QUESTION:  After the ♣2 lead (an obvious singleton), I didn't have a clear plan, struggled and went down 1 (a/k/a "Don Juan", the Latin lover💕 strikes again!😉). How might I have done better?

ANSWER:  In suit contracts, the idea is to count your losers in the long trump hand (usually, but not always, yours as declarer), paying close attention to QUICK LOSERS (=tricks the opponents will take next or very soon) lest they put your contract in jeopardy. You can choose from the following 6 plans to get rid of your losers:
1. Ruffing in the short trump hand (usually dummy) 
2. Setting up honor cards that are nearly high (knocking out an A or an A+K)
3. Setting up a long suit in your hand or dummy
4. Taking an immediate pitch of a loser on dummy's winner(s) OR from dummy to create shortness so you can ruff in-hand loser(s) in dummy (#1)
5. Finessing
6. Crossruffing-you must establish and/or cash your side suit winners BEFORE you crossruff 

Preferably before you win the ♣A at trick 1, you pause to count your losers so you can then formulate a plan. While you know you are going to win the 1st trick, the faster you call for dummy to play the ♣A/♣K, the more likely you are to play to trick 2 without a plan. The quickest way to improve your declarer play is to always pause for thought before you play from dummy at trick 1. Look to see if you can find a single one of the above 6 routes to see you home? Trying a little of bit of every thing is nearly always a recipe for disaster. In some circumstances you may need to combine 2 of the 6 (like ruffing in dummy and finessing in a side suit, etc.), but go for as simple a plan as possible. 

You have 3♥ losers, 1♣ loser and perhaps a ♠ loser if the ♠J does not come down in 3 rounds.  While the number 6 is the smallest 'perfect number' (=1+2+3, the sum of its positive dividers excluding the number itself), this hand is far from 'perfect/EZ' to play because you have 4 of the above 6 options available to choose from: 1. ruffing at least one ♥ in dummy; 2. setting up the ♦Q, an honor card that is nearly high; 3. setting up the ♣suit to pitch a loser on dummy's 5th club; 4. establishing and/or cashing 3 side suit winners BEFORE crossruffing 7 trump tricks.  

OMG!  What to do?? The 2nd quickest way to improve your declarer play is to not panic! 
When you have so many 'getting rid of loser' options to consider, it's better if you can see your way to 10 winners and poof!, the losers will take care of themselves: 6 trump tricks in hand+♣A+♣K+♦Q+1♥ ruff in dummy=10 is a plan! Even though it feels as if it took forever to get to this point, time plays funny tricks with your mind at the bridge table: 1-2 minutes often feels like 15-30.  If you point yourself in the right direction, you dramatically increase your chances of success, regardless of whether your plan is yet fully formed. 

You know you can't pull trump (you won't get a ♥ruff) and you know you can't cash a 2nd high♣ (LHO will ruff), so you confidently call for the ♣A at trick 1, knowing you have to play a red suit at trick 2.  Since the ♥A is 'sure' to be with your left hand opponent ("LHO"), the ♦A is most likely with your right hand opponent ("RHO"). You call for dummy's ♦K (intending to let it ride if not covered) knowing that whether the ruffing finesse succeeds or not, the ♦Q will become a trick, part of the 10 you've planned to take.  You ruff RHO's ♦A and implement the ♥ruff part of your plan by playing the ♥K putting LHO on lead: now void in ♣'s, anything he returns merely furthers your plan, WOW!!  When he returns the ♦J, you stay with your plan, ruff in hand, ruff a ♥ in dummy and excitedly get ready to claim 10 tricks after you draw the outstanding trumps! 

BALK!!😒  After the ♥ruff in dummy, ♠A+♠K, LHO shows out, meaning RHO has a sure trump trick with ♠Jx remaining.  But by now🤞🤞, you've learned not to panic, so you again 'pause for the cause' with 6 tricks already in-the-bag here:

                                                   ♠ -
                                                   ♥ -
                                                   ♦ Q7
                                                   ♣ K873
                                                                       ♠ J6
                                                                       ♥ -
                                immaterial                        ♦ 86
                                                                       ♣ QJ

                                                   ♠ QT
                                                   ♥ 9
                                                   ♦ -
                                                   ♣ T95

It doesn't matter if you followed all the play to this point or can see in your 'mind's eye' the cards RHO has remaining.  All you have to do is proceed as you planned:  cross to the ♣K, cash the ♦Q (bringing your trick total to 8), sit back and relax to take your 5th & 6th ♠tricks, again as planned. Who says bridge is too hard and isn't fun😊?    

In the above post (same hand as this, please take another look to review?), after the ♣2 was led, you paused for thought before calling for the ♣A at trick 1.  Faced with an overwhelming 4 of the 6 choices for 'getting rid of losers' in a suit contract, you didn't panic👍. You decided instead to look at 'counting winners' and came up with a plan for 10 tricks: 6 trump tricks in hand+♣A+♣K+♦Q+♥ruff in dummy=10.  Recognizing that to succeed you could neither draw trumps (no ♥ruff) nor cash a 2nd high club (LHO would likely ruff), you 'confidently' pointed yourself in the right direction by knowing that you had to play a red suit from dummy at trick 2.  You played the ♦K & things went swimmingly😊!

Suppose instead, now back to the future😊, you choose to lead a ♥ towards your ♥K on the off-chance the ♥A is on your right?  While you don't expect that finesse to work, even when it loses, you'll still have advanced your plan of ruffing a ♥ in dummy.  It's also a 'perfect' way to proceed and again leaves LHO on lead with nothing to do but help you😜.  If he continues ♥'s or with the ♦J, you ruff in dummy and lead the ♦K (or vice versa) and proceed as you did in the previous post.  If he switches to a trump, you've got your 6 trump winners sewn up and after ruffing a ♥ in dummy, you can play for an overtrick (having lost only 1 trick thus far) by calling for the ♦K here:

                                                                      ♠ -
                                                                      ♥ -
                                                                      ♦ KQ752
                                                                      ♣ K873

                                                                       ♠ AKQT7
                                                                       ♥ 9
                                                                       ♦ -
                                                                       ♣ T95

If RHO plays the ♦A, you ruff, pull the outstanding trumps, cross to dummy's ♣K, discard the ♥9 on the established ♦Q and give up a ♣.  The 4th round of ♣ 's is now good, so you lose only 1♥+1♣, making 5.  If RHO doesn't play the ♦A, you discard the ♥9 and make 5 as before unless LHO turns up the ♦A and you take 6♠ in hand+♣A+♣K+♦Q+♥ruff in dummy=10.  On tough suit contract hands with lots of/too many choices for 'getting rid of losers', a good 'counting winners plan' will often dramatically improve you chances of success by pointing you in the right direction!  

Again, it's not important if you don't see all 52 cards in your 'minds eye' at once or ever.  While practice, study & repetition do 'make perfect', if you get only as far 'counting 10 winners' and recognizing that you must play a red suit from dummy at trick 2, you are already well on-the-road to increasing your skill at and enjoyment of this wondrous and beautiful game. 💕  

QUESTION:  After the ♣2 lead (4th best), how should I play 3NT?

ANSWER:  When you have more than 1 option for which suit to play, here's a good rule to help you decide 'Which Suit Do I Play First?': PLAY the suit which if what you hope for DOES NOT happen, you are left with the chance to try the option in the other suit.  To use a sports analogy, 'make the play which keeps you in the ball game if it doesn't work'. 

In 3NT, you have 7 top winners (3♠+2♥+1♦+1♣=7).  You need to build 2 more, but as soon as you surrender the lead, the opponents will cash 3 club tricks.  While dummy's spade suit may look tempting since a 3-3 split gets you the 2 extra you need to land your game, 64% of the time that will not happen.  If you then give up a spade to establish dummy's 5th spade (leaving you still a trick short), you will have no way to get back to dummy to cash it without having to lose 3♣+1♠+1♦ (unless the ♦K drops singleton under your ♦A).  So after the spades don't split, you must play on diamonds.  You need to build 2 additional tricks (you already counted the ♦A in the 7 toppers you started with) without losing the lead.   Why?  Because they are waiting to cash 3 club tricks: 3♣+1♦+ the spade trick you were nice enough to set up for them=5 for down1 (a/k/a "Don Juan", the Latin Lover💕)😊.  You will then need to be so extremely lucky as to catch the ♦K onside singleton or doubleton (a remote chance). Suppose instead, you start by playing on diamonds.  If you lose 1 trick in the process of trying to build 2 additional tricks in that suit (remember you already counted the ♦ A in your 7), the defense will only be able to cash 3♣+1♦ and you will still 'be in the ball game' to try for a 3-3 spade break if diamonds don't give you the 2 extra tricks you need. 

Don't worry if you didn't follow all the above details & percentages.  All you need to see is that losing 1 trick trying the diamonds first isn't fatal: you can then get lucky in either diamonds or spades.  Trying spades first sets up the 'Don Juan😊' trick for the defense when spades aren't 3-3 unless you are exceptionally lucky in diamonds.  The KEY to becoming a good, solid declarer is to point yourself in the right direction by playing the correct suit first, giving yourself the best chance of success!

So how should you play the diamond suit upon winning the ♣A in dummy?  If you needed 3 additional tricks, low to the ♦J would be best, hoping to be 'exceptionally lucky' as described above (♦K onside singleton or doubleton) .  But you started with 7 winners and need only 2 additional, so the right play is to start with dummy's ♦Q because of the ♦98 behind it.  If the ♦K is onside, regardless of whether EAST covers (you win, cash the ♦J and give up a trick to the ♦T if it doesn't drop) or not, you take at least 2 additional tricks in diamonds.  If the ♦K is offside, you still have two chances: the ♦T comes down or spades split 3-3.  Once again, you try the diamonds first: if the ♦T doesn't come down (leaving you still 'in the ball game'), then you play for 3-3 spades.

Trying the option which leaves you 'in the ball game' when it doesn't succeed is an invaluable skill to have not only as declarer but on defense as well!

QUESTION:  I can see that 7♠ is cold because the ♣K is onside, but how does NS get to 6♠ with so few HCPs?

ANSWER:  Marty Bergen, winner of many National Bridge titles, also authored several bridge books including one entitled "Points Schmoints!"   This hand might well have been a candidate for his book to illustrate one of Marty's main themes:  having a big trump fit and shortness in the opponents' suit(s) completely changes the traditional HCP calculus in competitive auctions.  With a massive 11-card fit in the boss ♠suit and voids in the suits the opponents are bidding, the 40HCP deck is 'transformed' into a 21HCP deck, in which NS hold 18, by 'Points Schmoints magic':  EW's ♥AKQJ and ♦AKQ disappear into thin air!  

Dealt a virtually solid 7-card ♠suit and a void in Right Hand Opponent's ("RHO's") ♦suit, even with 9HCP, South has a near-automatic 3♠ bid (at favorable vulnerability, some might venture 4♠ though a bit risky opposite a passed partner).  After West routinely bids 4♥, the spotlight is on 'passed 9HCP' North.  Now free from the old 'HCP handcuffs' and recognizing that both sides have a big major suit fit, North considers that ♦shortness in the South hand might be all that's needed for slam.  Boldly, North cue bids 5♥ (1st round control) to suggest "a ♠slam may be possible, even though I am a passed hand".  With a ♦void, South happily jumps to 6♠, ending the auction.  Somewhere, Marty smiles 😊.

QUESTION:  After South opens 2♥ in 2nd seat, should West double or bid 2♠ ?

ANSWER:  For many years, after a 1-level suit or a weak 2-bid opening by Right Hand Opponent ("RHO"), players were taught to double and then bid a new suit to show 17+HCP with a decent suit at least 5 cards in length.  With 16HCP, all honors concentrated in the 5-card spade + 4-card club suits AND a singleton in the opponents' suit, the West hand re-evaluates to 17-19, suggesting 'double' (and bidding spades next) as the obvious choice.  Even if North is nice enough not to raise hearts (typically not the case😊), if East bids 3 of either minor, West will have to follow-through with 3♠ to make sure pard gets the intended message.  What could go wrong with that?

Having to bid even 3♠ (let alone 4♠ should North jump to 4♥) with only a 5-card suit may be dangerously high unless East has at least 3 spades.  Without that knowledge, however many spades West bids next is a complete shot-in-the-dark:  repeated heart leads by the defense may cause loss of control of the hand, leading to several undertricks, doubled or not.  Can West do better than a complete gamble with a 5 card suit and 16-18HCP?

The answer is 'YES', but only when near the lower end of 17+ (19+ is so strong as to require starting with X).   By reversing the order from "X, then bid a new suit"  to "bid a new suit, then X" in this  (and similar) situation(s), West 1st shows 5(or 6 so-so) spades by starting with 2♠ (recall that direct overcalls at the 2level show approx. at least opening strength, so this 16HCP example is at the upper end but within that guideline).  IF 3♥ or 4♥ comes back, "X" at West's next turn is NOT FOR PENALTY:  it merely says "I have extra values for my 2♠ bid, primarily outside their trump suit in which I am short (usually a singleton or void, never longer than 2).  Since it appears the opps have a bunch of trumps between them, I have no way of knowing whether my high cards outside of their trump suit will cash:  if you are weak with 3+card support for my suit, support it;  if you are weak with a long suit of your own, bid it;  do not rush to pass unless you think you have a chance to contribute 2(+) tricks to the defense.  I want to proceed further, but I need your help to decide what to do."

Here, going -500 in 5♣X is an excellent score vs. going -620/-790 against 4♥/4♥X or at least -800 in 4♠X.  If you and your regular (ONLY 😊) partner want to try this type of 'cooperative X' in competitive auctions, remember these 3 rules:   1.  At lower levels, cooperative X's are more takeout and less penalty; as the level moves higher, cooperative X's gradually move from more takeout/less penalty to less takeout/more penalty,  BUT THEY are never 100% either, always 'cooperative'.    2. If the partner of the cooperative Xer has not bid or shown values, the X is more takeout than penalty (as in the above example hand).   3. If the partner of the cooperative Xer has freely bid or shown values, the X is more penalty than takeout.

QUESTION:  Since partner would surely have opened with 12HCP (nearly everyone does these days), knowing that EW have at most 25 HCP between them, should West PASS or bid 3NT?

ANSWER:   Bidding is all about the 'context' of the auction as it unfolds rather than just combined HCPs.  The best way for a partnership to grow is to view each and every bid as one of the following:

       Game-forcing (may or may not be slammish, depending on the exact sequence)                                 Invitational-to-Game                                or                      LESS

If you think about it, all the bidding sequences & conventions you've used or come across fit into one of the above 3 categories?  Other than when it has a specific game-forcing or conventional meaning, 2NT always conveys an Invitational-to-Game message:  "Pard, if you are more than minimum, let's go to at least game somewhere."    With 14HCP and 5 decent ♦'s, West has more than the minimum 12-13HCP he might have opened with.  As such, trusting partner, West must go to game somewhere, despite being unable to count a combined 26HCP for EW.  Having reached that point, holding an unbalanced hand, West should bid 3♠  to transmit the following message to partner:  "I am more than minimum, let's get to game as you suggest, but we might belong in spades or diamonds rather than NT.  I leave the final decision to you."  Regardless of whether East chooses 3NT or 4♠, dropping the ♦Q assures EW of making game for a good result.  It turns out that your side does not always need a combined 26HCP to make 3NT,4♥ or 4♠.  This is particularly true when the bidding tells you where most/all of the opponents' high cards are located, which often makes the declarer play much easier. 

QUESTION:  How high does the Michaels convention apply?

ANSWER:  If partner has not yet had a turn to call OR passed at their 1st turn before you had your 1st chance to call, a direct cue bid of the opps' suit is presumed to be Michaels, showing BOTH Majors (if a minor is cue bid) OR the OTHER Major + an unspecified minor (if a Major is cue bid).   While some partnerships make different agreements (natural, stopper ask or ??), such cue bids are widely recognized as Michaels, regardless of the level at which they are made.  There is only one caveat:  sometimes you or prd may have a  very strong+long 1-suited game force with shortness in the opps' suit.  Rather than jumping to game which is often pre-emptive and runs the risk of missing slam, you intend to start with "X" and then jump to game to convey the 'strong, GF' message to prd.   All is well and good except when you are unlucky enough to catch partner weakish, with 5-7cards in the opps suit, they PASS and the opponents make their low level dbld contract or go down less than your game or slam :((    So you should consider a direct cue bid as described above is presumed to be Michaels with the understanding that if you then bid game in a different suit than prd bids in response, that shows the strong,GF 1-suiter.

QUESTION:  Should South have considered bidding more than 4♠  at his/her 1st opportunity?

ANSWER:  Good question!  Deciding how high to pre-empt is not easy.  With so little in high cards and no defensive prospects, South should suspect the opponents are likely cold for at least a small slam, possibly a grand slam.  Bidding 5♠ might have  made it tougher for the opponents?  The 4♠ bid left West room to jump to 6♣.  East, looking at the ♣ A+♣ K then took a reasonable chance at 7♣  knowing West had gambled 6♣ off the A&K of trumps.  A good rule of thumb is to bid enough to make it easy for the opps to stop in game (or 5 of Major) when you think they likely have a small slam (you don't want to push them to it)and tough to explore for 7 when you are 'sure' they have at least a small slam.  If you begin to think in those terms, experience will be your best teacher.