This deal was played by my friend Gary Cohler in the 2022 Jacoby Open Swiss Teams in Providence:

J642 A1097 AK10 K2

8 KQJ84 J2 109765

At favorable vulnerability, he was South and saw 1 on his right. This hand looked ripe for preempting and even though he was a heart short, he tried a tactical 2. LHO made a negative double and North raised to 4 which bought the contract.

West led the A and switch to a spade. East won the 10 and returned a club, ruffed by West. At trick four, West played a spade, ruffed with the 4. Declarer needed the rest. Now what?

It looks normal to execute a high crossruff. First cash the AK, and then ruff spades or diamonds in hand and clubs in dummy. What can go wrong? This was the Real Deal:

Vul:None Dlr: East	J642 A1097 AK10 K2
9753 6 Q987653 A		AKQ10 532 4 QJ843
	8 KQJ84 J2 109765

On the AK, East ruffs! Down one. This would have been a careless play. Realizing that no harm could come from drawing one round of trump first, Gary played a heart a trick five and was surprised to see West show out! This made the actual distribution quite likely, so cashing the AK was now out.

Still, with West an overwhelming favorite to have the Q, there were still 10 tricks. Declarer cross-ruffed for a while in the black suits, and eventually relied on a diamond finesse for the 10th trick.

This careful play held South's loss to 9 Imps! At the other table, after a similar start, East-West were -800 in 4 doubled.