You hope that the ♣K is onside, but you have other chances. You need to eliminate the red suits so careful management of entries is important. Win the ♥J and ruff a spade. Play the ♦J to your Queen (the trumps break) and ruff another spade. Now you can play a trump to your 7 in hand to ruff the last spade. Now you can play Ace and another heart ruffing in dummy. With the red suits eliminated, you now play Ace and another club, playing the Queen from dummy if West follows low. You then succeed whenever the ♣ K is on-side or when East holds King doubleton.

If the club finesse works then your problems are over. However, does that look likely on the lead? If the club finesse loses, you will be reduced to dropping the ♦Q doubleton. There is an alternative line that gains whenever the player with the ♣K also holds the ♦Q. Rise with the ♣A (on a good day the King will fall) and assuming it doesn't, play Ace and another heart ruffing in hand. A diamond to dummy allows for another heart ruff in hand. Now cash your spades before exiting in trumps. If trumps are 2-2, whoever wins this trick is end-played (you hope) and of course you still have the chance of dropping the diamond Queen if it turns out that the clubs were 3-1.

You have many chances, Even if you have a heart loser, you might be able to dispose of a club on the spades or the club finesse might be right. Good technique is to win the ♦A and ruff a diamond at trick 2. Now cash a top heart (assume both follow suit). Cross to dummy with the ♣K and ruff another diamond. Now play a spade to the King and lead the ♥J, running this card if East plays low. If East has the ♥Q you are home and and West wins he is endplayed and you have no black suit loser. If East shows out when you lead the ♥J, rise with the King and exit with a third heart. If West started with only 3 diamonds, he is endplayed and if not, you still have your chances in the black suits.

This one should be easy for regular readers of this feature. The deal screams end-play. Win the lead and draw trumps fishing in hand. Now ruff a heart, cross back to the club King and ruff your last heart. Now Ace and another club forces the player who wins this trick to either open up the spade suit or concede a ruff and discard.

What seemed a trivial hand just got a bit more tricky. You will need to engineer a trump coup to prevent East from scoring a trump trick. For a trump coup to work you need to reduce your trump length to be the same as East and you then need to be leading a card from dummy at the critical end stage. This is easy to achieve provided East holds 3 hearts. Cash another high spade in dummy and ruff a club. Now play 3 rounds of hearts finishing on the table. If East has followed you are home. Lead a heart winner from dummy. If East ruffs you overruff and draw trumps and you are left with a winning diamond. If East discards, then so do you and you remain on the table to lead another heart, killing East's trump holding.

It looks like West has led from ♠Txxx and you can set up a long spade. If clubs break, or a critical red suit card is onside you are home. You are however, vitually certain to make this contract if you play correctly. Win the lead and cash 3 rounds of clubs and only then follow with three more rounds of spades. West can win and perhaps cash a club, but will then have to give you an extra red suit trick at his next lead.  

With 11 top tricks and 12 if spades are 4-1, there may be a spade-diamond squeeze against the defender with long spades if they break 5-0. If you cash even 1 spade and duck a diamond, the defender with 5 spades might win and return a spade, killing the squeeze. The timing is key. Win 2 top hearts and 2 top clubs before playing a spade to dummy. If they prove to be 5-0, play a diamond and cover East's card. If East has 5 spades and inserts the ♦J, win the King and pass the ♦T. Say East wins and exits with a spade. You win on the table and cash the ♦A, discarding the ♥Q. Now you can cash the ♥J and discard a top club. Now the ♣J from dummy squeezes East when he holds the long diamond as well as his 5 spades. If East had played low on the first diamond, you insert the ten. If this loses you can unblock the diamond King before crossing in spades to achieve the same ending. If West had the long spades, the your play would be the King and duck the next diamond.  

You need to engineer an endplay on East, else you have 4 losers. You will need to cash 2 high clubs and use the heart entry in dummy to ruff the last diamond. Now if the ♥K and a heart ruff stands up, you are home. Exit with a club. West wins and must play a red card on which you discard a club from both hands. East only has spades left so must ruff this trick and concede the last 2 tricks to the split spade tenace.

One of your spade losers can go on the ♦A, but barring an exceptionally lucky layout in the spade suit, you will need a squeeze for your eleventh trick. If West holds length in spades (or QJx) together with the ♦Q, he will be stuck in the end-game. Take a second top trump and cash the ♦K. Cross to dummy in trumps and play the ♦A, then if the Queen has not fallen, run your trumps. Dummy comes down to ♠Kx ♦J, whilst you have ♠ AT9. If West started with the diamond and spade guards, he will have to relinquish one of them on the last trump. 

From the lead it looks like West has a 5 card suit and East a doubleton (if the lead is fourth highest and there is only one card lower that you cannot see then West can't have more than 5). On the bidding, West is likely to have all the missing Kings so the heart finesse looks doomed to fail. There are a number of lines that you could consider but a simple way to succeed would be to win trick one, cash enough diamonds to exhaust West of that suit and then exit with a spade. West can cash 4 spades but then will have to concede your ninth trick by leading from either his ♥K or ♣K.

On top, you have 1 spade, 2 hearts, 3 diamonds and 2 clubs for 8 tricks. With no obvious source of an extra trick, and considering that if you let East win a trick in a side suit, he will have enough tricks to defeat you, consider a squeeze to gain that vital extra trick. It is quite likely that West holds 4 cards or more in both hearts and clubs, and this is what you should play for. In order for the squeeze to operate, you need to rectify the count i.e. get to a postion where you need all of the remaining tricks. Spades is the obvious suit in which to lose tricks. The best play is to duck the ♠9 at trick 3 and also the next spade if East continues the suit. On these tricks you throw 2 small clubs from the dummy. When you ultimately play off your winning spade and cash the diamonds, West is in an impossible situation where he cannot guard against your scoring either the ♥8 on the table or the ♣8 in hand. The contract cannot be beaten once East takes his second top spade at trick 2. If East continues instead with a heart or a club, the defence has the time to kill declarer's entries needed for any squeeze to operate.

You have 2 further diamond losers to dispose of and your plan must be to discard them on dummy's heart suit. You will need to find the ♥K with West. Draw trumps and cash the ♥A. Now play ♣A and a low club to dummy. On the lead of the ♥Q, you discard your ♣K. West can win but his return gives you access to dummy to discard your 2 diamond losers. 

You appear to have good chances. There are 10 top tricks and a club ruff in dummy gives you 11. If one of the red suit finesses works you will be home and there is an additional chance that if the hearts break you will have a diamond discard. However, there is a line that ensures the contract. Win the lead and draw trumps. Now cash the other top club, return to hand in trumps and ruff a club. Now play a heart and cover East's card. Either the ♥8 wins immediately (on the layout shown) or else West wins but must concede a 12th trick on his next lead.

We have seen hands like this before. You must not allow East an early entry to play a heart through else you might be badly placed. The way to achieve this is to duck trick 1 and then discard a club on the ♦A. You will be able to draw trumps and eliminate the minors without losing a trick to East. Finally you play a heart from dummy and cover East's card to endplay West.

You can count 11 tricks and know that West will be under pressure when you cash the major suits. Win the ♣A and play 5 rounds of trumps, followed by 3 hearts finishing on the table. Thanks to West's bid of 2NT showing 5/5 or better in the minors, you simply have to watch West's discards. If he started with 5-5 and has thrown 3 diamonds, you can simply play Ace and another diamond. If West reduces to 1 club and 3 diamonds, you cash dummy's remaining club and duck a diamond to West who must then give you a 12th trick on his enforced diamond return.

There are opportunities for good technique here. Duck the opening lead and win the club continuation. Now draw trumps (in 2 rounds as it happens). Now ruff a club in hand to eliminate that suit. Now you plan to ruff the third round of hearts and duck a diamond to West. However, on the third round of hearts, West produces the Queen so you discard a diamond from dummy and West is caught - he either concedes a ruff and discard or must open up the diamond suit. The defence could have done better. If East had overtaken the first club you could not afford to duck else a diamond comes through. You win the ace and later play a low club towards your 8 but East can rise with the ten to again play diamonds. Of course, on the layout of the cards, you can always succeed if you guess the diamonds correctly, but the game is all about playing in such a way as to avoid guessing - for certain you will guess wrong some of the time.

The bidding marks East with all the relevant high cards and you can use this to your advantage. Cover the opening lead. East will win and probably switch to a heart. You can now play a high spade from hand. East wins to play a second heart. Now you can enter dummy with an intermediate spadeand ruff a low diamond. Cash your remaining heart and enter dummy with a trump to lead the ♦Q. When East covers you discard a club and East must now lead a club from his King or concede a ruff and discard. If East had ducked the first spade, you simply play off your heart winners before throwing East in with a trump to again endplay him.

On the bidding, West is marked with the Ace of spades and if it is a singleton, you are in danger of getting your ♥K ruffed, losing in effect 3 hearts and a spade.  There is nothing you can do to prevent the ruff but by careful play you can ensure that having taken his ruff, East has no good exit. Win the club return and eliminate the minor suits before leading a trump. Now when East ruffs your ♥K, he must concede a ruff and discard and your remaining heart loser disappears.

Obviously the defence will always hold up on the first round of hearts in an attempt to kill dummy's heart suit, but if East has no more than 3 clubs and 2 diamonds (likely enough on the bidding) then you can succeed whenever he holds the ♥A. Win the opening lead and cash 5 rounds of trumps (West shows out on the first round). It is important to keep all 3 clubs in dummy. Now cash the top clubs and play a heart to dummy which will hold the trick. Now you can ruff a club back to hand (extracting East's exit card in clubs) before playing a second heart.  East has only hearts left so has to concede.

Strangely, your chances of making this contract have improved when East shows out in trumps. Cash the 2 top trumps, the ♥A and ♣AK. Then exit with ♦J. West can win and cash a trumps but then must play a diamond. On this trick you discard a heart from dummy and a club from hand. On the next trick, you discard a further heart from the table whilst ruffing in hand. Now you can ruff 2 hearts on the table and bring home your contract.

There will be no problem if the club finesse works but on the bidding that is unlikely. You will therefore need to be a bit lucky with the layout of the cards. Suppose you draw a second round of trumps and exit with the ♦K. Let's say West wins and gets off play with another diamond. Now you can win in hand and play a spade towards dummy. West can't rise with the Ace else he gives you 2 spade tricks. Now you cash the other diamond and exit with a spade. West wins but when he also holds ♠JT he can only take one more spade trick (on which you discard a club) before being endplayed. 

Your game is 50% - merely requiring East to hold the ♠A. After the diamond play, enter dummy with a heart and lead a low spade towards your King. If East rises with the Ace, you will later win your spade in hand and eliminate the hearts before putting East in with the long diamond. He will eventually have to concede a further spade trick to dummy. If East ducks the spade, a similar endplay will ensue.

It looks like East started with 7 spades and 2 hearts. If West wins the third round of diamonds, he is end-played, and if East holds 4 diamonds and wins the third round, he is similarly end-played. The critical case is where East hold 3 diamonds and a singleton club. If East were to win the third round of diamonds, he could exit with a club and leave you with a club loser. The key play is to cash the ♣K before playing diamonds. Now the defence will always have to lead a club to your tenace or concede a ruff and discard.

On the reasonable assumption that East holds the ♠A, you can claim at trick 1. Duck the lead in dummy. If East takes his Ace you have 12 tricks, so East must duck. Now play off ♣AQ. If clubs break there is no problem. If West has 4 or more clubs than you have a marked finesse for 4 club tricks and your contract. If East turns up with club length then cashing your red suit winners will reduce him to ♠A and ♣ Jx. A spade exit will endplay him. 

Your best chance of success lies in persuading the opponents to open up the diamond suit. To this end you should win the ♣A and draw trumps. Now exit with Ace and another spade to remove West's exit cards. The defence can take a club trick but West will then have to lead a diamond or concede a ruff and discard. If West plays a third spade you just ruff and play a club with the same result. Note that exiting with a club after drawing trumps is no good as West can then exit in spades and you will have to play the diamond suit yourself.

To have a chance of making you need to find West with the missing high cards in the minors - likely on the bidding. However, you will need to find 2 further entries to hand and you do not have them. If you lead a low spade intending to insert the 8, East can thwart you by playing the Knave, and you will eventually find yourself stranded in dummy. On this hand you can enlist the help of the defenders. If you exit with a heart at this point and East wins, he cannot play a trump without giving you the extra entry you need, whilst a minor suit return or indeed a ruff and discard gives you an easy ride. If East returns a diamond then you must of course duck when West plays an honour.

The winning line is an elimination play. Win the heart in dummy and ruff a diamond. Another trump to dummy allows you to ruff another diamond. Now exit with a low club. The opponents cannot afford to continue to play anything other than clubs, and they cannot possibly arrange to play four rounds of clubs, finishing in the West hand. Try it and see. Either they give you the ♣K or they concede a ruff and discard.

One option for a tenth trick is the club finesse, but on the bidding this is hardly likely to be successful. The bidding and lead indicates that East holds the top hearts, in which case you can succeed by keeping West off lead. Cover the ♥8 with the ♥9, Say East wins and switches to a diamond. Rise with the Ace and play a trump to dummy. Now lead the ♥J and discard your remaining diamond. Ruff the diamond return high in hand, cross to dummy with a trump and ruff a heart high. Now another trump to dummy allows you to lead dummy's last heart, discarding a club and endplaying East into leading a club or conceding a ruff and discard. Note that by careful management of your trumps, you can generate the 3 trump entries to dummy that you need.

The bidding marks West with both missing Kings and if he holds 4 cards in hearts, then this hand will play itself. Win the ♣A and play a spade to the Queen and a spade back (lets say West shows out on the second trump). Now take the heart finesse and return in trumps to cash 2 more spade winners. West is squeezed on the last spade. If he lets go the ♣K your clubs are good and if he lets go a heart, a further finesse brings in 4 tricks in the suit.