the third round, we still have dummy's ♥K entry to our diamond winner.
Don't ruff a loser with short trumps before drawing them, if you can discard the loser after drawing trumps.
