It looks normal to win the Ace and return a diamond, but there is danger in this play. Suppose declarer wins the King and leads a club. Now partner will not know whether or not declarer has a club guess to make and may well duck his Ace. You have information tat partner does not hold. You know that you have 2 further defensive tricks and hence you should lead a club at trick 2 to force partner to take his Ace. Of course, you have no defence if partner does not hold the ♣A

Spades offers the best chance of defensive tricks. Win the lead and switch to a spade. However, your choice of which card to play is critical. When you hold cards which surround dummy's highest, together with a higher card, the best play is to lead as though dummy's high card is in your hand. Hence switch to the ♠T. As the cards lie, this beats the contract.

Prospects are bleak. Any minor suit finesses that declarer may need appear to be working. Your best chance is that partner holds something in trumps. Start by playing 3 rounds of spades. Say that declarer wins the third spade in dummy and plays a trump to his ten and partner's Queen. Now a fourth spade from partner will allow you to ruff with your ♥K, promting a second trump trick if partner's hearts are as good as Q9x. A slim chance, perhaps, but no other defence is ever going to set the contract.

You should win the ♠K and take stock. You know from partner's play at trick 1 that South holds the ♦Q and hence there are no defensive tricks to be had in the red suits. Your only hope is that partner holds the ♣A in which case King and another club would get you a ruff in the suit and defeat the contract.

Your defense so far has been based upon South holding a singleton spade. If declarer has 6 trumps, you won't be beating this contract, so assume he only has five. If that is the case, declarer never has more than 5 trump tricks and 2 spades outside of the diamond suit and hence if you exit with a trump, you must always come to a diamond trick. It doesn't matter that leading a trump takes declarer off a trump guess, beating the contract is what matters.

The diamond suit in dummy is threatening and it looks attractive to return a heart at trick 2 and then hold up the ♦A to cut declarer off from all those winners.  However, this is muddled thinking.  Partners lead is fourth highest or second from a bad suit.  If the latter, then declarer holds ♠AK, and would not have let you win the first trick with ♠Q.  Hence partner holds ♠AKxx(x) and you beat the contract quite simply by cashing ♦A at trick 2 and then reverting to spades.  Why is it important to play off the ♦A? - Well you may only have one chance to make a discard if partner has only 4 spades and partner may not realise of the necessity of a diamond switch when the layout is as above - always wrap partner in cotton wool when you can!

It may look safe enough to continue with a high spade, but this is not necessarily the case. Declarer can ruff the third spade and eliminate clubs before playing a trump, end-playing you into opening up the diamond suit to your disadvantage. The solution is simple. On the bidding, you are never winning 2 trump tricks so you should cash the ♥A before exiting with a spade. This will be enough to beat the contract anytime that was possible.

The key to this hand is watching which card partner led.  The most common style in this country is small from an honour, and second best from a bad suit.  Here after the first round, the choice is whether partner had KQ87 and led small or partner had 8752 and led high.  You cannot rule out either of these but there was a chance of leading a top diamond with the first and since declarer has about 13 hcp compared to partner's about 7 hcp, the odds clearly favour the weaker hand.

So you want to switch, but to which suit?  Clubs are about to be cashed and you are playing for declarer to have two diamond winners, so it must be a major.  Partner chose not to lead hearts, so that's not too promising. So it has to be spades.  The spade layout is a text-book situation - you must lead the ♠J to avoid declarer running a small spade round to the ten, and so setting up a trick with the queen.  When the ♠J holds (covering it would be fatal, as John Stirrup realised), you need to continue the suit and partner wins the ace and returns one.

It is disappoining when declarer turns up with four spades, but you win the king and try a heart.  Declarer claims the rest but reward comes in the form of 14/16 matchpoints, because the other diamonds leads did not find the spade switch, and the heart leads gave declarer both a trick and a tempo.

From the lead, South has Jxxx clubs.  In principle, a player who leads from Kx against a partscore contract normally has - or ought to have - a trump control.  Otherwise the lead is too risky.  After the lead you have 3 clubs and partners assumed spade winner.  The ♦A makes 5.  There isn't really room for him to hold the ♦K or ♥A, but you could play for him to hold ♦xxx. If you continue with a third and fourth round of clubs, partner can pitch 2 diamonds.  He can then win the ♠A and obtain a diamond ruff instead of the club ruff that he was originally expecting.

Win the ace and lead a spade to partner's ace so partner can lead a club through declarer's king. How do you do know partner has the ♠A?  If declarer had it, why didn't he lead a spade at trick two to get to his hand to pitch a club on the ♥A?

Elementary, my dear Watson.

Declarer might have queen doubleton in hearts so you play off the two top hearts and find to your dismay that West, who started with ♥Q85, fails to unblock the queen.  After cashing your 3 heart tricks, declarer is able to win any return and cash 9 tricks.  Could this disaster have been avoided or is it just one of those things?  A simple convention (commonsense play really) is 'unusual play calls for unusual play'.  Knowing that you want your partner to unblock if he holds Qxx, you should play off the Ace and King of hearts in that order - rather than the King and then the Ace.  There are many similar situations where this kind of play will help, for example when dummy has xxx and East leads the suit from AKJT

This is not a complicated affair, but is an area where misunderstandings occur.  You must certainly switch to a diamond.  If you instead play a heart say, declarer will have enough entries to establish a tenth trick by means of a ruffing finesse against partner's queen of clubs.  Also, South is not that likely to hold the ♦K after he has opened 3♠.  At the table, West cashed the ♦A, East encouraging, and continued with the ♦Q.  After some thought, East overtook the Queen with the ♦K and returned another diamond for West to ruff!  East played west for a doubleton diamond and thought that instead of leading the Queen, West would have done better to continue with ♦2.  Then if East takes this for a doubleton and returns the suit, no harm is done.  However, might not East think that West holds 4 diamonds?  If that is the case, East might well reason that West has a singleton club and return a club for West to ruff.

The solution is for West to switch to the ♦Q at trick 2.  When this holds, he continues with Ace and another and the scope for misunderstandings is eliminated.

It's clear that you need at least two tricks between clubs and hearts outside of the SA to defeat this contract. In other words, partner needs either the ♥Q or the ♣AQ if he does not have the ♥Q. If you play the ♥K and it loses to the ace, as it surely will, and a spade is led driving out your ace, which suit are you going to return?   The way to avoid the guess is to play the ♥J at trick one!  Partner is not underleading the ♥A into the strong hand so declarer has that card.  If the ♥J loses to the ace, you will know it is right to continue with hearts when in with the ♠A.  If the ♥J loses to the queen, you will know it is right to switch to a club. Third hand high does have some exceptions, you know.

The first thing to recognise is that declarer now had available three club tricks and four diamond tricks. So you will only beat this by cashing major suit winners.  Also, declarer has shown up already with 12 hcp, from an expectation of 15-17, so you expect there to be just one high card hidden in declarer's hand.

If declarer has the ♠K you are going to need to cash five hearts to beat the contract, which means partner needs to have ♥KQxxx  and has not taken the chance to bid then after 1♣-P-1♦; it could happen.  The alternative is to play partner for the ♠K and declarer for the ♥K.   Ideally partner's play in diamond would give you a hint, but after showing the count partner had a choice of two sequences for the last two cards.  One of these sequences has to be neutral and that was the one you saw.

The best option is to start with the ♠A and see if partner encourages or discourages.  That seems to cater for both possibilities. Here the ♠A fetched an encouraging deuce (notice the importance of reverse attitude here - you could not afford to encourage with a high card).  Now continuing with the ♠J generated four spade tricks.  It wasn't hard for West to play through the ♥Q after that and the contract was down one.

You have 3 tricks and if partner holds the ♣K he will surely make it.  The more interesting card is the ♥K.  If declarer holds ♥ AQ, a finesse will give him the contract.  Can you talk him out of this winning line?  One possibility for declarer is to play for a squeeze which would operate if you held ♥K as well as 4 clubs.  You might try nudging him in this direction by discarding ♥J.  This is a good try but there is a better play.  What about underruffing, like a man seeking to postpone the evil day?  When later you discard two hearts, declarer might assume you have left yourself with a singleton King.  This defensive idea is quite easy to remember: when you know that you must guard one suit, pretend that you hold a critical card in another suit.

The key question is what to expect of partner outside hearts.  It looks likely (but not certain) that partner has a singleton spade, but even a doubleton and a weak hand would justify the raise just to make life difficult for the opposition, so you don't know much about values.  You are expecting declarer to have all the top spades, so you have a trick in that suit, and two heart tricks.  The heart tricks will not disappear unless declarer has a singleton diamond, so you don't have to cash.  What might partner have that is useful?  Only the ♣K is really an option, and you might need to takcle that before decalrer can discard losing clubs on diamonds.

Most players pushed out a club at this point and declarer drew trumps and soon had 10 tricks (which two careless defenders allowed to become 11).  But two defenders continues with the second top heart and then a third. East can now ruff the third heart with the ♠9 and declarer has a dilemma. The contract can be made by over-ruffing and playing a small spade to the ♠T but the game is match-points and this gives up all chance of an overtrick.  So these declarers cashed spade from the top and found they now had two spade losers. Well done to West who had now defeated the contrct.

The heart raise in the auction shown had in a way backfired; without the raise the first heart from East could have been a singleton, which makes West much more inclined to cash a second one.  After the second one is cashed, it is late for a club as the ♥Q provides a discard (for something) and a third heart stands out as the normal play.

Top score however went to people not playing the hand in spades; one way to get to the easy 3N is the auction that goes  2♥ - P - P - 2♠ - P - 3N - end.   Two tables managed to play in 3N and made 11 tricks for a shared top.

Partner could have 2 tricks in the black suits in which case the contract is always down, but in reality that is very unlikely.  A more likely way to beat the contract is to win 2 diamond tricks and a black King from partner.  The best defense is to continue with a low diamond at trick 2.  Look at all four hands and you will see that although this switch is by no means certain to succeed, it represents your best chance. 

If partner has no entry, then declarer has 9 tricks (at least), so your defence should focus on this fact. You know that a diamond switch from West will beat the contract and to encourage partner in that direction, you should win the first trick with the ♥K (denying the Queen) and switch to the ♣6. That way partner will hopefully see no future in anything other than a diamond switch when he eventually gets in.

Jack write: what if partner has xx-xxxx-xxx-Kxx and places you with something like xxx-Kxx-Axx-AJ86? Declarer may very well have bid and played this way with Ax-Qxx-QJxxx-Txx, no? And you would certainly have defended that way with that hand. Would the 9S at trick 2 not be clearer?

You should project the hand to a four card end position in which dummy has the lead  with ♠10♥ AKJ.  If you are down to ♠A♥ Q83 then declarer plays a spade and you concede the last 3 tricks.  You need to keep your hearts so must discard the ♠A, playing partner for the ♠K.  He can then win trick ten and lead a heart to beat the contract.  Yes you could have cashed the first 2 tricks but why should West lead a spade.  

It is rare to beat a slam by Jettisoning an Ace - rarer still to do it in a suit bid by declarer.   

Even when your style is to signal to show length, there are times when you can make a nore meaningful signal.  With this diamond holding, why not play the Q♦ as East at trick one.  This card guarantees holding the knave.  Then at trick 2, West can lead a low diamond for East to win.  At this point, East knows there are no more diamond tricks to take so switches to the 8♥.  Now all West has to do is cover Souths card to ensure that he will eventually come to 2 tricks in the suit.

Consider declarer's hand.  He has at most 4 points in hearts and 1 in clubs - thus he must hold the ♠A to have the values to respond at the 2 level and also a likely 6 card club suit.  It is clear that you must win the Ace of Clubs whilst the club suit is blocked, and attack declarer's spade entry.  Ideally, you would put partner in withe his ♥Q for a spade switch.  However, the defence is not so clear from partners side and if you return a heart, do not be surprised if West ducks to preserve communications with your hand (playing you for 3 hearts and say the ♠ A).  The correct defence is to win the ♣A and continue with the ♠K.  If declarer ducks this trick, another spade cuts the link between the N/S hands. This is guaranteed to beat the contract and must be your number 1 priority.

What can partner have in diamonds?  He can't have J2, he would have played the J. He can't have QJ2, he would have played the queen. He either has Q2, or a singleton deuce. In either case it is safe to lead the D10 as a suit preference play. If partner ruffs he will return a spade and if partner wins the queen he will return a spade. Foolproof.

Knowing partner cannot throw a queen under a king lead to show a doubleton, allowances have to be made for partner holding Qx.

Partner most probably holds 5 hearts for his pre-emptive raise, so it looks like the setting trick will need to come from the minors.  On the bidding South may well hold 6 spades together with a singleton heart.  You know from partners ♣2 that declarer holds an even number of clubs and hence also an even number of diamonds.  If declarer has 4 clubs then partner has a club ruff for an easy one off.  Can you prevail when declarer has a doubleton club and 4 diamonds?  

Given time, declarer will set up 2 extra club tricks for diamond discards so how do you stop that happening?

At trick 2 you must continue with the other top club.  If partner shows out, give him a ruff.  If partner follows, then play a third club.  Declarer will discard a diamond on this trick, but when you win the first round of spades and play a fourth round of clubs, partner can ruff, preventing the crucial extra diamond discard.  In the fullness of time, East will take the setting trick in diamonds.

With an alert partner, it would be 100% correct to play a fourth round of hearts for a trump promotion.  

Why?

Well, if partner held the A♣ he should have ruffed your third heart trick and cashed the setting trick.  On hands like these, you need to trust partner.  If you are still on lead after the third trick, then partner cannot hold A♣ and the trump promotion is the only option. 

This hand requires but a moment's thought. You have two tricks and if you discard a club on the third diamond, you will come to two trump tricks as declarer will lack the entries to dummy to pick up your trumps. If you make the mistake of ruffing the third diamond, you score the trick but it is now a simple matter for South to use dummy's club entries to take take two heart finesses and make the rest.

Declarer seems poised to run off a bundle of tricks in the red suits not to mention the three spades tricks he has available if he leads low to the 8. Clearly you must shift to clubs and you are looking for four tricks in the suit so you must project some club holding where that is possible. It is barely possible that partner has AQxx in which case you can start with either the king or jack and then play the other honor to unblock the suit and then a little one to partner's AQ. 

Of course things are not always quite that easy. Partner may also have A108x in which case you must start with the jack as declarer has Q9xx. If you start with the king and then the jack, declarer covers with the queen and the 9 morphs into a fourth round stopper. This is a good card combination to remember.  

Leading the second highest card from holdsing such AJx, A10x, KJx, K10x, A9x, K9x, Q10x and Q9x when trying for four tricks  is almost always the right play when the dummy to your right has a small singleton or doubleton. Of course, partner has to realize that you are up to such plays!  

Suppose you return the ♠K at trick 2.  It is not difficult to see that you be subjected to a squeeze in the black suits as South is marked with long diamonds and all the outstanding values.  Declarer will win the spade, cash all his trumps, and cross to dummy with the ♣A.  the ♥K will then squeeze you as you have to make a discard from ♠Q, ♣ QJ.  There is a defence to this squeeze and that is to make an early attack on the squeeze card.  If you reyrn a heart at trick 2, South must make a premature discard.  He probably throws a club, but then East retains the top spades in his hand in the endgame and trusts partner to look after the club suit.  On this hand, the saving card is West's ♣8

Presumably partner would play the 7 from a heart holding of A976, so it looks as if you will be able to take another heart trick.  The ♠A is a third trick and if partner leads a diamond when in with the ♥A, the ruff will beat the contract.  How do you go about getting your ruff?

The problem with playing another high heart is that partner will not overtake, losing his entry.  One way to avoid this would be to lead a low heart at trick 2.  This would force partner to win the Ace. However, there is no guarantee that East will return a diamond as a club switch may look very attractive from his point of view.  You might try cashing the ♠A before exiting with a low heart.  This should pinpoint the ♣A with South (if East is awake).  There is a better play than this - at trick 2 switch to a high club.  Then win the ♠A at the earliest opportunity and return a low heart.  East will be forced to win and the diamond switch should now be completely obvious as the only possible setting trick.