West tabled the eight of hearts, and East made the hand's key play of simply encouraging with his five of hearts. Withholding both the king and jack from this first heart trick, regardless of whether South played queen or ten from dummy at trick one, meant that three notrump could not be made.
 
After east's duck, our perceptive south quickly recognized that winning and playing on clubs has little or no chance. The defense needed only one more heart lead, from either side of the table, to establish that suit, so there was not enough time ("tempo") to give up two club tricks safely. Rather than hope for some miracle, south took a reasonable shot for his ninth trick by trying a low spade from dummy toward the queen, but when west produced the king and continued hearts, South was forced to cash out for down one, taking two hearts, five diamonds and the spade ace.
 
If East had mistakenly covered dummy's heart at trick one, our enlightened south would have also ducked, setting the stage for the cutting of defensive communications. East was marked with six hearts from the opening lead, so when east continued hearts west would become heartless. With the club honors split, south would then have the time to safely establish two club tricks. South's choice of 2NT as a game try might appear to be an underbid, but it turned out to be prophetic, since it was the last makeable notrump contract.
 
What if south had instead tried for game by raising clubs? Not good enough! If north had tried three notrump from her side, a 4th best heart lead would have had the same positive effect on the defense's timing. West would have stepped up on the first round of clubs, and a second heart would establish the suit for east-west while east's club entry was intact.
 
Ducking or holding up, often for a timing advantage, is often a winning tactic used by both declarers and defenders. In this case, success was destined to go to the side that ducked first!.