May event, session 1, hand 2

[nswedd]

In our May event, all four forehands won the bidding for 18 or 20, picked up the Skat, and then held
J: C S H
C: A 7
S: T 9 8
H: K Q 9 7
D: —

Myself, I would make hearts trumps, discard ST and C7, draw trumps, and expect to lose two spade tricks, making Schneider
if spades split 2-2.

In fact spades did split 2-2, and hearts also split 2-2. All four declarers made hearts trumps, but only three of them made Schneider. I have been trying to think of any plausible line of play which fails to make Schneider on this hand. Any ideas?

[John McLeod]

You can achieve this by leading trumps a couple more times after you have drawn all the enemy ones, allowing one opponent to throw away spades. You did say plausible rather than sensible, and I have noticed that players do quite often lead out most or all of their trumps in the hope that their opponents will somehow fail to keep their winners. It's also quite reasonable to throw T 9 of spades and keep two clubs. In that case you might draw trumps, lead your S8 in the hope that they hold up their ace, which they don't, trump the return and then play all the rest of your trumps in the hope that neither opponent will keep two clubs.