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You are playing IMP's and this is the trump suit :

Declarer :   A K 8 7 5         Dummy :   J 4 3 2

How do you play this combination for 1 loser maximum ?

The full hands were :

Dlr: South Vul: E-W - - - K Q 10 9 8 8 7 6 § Q J 10 9 7

J 4 3 2 3 2 A Q J 9 4 § 8 2   A K 8 7 5 A 7 5 3 2 § A K 4

Q 10 9 6 J 6 5 4 K 10 § 6 5 3

Contract is 4 and you receive the lead of the § Q. If the trumps break 2-2, you can make 7-up if the diamond finesse is right. If the trumps break 3-1, you will make 5, 6, or 7, depending. Can you ensure the contract against any 4-0? This is IMP's.

The solution is to play a small trump to the jack at trick 2!!   This effectively caters for a 4-0 split.

As the cards lie, you will enter dummy twice - diamond ace, and a club ruff, to play trumps towards your hand. Yes, the spade 8 is the watchman.

Declarer played off the trump ace at trick 2, and was rudely awakened to the split. On this trick I signalled the heart 10, and an early heart switch from pard defeated the contract. We made TWO trumps, a heart, and the diamond king to set this.

The twist in the tale is that we lost 1 IMP when most of the E-W pairs bid up to 5H.... and N-S took the "push" to 5S.

LOL