If you can make 5 clubs you have 9 tricks. Good technique is to try and discover the defender's distribution. Win the lead in hand and play 2 rounds of diamonds. Suppose East wins and plays a second spade. Win in dummy and ruff a diamond. If East shows out you know he started with 4 spades, 3 hearts (else he would have bid 1♥) and hence 4 clubs. Now you can pick up the club suit via ♣K and a finesse of the 9. Dummy has a heart entry for a second club finesse. If East follow to the third round of diamonds then you would just finesse the knave of clubs on the second round as the best percentage play in the suit.

This is simply a matter of counting tricks. Win the opening lead and lead the ♠K. Now you can win any return and knock out the remaining high spade. You now make 2 spades, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 3 club tricks. If you cross to dummy with a heart to take a spade finesse, the defence can win and knock out your second heart stop, eventually coming to 2 spades, 2 hearts, and a minor suit trick.

Suppose you win the lead, cross to dummy with a trump and finesse the diamond. The problem is that if this loses and a trump is returned, you are faced with another diamond loser which isn't going anywhere. The solution is simple and just involves counting your tricks. Two diamond ruffs on the table are assured if you win the lead and play Ace and another diamond. SIx trumps, two aces and two ruffs equals ten tricks.

This is a simple matter of counting your tricks. You need 4 spade tricks to fulfil your game so make a safety play in spades by playing a spade to the Ace at trick 2. If the King does not drop, return to hand with a club to lead a second spade towards dummy. This way you cater for East holding a singleton King or whenever spades are 3-2.

If you can bring in the daimonds without loss, you have 12 tricks.  So how do you play the diamonds?

On hands like these, you should try to work out the distribution.  To this end, you must duck at trick 1.  When West continues clubs, East shows out.  You know that West has 7 clubs.  Now play off the major suits. On this hand, West shows out on the third round of spades and the second round of hearts.  Hence his shape is 2137 so know you know how to play the diamond suit.

Equally, if West had followed each time a major suit was played, you would know of his diamond void and could pick up East's Q9xx.

There will be hands where West's shape is still unclear after 6 rounds of majors have been played, but by postponing the decision in the critical suit, you often gain all the clues you need.  Note that if you had played in 6♦, you would have to decide how to play the trump suit very early.  In the light of West's known long clubs, you would probably get the diamond suit wrong.

You know declarer has 6 cards in the majors and hence 7 in the minors.  His ♦K cannot be singleton as he would have played it earlier whilst he had trump entries to dummy so you should take the ♦A when the King is led.  Now count delarer's tricks.  4 spades, 1 heart and 4 diamonds only comes to 9.  If South has ♣KQ you can do nothing, but you must avoid giving declarer an free club trick with the King.  Just exit with a diamond and sit back to collect 2 club tricks when the layout is as shown.

South surely has 6 spades from the bidding and play.  He has taken a heart and will win 2 club tricks with the aid of the finesse.  Hence if declarer holds the ♦A or ♣K, the contract is solid and you must therefore assume that partner holds both of these cards if you are to have any chance.

When the diamond is played from the table, you must rise with the King in order to protect yourself from a possible ruffing finesse in the suit.  If the full hand is as shown and you play low on the diamond, partner wins and gives you your heart trick, but South later ruffs out your ♦K to establish a discard for his losing club.

Counting declarer's tricks is the key to finding the winning defense.

South can have no more than 4 hearts since he preferred to play in no-trumps.  He is also marked with 4 diamonds from partner's lead.  You can draw the infernce that South also holds 4 clubs, else why would partner not lead from a 5 card suit.  The picture is becoming clear.  South has 1444 shape and his singleton spade must be an honour to make up his quota of points.  It follows that you can defeat the contract by taking your ♥K, then laying down the ♠A, continuing with the ♠4 to partners honour card, and scoring 2 further spade tricks on the return.

Were you tempted to switch to a diamond after taking the ♠A?  

You know that declarer started with 2 clubs and 5 hearts.  Hence South holds 6 cards in spades and diamonds.  It doesn't matter how these 6 cards are distributed.  If you rise with the ♠ A and exit with a spade, then you must eventually win a diamond trick to beat the contract. 

If diamonds are 3-2 there will be no problem. You should therefore consider what can be done if the diamonds are 4-1. Ruff a heart in dummy, then a trump to hand and a further heart ruff lets you draw the last trump. Now lead a low diamond from the table. If East plays an intermediate diamond, you duck. If East holds the trick and he started with a singleton, he will have to give you a ruff and discard. If West overtakes to play another diamond, you run it to hand and only lose one trick in the suit.

The contract hinges on how you play the diamonds.  You might expect East to be short in the suit as he has pre-empted in a different suit, but this is not certain.  Win the spade lead and play 1 top diamond: lets say they both follow but no Queen appears.  Now you should cash your heart and club winners in dummy and watch what East plays.  You can infer from the lead of a low spade that East has 7 spades and West 3.  When you play off your winners, you count how many clubs and hearts East held.  If he totals 3 cards in these suits, he figures to hold 3 diamonds and ultimately you will finesse the ♦J.  If East shows 4 cards, you play to drop the diamond, and with more than 4 cards in hearts and clubs, you resign yourself to failure.  Counting is the key.

You should already have a count of South's hand. In the bidding he showed 64 in the majors. You know he has the ♦J else partner would have played this card at trick 1. Hence declarer has a singleton club. You have 3 tricks in your hand and you must do two things. The first is to make sure you do't lose any of  your three tricks and the second is to hope that partner has a heart winner. Rise with the ♣A, cash a diamond and then hope. If you play low at trick 2, hoping that South has a club guess, you risk letting declarer make an impossible game.

This is a very simple hand that declarer got wrong at the table. If the club ten drops you have ten top tricks so it looks tempting to play a club to the King and then reenter hand with a diamond to run the clubs. Unlucky, clubs are 5-1 and you have just gone down. The winning line is simply a matter of counting your tricks. You only need 5 club tricks so just lead clubs from the top. Your club pips guarantee you 5 tricks. 

As always, count your tricks. You have 9 obvious winners so one diamond ruff on the table will suffice. Win the club lead and play ♦Ace and then a small diamond from hand. You can then ruff a diamond and make 10 tricks. If you try to cash the ♦K and diamonds are 6-1, you will be defeated if the hand that ruffs then returns a trump.

You have 7 top tricks and spades offers the best chance of generating 2 more: you also have the chance of a diamond trick if things don't go according to plan. What is the best way to play the spade suit? Bashing out AK and another wins when the suit is 3-3 or there is an unlikely QJ doubleton (in all about 39%) However, if you first play a spade to the 9, and then later lay down the K and Ace, you score 4 spade tricks when the suit beaks 3-3, there is QJ doubleton with West, QJxx with East, or any doubleton honour with East. In all this comes to over 60%, so a significant improvement on the first option.

It looks like you have 4 trumps, 1 ruff, 3 spades and 5 clubs for 13 tricks. Alternatively, you could cross to hand with a spade and ruff a second diamond. Come back on a spade, draw trumps and make 4 trumps, 2 diamond ruffs, 3 spades and 4 clubs. The first line goes off with clubs 5-0. The second line fails if spades are 6-1. Whilst most players are familiar with basic bridge odds such as a finesse 50% or a 3-2 break 68%, they are unaware of the relative odds of the more obsure distributions and you would not find many players who could tell you that a suit breaks 5-0 roughly 4% of the time, and a suit breaks 6-1 roughly 7% of the time, making the first line mentined above nearly twice as good a line albeit on this layout, it fails.

Mark Rogers writes : knowing the odds returning to hand for the second diamond ruff, declarer should use clubs not spades, but if clubs are holding up the second diamond ruff is not necessary!

You have 7 top winners and an extra trick available in hearts. The ninth trick might come from a 3-3 diamond break or you might be able to generate a second heart trick. If dummy had ample entries you could play hearts twice from dummy and succeed whenever the ♥A is onside - a 50% chance. Unfortunately, dummy does not have the requied entries. Still, you do have a 50% chance available and that is better odds than playing for a 3-3 break. You need West to hold the ♥J. Win the spade lead and play a low heart. If West holds the Jack, he can win and clear spades, but if West's lead promises no more than 4 spades, the defence cannot take more than 2 hearts and 2 spade tricks.

The principle of restricted choice applies here. With the ♥QJ East would play the Queen some of the time whereas with a singleton Jack he has no choice. In 7♥ you would enter the South hand and finesse in hearts as the percentage play. However, the advantage of playing in no-trumps rather than hearts is that you do not need to commit yourself to playing the heart suit immediately. The best line is to cash ♠AQ,♦AQ,♣AK,♠K,♣Q and count the oppponents hand. On this layout you discover that West holds 6 spades, 2 diamonds and at least 3 clubs. He cannot therefore hold 3 hearts and hence you play a heart to the King and drop a doubleton QJ. Grand slam made.

If you treat West's card as a singleton, you might still make the contract with a favourable position in the other suits. 2 diamonds, 2 clubs and 2 hearts gives you 6 tricks, 2 top spades and 2 further spades by ruffing a heart in dummy and a diamond in hand would see you home. Hence the best play is to lead the ♦K from dummy at trick 3 and hope for the best. It would be fatal to cash a second top trump as this might allow the defence the opportunity to play 2 more rounds of trumps when they win the ♦A. Were you lucky with the distribution? - Afraid not as a look at the four hands will show. When you play the ♦K, West wins the Ace and gives his partner a diamond ruff. A club ruff in West is followed by a further diamond, promoting East's ♠T. You have been fooled by a brialliant false card from West (playing the King from KJ doubleton). 

A simple line is to pin your hopes on the trump finesse, in which case you will ultimately just lose a club. There is an alternative line however. You may be able to set up a long diamond for a club discard. Win the lead and lay down the ♥A. If the King drops then you have 12 tricks. Let's say both opponents follow small. Now play Ace and another diamond ruffing. You have 2 spade ruffs and the ♣A as entries to dummy to ruff 2 more diamonds and get back to cash to last diamond. All the defence can make is the trump King. The chance of a 4-3 break is around 60% so this line represents a better chance than the simple finesse.

A reader (Roger Miles) wrote it to suggest that testing the diamonds before the hearts gives you an even better chance. By winning the spade and playing ♦A and ruff, spade ruff, diamond ruff high - you will find out if diamonds behave in time to switch to taking the heart finesse when they don't.  This combination adds up to a 78% chance of making!  [And the 60% above is probably an underestimate - it's more like 70%]

This is simply a matter of counting your tricks. Without the spade attack which has removed your sure entry to dummy, you could have played on diamonds and gathered at least 4 tricks in the suit. Now however, if you take a diamond finesse and it holds the trick, you are not well placed. The correct play is to lead hearts and force out the Ace. You have a sure entry to dummy in the diamond suit so the defence cannot prevent you taking 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs.

This hand occurred in a recent match and gave declarer a lot to think about. You have 3 spades (4 if the suit breaks 3-3), 2 hearts on the lead, 1 diamond at least, and at least 3 clubs. You will make 4 club tricks unless clubs break 5-1 or worse offside and neither the King nor 9 are singleton and if you make 4 club tricks you have 9 on top and don't need to knock out the ♦A. This type of hand is much beloved by bridge writers. If West has long hearts (or the suit is 4-4) then the 'book' line is to play a diamond to the queen at trick 2. Suppose this loses and a heart comes back - you insert the ten and this loses and a heart comes back. Now you can take a club finesse into the safe hand - either he has no more hearts or the suit is breaking. The contract looks 100% on this line. The alternative is to run the ♣Q at trick 2. If this loses and the hearts are cleared as before, you make whenever you have 4 club tricks or whenever the spade suit comes in for 4 tricks or when the ♦A is with the short hearts and there may also be some squeeze options.  The chances of a 5-1 or 6-0 club break are 16% - so offside is 8%. Of the 5-1 breaks, one third of the time there will be a singleton K or 9 so we are down to below 6% chance of failure. If this is the case then spades 3-3 reduces it to 4% and ♦A in the right place further reduces it to 2%. Hence it looks like running the ♣Q at trick 2 is a 98%+ line. Ah - but not as good as the 100% line outlined earlier I hear you say.  True, but there was a supposition that West had led from long hearts. If in fact West has led a 3 card suit, then playing a diamond might give East the 2 entries he needs to set up and cash the suit. He will only have the 2 entries 25% of the time and the chances of West having chosen to lead from ♥Kxx are difficult to quantify. However, if we think this lead might be made just 10% of the time, then the club play at trick 2 has the edge and was the line duly taken at the table (after about a 4 minute trance). As a look at the full deal shows, you have 9 tricks whichever line you choose. 

Your only chance is to find the heart suit is blocked and the trumps breaking 1-1, but you still have to prepare the ground properly. Win the lead, play the ♣A and lead the ♣Q, overtaking with the King. Now ruff dummy's last club and exit with a spade. If the cards lie kindly, the defence will only be able to take 2 heart tricks before conceding you a ruff and discard.

One line of play would be to start on setting up your diamond suit. If diamonds and trumps behave you might finish up with a couple of overtricks. However, your contract is 2♥ - not 4♥ and you should concentrate of taking 8 tricks. Having won the ♣Q, cross to dummy with a club and ruff a club in hand. Now cash the ♠A and cross to dummy with a trump to ruff a small spade. At this point you will have won 6 tricks and nothing can deny you ♥KQ.

Mark Rogers pointed out a safer order of play: Surely it is safer to cash SA cross to HA ruff a spade cash HKQ now cross to CA and ruff whichever black card looks less likely to be ruffed if there are any trumps still out. 

By now you shaould have a complete count of the hand. West cannot have a spade for this play (he doesn't know his partner was dealt a trump), hence West must be 0-3-8-2 and East is 8-1-0-4. So all you need to do is draw trumps and play 2 rounds of clubs finishing in dummy. Now exit with the ♦Q throwing a spade from hand. West wins but must lead another diamond allowing you to win in dummy and throw your remaining spade.

You have 10 winners in the form of 4 hearts, 4 diamonds and 2 clubs. There is a danger that one defender might hold ♥Jxxx and a doubleton diamond, in which case you will not be able to cash three trumps and enjoy the diamonds for that defender will ruff the third round and you will be cut off from the suit. The solution is to concede an immediate trick to the ♥J whilst there is still a trump in dummy to cater for a further spade lead. You can do this by leading the ♥T from hand but an improvement is to cross to dummy with a diamond and finesse the ♥T. Then if East has ♥Jxxx you avoid a heart loser. 

You have 2 hearts, 3 spades, and 2 diamond tricks and clubs will provide 2 more. Suppose you win the heart and lead a top club. East will win this trick and fire back a heart. Now when you knock out the remaining high club, West wins and cashes his hearts. Alternatively, you might get lucky in spades and diamonds with each of these suits providing an extra trick so you could have played for this instead. However, that is very poor odds. The best play is to simply duck the heart at trick 1 and win the heart return. Now when you knock out the club honours you will only fail if both top clubs are with the long hearts. If your hearts had been Kxx, ducking the first trick would have been an automatic play - somehow with QJx it looks more tempting to win the first trick but really this is the same position.

This one looks easy. It looks natural to win in hand and play a club to the ten. However, if this loses to the Jack and the second club finesse is also wrong, you may find yourself losing 2 clubs, 2 diamonds and at least one heart. A simple count of tricks shows that you have 4 spades, 1 heart, 3 diamonds and 1 club which is all you need for your contract. Simply win the diamond lead in hand as cheaply as possible and play hearts to establish your heart trick. You do best to cross to a spade and lead a heart to your ten as this gives you chances of overticks when both hearts are onside.

On this hand you have to decide whether to cope with a 4-1 spade break or a 3-1 diamond break. Since the 3-1 break is more likley, ruff the opening lead and cash 2 top spade discarding clubs from hand. Now ruff a spade with the ♦K and lead a trump to dummy. Now lead another spade discarding your last club. The defence is helpless, since you can win any return and cross to dummy drawing the last trump and discard your heart losers on the spades.

You might be tempted to cross to the ♦K and try the heart finesse. You will make if the finesse scores or diamonds break 3-3 or on some hands when West cannot lead another trump when in with the ♥K - so not bad odds. However, winning the first spade and playing ♥AQ is pretty much 100%. You can win the trump return, cross to dummy and ruff your remaining heart. This way you will come to 5 spades in dummy, ♦AK, ♣A and a heart ruff in hand for 10 tricks

5 hearts, 4 diamonds and 2 Aces gives you 11 tricks and the diamond finesse may work for the additional trick you need. It is easy to think that this is your only chance, but a finesse is only 50%. You can improve on that as a 3-2 trump break is 68%. Ruff a spade at trick and continue with the ♥T and a heart to dummy. If either opponent shows out then you revert to the diamond finesse. If trumps prove to be 3-2 you can ruff another spade high, cross to the club Queen for another spade ruff high. The diamond Ace is an entry to draw the last trump. This dummy reversal play increases the number of trump tricks you win from 5 to 6.

The best percentage line is to take the double finesses in clubs, but if for example, you cash another high spade and cross to dummy to take a club finesse, West can win, take his spade winner and exit in hearts. You will have to ruff and now there is no entry to dummy to repeat the club finesse. 

You do better to give up on relying on the spades to break 2-2. Continue with a low trump at trick 4. Now you will always have enough entries to dummy to finesse clubs twice.

To make the contract you need to get a heart ruff in dummy and it looks reasonable to draw the remaining trumps with ♠KA before doing so. However, consider the bidding. West raised diamonds so East opened a four card diamond suit and has turned up with a singleton heart. East's shape is therefore marked as 4144, else he would have opened with 1♣ rather than 1♦. Now the play becomes simpler. Lead a low spade to your 9 (assuming East does't split his honours). Now ruff a heart with the ♠ K, draw trumps and ultimately concede a heart trick.

You have been wondering how to play the clubs. However, if you have been counting the hand as you should, you have no problems. West has shown up with 6 spades, 2 haerts and 5 diamonds - so is void in clubs. Simply discard a third club on the last diamond and West will win and have to give you a ruff and discard, allowing you to dispose of your last club from hand.

You may think you are on a guess in the trump suit, but you can take yourself off such a guess. East is known to have 9 cards in hearts and clubs. If West had a doubleton heart he would probably have led that suit in preference to a club. Lay down a top spade and play a diamond to the Ace and a diamond from the table. If East shows out, then play East for 3 spades. Ruff the third heart and finesse in trumps. If East follows to the second diamond, then the King of spades will drop the Queen. 

If spades break badly, the force has left you poorly placed. However, the contract is secure if trumps break 3-2 provided you are careful. You have 4 diamonds, 2 hearts and 3 spade tricks in hand and your tenth trick can come from a ruff in dummy. At trick 3, duck a trump. Suppose West wins and plays another club through your King. You ruff, play off the Ace of trumps (leaving one outstanding) and then cash 4 rounds of diamonds throwing 2 hearts from dummy. Then you can ruff a heart in dummy for your tenth trick.  The defenders can only make a club and 2 trumps

You have already lost 3 tricks, so need the diamond finesse. The diamond pips are such that you can avoid a loser in the suit even if the suit breaks 4-1. If you lead the ♦Q at this point, this will be covered and you will not know what to do after returning to hand with a spade. East might be 2227 or 3217 shape. In order to reveal the distribution you must cash the ♠A before playing the ♦Q. Now you return to hand with a spade ruff and see how many spades East started with, allowing you to take a deep finesse on the next round if you know that East started with a singleton. West cannot split his 98 as you still have a trump entry back to hand.

You may have been tempted at this point into playing off 3 rounds of diamonds and hoping that West has to win and give you the ♠K.  However, this would be poor play as West is known to hold 3 hearts, 3 clubs, and surely 5+ spades for his vulnerable overcall.  The winning line depends upon assuming that West holds the Ace of spades (a pretty good bet) - simply cash the ♦ AK and exit with the ♠K.  Now you will either lose 3 spade tricks or 2 spades and a diamond trick (depending on who wins the second round of spades) but then either opponent must conced you a ruff and discard for your contract. 

You have a club loser and a probable diamond loser, so need to avoid losing 2 hearts. It looks tempting to throw West in with a club at this point, but he may be able to safely with a diamond, and you may later lose a diamond and 2 hearts. Provided diamonds are 3-2, you can make sure of the contract by taking the diamond finesse at this point. West is marked with 7 points in the black suits and passed originally.  If he has the ♦K then he can't hold the ♥A. If the ♦Q holds, continue with the ♦A and if the King has not dropped, exit with a club.  West will then have to open up the hearts or concede a ruff and discard.