There are no ruffs to be had in dummy so it looks like you will need the club finesse.  However, you can improve on this.  If trumps break then a dummy reversal sees you home.  Take the ♥A and ruff aheart at trick 2.  Now ♠T and a spade to the Jack reveals the trump break.  If they are 4-1 then you will be back on the club finesse but if they are 3-2, then ruff a heart with ♠Q and play a diamond to the Queen to ruff another heart with the Ace of spades.  Now cross to the ♣A and draw the last trump, discarding a club.  Your remaining diamond winners bring your total to 12.

You must appreciate that the correct play from dummy is the Queen, playing West to have led from Kxx.  There is no point in playing low in dummy as even if you find West with ♠Jxx, East will simply play low and allow you to score the ♠10, but denying you an entry to dummy's hearts.

You have a heart and a club to lose so it appears that you need to avoid a diamond loser.  The diamond finesse is a 50% chance - better than trying to drop a singleton King.  However, the best chance is to enter dummy with the ♦A and take a spade finesse.  This represents the same 50% chance as the diamond finesse but you have the added bonus that you might drop the ♦K, thus increasing the overall chance of success.

You have no losers outside the trump suit so you must do what you can to hold your trump losses to one trick. You do best to cross to dummy with a diamond at trick two and lead a low spade from the table. If East has the singleton Ace the defence are held to one trick, and if West wins the Ace, you can still pick up Txxx with East. No guarantees - but you have done your best.

You have 3 red suit losers but will be fine if the black suits behave. Win the spade in dummy to retain entries to your hand.  If clubs are 4-1 you are going down so you may as well cash the 2 top clubs. Good news - the clubs are 3-2. Now you come to hand with a trump but East shows out. Just one more chance to play for now. Hope that West holds the third club. Ruff a club in dummy and return with a trump to cash your black suit winners.

You have to make 8 tricks in the majors without losing the lead. In spades, you can hope for either a 3–3 break, or that the JT come down, or maybe a third round finesse of the 9 if East has produced the Jack or ten. In the heart suit, there is a two-way guess for the queen. If the suit splits 3–3, it is just a pure 50–50 guess. What if they are 4–2? Because it is easier to pick up ♥Qxxx with East (you can cash the king first and lead the 10), let’s say you lead a heart to the king at trick two, all following low. You continue with the ♥T covered with the queen. You play the ace, and left-hand opponent follows with the ♥9. You are left with ♥J7 opposite ♥ . “Restricted Choice” says that ♥9x was more likely than ♥98x. You now play off ♠ AK, East following with the ten on the second round. You play a third round, and when LHO plays low, again 'restricted choice' dictates that the 9 is the better proposition. Hence you finesse the spade, cash the Queen, and then finesse the ♥7 to bring home the contract. Why should you play hearts before spades? - Well you need the spade as an entry to pick up the hearts when they are favourable. If you play spades first, you can still succeed by running the ♥T on the first round (but you would go down if West held a singleton ♥Q). 

It looks like East holds the top hearts and the queen of clubs for his opening bid. Win the lead and cross to dummy with a trump to lead ♣J. Run it if not covered, else win the ♣A  and cross back to the ♣K. If West follows low both times then play for the clubs to be 3-3 by ruffing a club high, drawing trumps and cashing winners. If West plays the 9 or ten on the first 2 clubs then draw trumps finishing in dummy and run the ♣8. You win whenever East started with ♣QTxx or ♣Q9xx and lose when East started with ♣Qxx and West with ♣109x. The odds are greatly in your favour.

How do you avoid losing a heart and 2 spades? Your only chance is to find one of the opponents with 2 spade honours doubleton. You have to hope the layout is as shown in the diagram. Now you can ruff a diamond and cash the ♠A. A club to hand and a diamond ruff followed by another club to hand for a last diamond ruff. Then exit with Q and another heart. The defence can cash only one spade before conceding a ruff and discard. If East sheds his second spade on the second club to avaoid the endplay, you only lose 1 spade and finish with an overtrick.

It looks like you need to find the ♥J to make this contract but there is a chance that West holds both club honours, in which case you can set up a club for a heart discard. The best line of play is to cash the ♣ A, draw trumps and play a club towards the knave. If West holds both top clubs he can win but is now endplayed. Also, as is the case in the layout shown, you gain whenever East holds ♣Qx or ♣Kx, as after winning a club trick, he must open the hearts or concede a ruff and discard. 

Your chances on this hand are close to 100%!. Win the lead in dummy and ruff a club before playing a spade. You have the chance that East might mistakenly rise with the club Ace if he has it. You also have the chance that the player with the ♠A has no more trumps so you can ruff 2 spades in dummy but no - they win and play another trump. You win in dummy and ruff another club. Now ruff a low spade in dummy and another club in hand. Cash the ♠Q and cross to a heart to ruff another club. If the ♠J has dropped or the ♣A has appeared, or the clubs are 4-4 you are home. Say nothing good has happened - you still have good chances. You will know who holds the ♣A If West has the ♣A and East holds the ♠J, you have a classic double squeeze when you play your last trump, scoring the low heart in dummy. If either player holds the ♠J and started with 5 hearts, they will be caught in a simple squeeze. 

Clearly there will be no problem if you can avoid a trump loser, so how do you guess which hand might hold ♠Qxx? There has been no bidding to guide you, so either opponent could have the troublesome trump holding. However, your best play is clearly indicated. If you have to lose a trump trick to East, you will be dependent on the position of the ♥K, whereas if West holds ♠Qxx you are virtually certain of success. Play a trump to the Ace. If East shows out you eliminate the diamonds and play clubs, ultimately throwing West in with a trump to lead a heart. If West shows out in trumps, you just finesse against East and later try the heart finesse for an overtrick. 

This looks like a simple 12 tricks, so now is the time to be careful. The only problem is a 4-0 trump break and you need to prepare for this. Win the lead and ruff a diamond. Now play off the top trumps and let's assume that West holds 4. Now a club to dummy allows you to ruff dumm'y last diamond. This should exhaust West of his diamonds. Continue by running your clubs. At some point, West either ruffs in or he gets put in with a trump. At this point he must exit with a heart. It is not clear which heart you should play from dummy and it would be a shame if you guessed wrong having done all the hard work - at least you have given yourself a chance.

On hands like this it is easy to think that you are going down whatever you do and to switch your attention to berating partner for his bidding. A better approach is to concentrate on maikng the contract on the small number of hands where this is possible. You need the club finesse, hearts 3-2. and diamonds blocked. Win the lead, draw 2 rounds of trumps, cash (hopefully) 3 rounds of clubs with a winning finesse and ditch a diamond on the third spade before exiting with a trump. If the diamond suit is blocked, the defence can take 2 diamonds only before conceding you a ruff and discard. 

You will need a big slice of luck to make this contract. After the ♠K, cash the ♦K and finesse the diamond. If this holds, you can discard a club on the ♦A and play King, Ace and a third club ruffing. If clubs are 3-3 you enter dummy with the ♠A and discard your losing heart on the last club. Not great odds but perhaps your good fortune in the minors offsets your bad luck with the trump break.

You have 12 tricks and the thirteenth could could come from a 3-3 diamond break. More experienced players will also see that if West holds 4 diamonds along with his known ♠Q, then he will be squeezed by running the clubs and then the hearts. The last heart will leave him with no good discard. That is not the full story however. You do have a tiny extra chance - that the ♦JT are doubleton. You need to be careful to take advantage of this possibility before pursuing the line mentioned above, else you will not be able to take advantage. Your first move should be to play off the ♦AK. When JT drop, you can take your 13 winners. If you run your clubs and hearts first, there is no squueze and East defeats you by keeping his 4 small diamonds. 

If you can make 6 diamond tricks, you could get home with 2 clubs, a heart and 3 spades. East's 5 card trump holding seems to make that difficult, but you can succeed provided West holds the ♠Jxxxx. Win the ♦A and finesse a diamond. Now cash the ♦K and play Ace and another spade, inserting dummy's ten. If this holds, you are home. Continue with a top spade. If East ruffs, you overruff, draw trumps and just lose a club. Hence East must discard on the 2 spades from dummy. Say he discards 2 hearts and you do likewise. Now comes dummy's ♥A and East has the same dilemma. Ruffing is no good so he discards a club and you do the same. Now you ruff and heart and exit with a club. You sit with ♦QT as you last 2 cards and must score them both. 

On the surface, it looks like you need to find West with the ♦K, in which case you can pitch your club loser on the ♥K and just lose a heart, a spade and a diamond. You can however give yourself an extra chance if East holds the ♦K with a partial elimination play. Cash a second spade and enter dummy with a club. Pitch a club from hand on the ♥K and ruff a club before exiting with a trump. If East has only 3 hearts, he will have to open up the diamonds or give you a ruff and discard. 

You have 2 black suit losers and a heart to take care of. Can you see a way to avoid the heart finesse? Ruff the second spade and cash the diamonds, pitching a spade and a heart from dummy. Now exit with a club. If East wins this trick he will be stuck. If West wins, you will have to hope the heart finesse is working.

This is a very good slam. Three suits have finesse possibilities, and you only need one to work. Still, there is a best line of play.Draw a second trump ending in dummy and lead a club to the jack If this wins you have 13 tricks. Say it loses and a club comes back to your king. Your next move is to play the ♦AK. If no queen appears, discard a diamond on the ♣A and ruff a diamond. If the queen still has not appeared, take the heart finesse. In total, this line is around 90%. The key is to not let East in early (via a losing diamond finesse) allowing a heart shift to occur before you know whether or not to take the finesse.

Two lines of play initially come to mind. You could play East for the ♠J, or the club finesse might work, after which you could probably set up a long club. However, the contract is 100% on the assumption that West holds the ♠A (almost certain on the bidding). Ruff the heart lead, cross in trumps and ruff another heart. Then draw the last trump and lead a spade to the King. Now a second spade inserting the ten either forces the Ace, or West wins with the Knave after which all he can cash is the ♠A before having to lead a club or a heart - either of which concedes the contract. 

You do have a legitimate play for this contract. You need West to hold 3 trumps and the ♣J. Win the ♦A, cash the ♠A, draw two rounds of hearts ending in your hand, and lead a diamond. If West ruffs, and exits a spade, ruff in dummy discarding a club, cross to the ♣A and discard your remaining club on dummy’s fifth diamond, being sure to unblock the jack on the third round. If West exits a club instead, surely West cannot have the ♣K, as he would simply let partner win the third diamond and lead a club, so stick in the 10. There goes one of your club losers and the other goes off on dummy’s fifth diamond. Clearly, West should discard on the second diamond and not ruff air. After West discards, win the king and exit a diamond to East’s queen, unblocking your jack Now what can East lead holding the ♣K? If East exits a club, run it to the queen, cross to the ♣A, draw West’s last trump and discard your remaining club loser on dummy’s fifth diamond. If East exits a spade, discard a club, ruff in dummy, cross to the ♣A, draw West’s remaining trump, and discard your remaining losing club on dummy’s long diamond. Nor does it help for West to ruff partner’s good diamond, as any black-suit exit gives the contract.

You have 4 losers and so need to set up a club for a discard. You need to be careful how you do this. You hope for split honours (or both with East). Win the lead and cross to the ten of spades to lead a low club. You hope that East plays low and your Queen loses to West. Say they cash a diamond and then play a heart. You win and cross to dummy with a second trump to lead the ♣J for a ruffing finesse. If it is not covered, you pitch a heart. Note that it is important to play the first club from dummy in the hope of slipping past East's high card. If you lead the ♣Q from hand, East can win and switch to hearts and your ruffing club finesse will lose, leaving you with 4 losers.

You are in danger of losing control of this hand. Suppose you play 2 top clubs with the intent of ruffing the third round. If West has a singleton club, he will ruff the second round and force you with a diamond and your clubs are not set up. You can take out insurance against a 4-1 club break by playing Ace and then Knave of clubs. East can win and play a diamond to force you but you now just lead winning clubs. You can overruff West and draw his last trump and claim. This hand might have proved trickier if the defence had given you a ruff and discard at trick 3, but that is not so obvious for them.

You have 8 top tricks and there will be no problem if the spades break 3-3. You will also succeed if one of the defenders holds a spade stop along with the ♣K. Win the ♠A and cash the ♣A. Now take your 4 diamond tricks, discarding clubs from dummy. If either defender has the desired holding, they will be squeezed into parting with a trick.

Prospects are not that good. For his 1NT bid West must hold a high spade and hence the ♣A is virtually certain to be offside leaving you with 4 black suit losers. You do have a chance however. West didn't double 1♠, so probably doesn't hold a 4 card heart suit. Also, if someone ruffs one of your heart winners, it may well be from a doubleton trump. Hence, attempt to cash three hearts, using dummy's heart entry to ruff a diamond en-route. Now a trump exit allows you to endplay East when he holds a singleton spade honour.

Assuming clubs aren’t 5‑0, this contract is cold if East has the ♥A. The idea is to try to make it even if West has the ♥A. A little subterfuge can’t hurt. One possibility is to win the opening lead in dummy, cash the ♣AK of clubs, cross to dummy and lead a club. Another possibility is to win the lead in dummy, lead a club to the queen, cash the ♣A, return to dummy with a trump (always keeping a later trump entry to dummy) and lead a club. In both cases you are leading towards a high club with a trump outstanding. If a second round of clubs is ruffed with the outstanding trump, you need to find the ♥A onside to make the contract unless West ruffs and errs by leading a heart from the ace. If clubs are 3–2 and the player with the long spade also has the long club, you are home: Your third high club lives, so you can cross to dummy with a trump, pitch a diamond and a heart on dummy’s winning clubs and lead up to the ♥K, trying for an overtrick. Say the player with the doubleton club has the odd trump. If it is West, and he ruffs looking at both red aces, he then has to underlead the ♦A to get the heart through to defeat the contract. This Ace underlead is far from clear as from West’s point of view, declarer might have the ♦K and the ♥Q. The big gain comes when East has the doubleton club along with three spades and no ♥A. East must ruff, though not sure that you have the winning club. In any case, you are giving each opponent a chance to err with no risk yourself.

A count of points shows that West can't hold more than a Knave so propects are poor. Spades offers the only hope of establishing enough tricks to beat the contract. West might hold the ♠J but even the ten will be good enough most of the time provided you switch to a low spade. Switching to the King gives South an easy second trick whenever he holds the Knave whereas if the layout is as shown, he is likley to play low and West's ten will be good enough.

[You may care to note how West's lead of a high heart gave South an extra trick in that suit]

Ruff the opening lead (you don’t want to commit to a black-suit discard at this point), and draw trumps, discarding a spade from dummy. Cross to the ♣A, ruff a diamond, return to the ♣K, and assuming the queen hasn’t appeared (your 13th trick), discard a club on the ♦A and ruff a club. Assuming clubs were not 3–3 and dummy’s fourth club has not set up (your 13th trick), you still have good chances. All hands have been reduced to four cards. You have Kx of spades in dummy along with a low club and a low diamond. In your hand are four spades. If either defender started with four spades and four or more clubs, that defender has been squeezed and either the club is high or the spades will run. If either defender started with four spades and six diamonds, that defender has been squeezed and either dummy’s diamond is high or the spades will run. In addition, you make the contract if spades were 3–3.

You clearly need the trumps to break to have any chance. The odds of diamonds producing 2 winners and only one loser are very remote, so your best chance lies in establishing the club suit where a 4-3 break is around 60%. Duck the opening lead and win any lead from West at trick 2. Now play Ace and another club, ruffing in hand. 2 rounds of trumps finishing in dummy allow you to play the ♣K, discarding a diamond from hand, followed by a club ruff. Now a heart ruff on the table lets you lead the fifth club for a further diamond discard. The defence can only make a trump, a heart and a diamond whenever the clubs are 4-3.

You will succeed if you take a winning finesse in spades or diamonds, whereas a losing finesse spells defeat. Which suit to play? It is a pure guess as to which finesse is working (if any) but you can find a way to effectively try both. Cash the ♠A and your remaining clubs before exiting with a heart. West wins and must play either a spade or a diamond. A diamond immediately concedes the contract so suppose he plays a spade. Now you can put up the ♠Q and if this holds you are home. If it is covered by East's King, then you ruff, cross to dummy in trumps and try the diamond finesse.

This hand revolves around the heart suit, with the odds favouring a second round finesse of the Knave.  You can increase your chances however. Win the spade lead and draw the trumps. Cash a top heart and 2 top clubs pitching a spade. Now ruff a club and exit with a spade. If West wins and plays a heart, you finesse as before. but if West started with a singleton heart, he is endplayed to concede a ruff and discard. Of course, it does no good for the defence to win the spade trick in East.

First of all, do you still have the ♥5 in your hand? A strong player will have retained a possible entry to dummy in the trump suit. What layout do you need to give you a chance? If you cross to the ♥7 to finesse in spades, you will have nine tricks - five hearts, two spades and two diamonds, so you will need a trick from clubs. One possibility is to finesse the ♣9. If West holds the ♣T, you will be able to set up a club trick. That might work but not on this layout. Suppose that before finessing the club, you cash ♦AK. Now, what is East to do when he wins the first club? If he plays a diamond, you ruff high, and now dummy has two winning diamonds when you cross to the ♥7. If East plays a spade instead, you can finesse the queen, and your tenth trick will come from a spade ruff in dummy. And if East leads a club away from the ace, that also provides a tenth winner for you.

At first glance it looks like you need to find the spades 3-3, so the game is quite poor. However, when you consider the bidding, your chances are a bit better than this. West has 4 diamonds for his bid, and if he happens to hold 4 spades as well then he will have real trouble discarding. All you need to do is cash dummy's remaining two trumps, discarding clubs from hand, and watch West squirm. A diamond discard allows you to overtake dummy's Queen and win 4 diamond tricks, whilst a spade discard sets up dummy's spade suit.

From the carding so far, you know that West has a third club, so it is safe to ruff low. There will be no problem if trumps break 3-2, but there is a danger that West may hold ♠9xxx and that if you lead the ♠K from hand, East will win his Ace and lead a further round of clubs, promoting a trump trick for West. Once you have spotted the danger, you can easily avoid it. Cross to dummy with a diamond and lead a trump from the table. When East wins his Ace, your KQJT remain intact and you can safely ruff the next club high and draw trumps.

On hands like this, taking 2 finesses seems superficially attractive, but there is a better chance. Draw trumps and play 3 rounds of clubs. You will only be defeated if West has the guarded ♣Q and East holds ♦QT and in this case no winning line exists.

The first thing to realise is that you should not duck trick 1 else a spade switch will surely prove fatal. You need to maximise your chances in the minor suits. If you win the opening lead in dummy and play a club and East holds the Ace, then either the King of Clubs will win or else East will rise with the Ace in which case you probably have 5 club tricks and 5 more outside. If the ♣K does win the trick, then you play the odds and duck a diamond, making a 1 spade, 2 hearts, 5 diamonds and a club whenever diamonds are 3-2. Of course, 50% of the time West will hold the ♣A and if he wins the first club lead, you will need to find the suit breaking 3-3 or perhaps the hearts breaking 4-4 with West not finding a spade switch.

You could win and draw trumps and hope to do something with the hearts. You have the club finesse as a backstop. You can do better than this however by playing hearts early. If you win the opening lead and play a low heart towards dummy. Whenever West has a high honour he cannot afford to go in with it as else you will later establish a heart trick for a minor suit discard. So West plays low and East wins cheaply. You win the diamond return and lead your second heart. Now West might win, cash a diamond and play a club through - but you eschew the finesses and ruff a heart high. You then use the 2 trump entries to establish and enjoy the long heart for a club discard.

It looks like West holds seven spades, and he may well have the ♥A as well. You have 1 spade, 4 clubs and 2 diamonds on top so need to develop 2 more. Duck the lead and win the spade continuation. Now it costs nothing to cash 4 rounds of clubs finishing in hand. The critical point has now been reached. You intend to finesse the ♦J, but you should not start by laying down the Ace. If you do, you will not be able to take more than 3 diamond tricks when West holds a singleton ♦Q. The right way to play the diamonds is small towards the ♦KJ. If the Queen appears, you can now score 4 diamond tricks and your contract.

If West holds a singleton ten or jack, you have an excellent chance provided you are careful.Win the heart lead and cash the ♦A. Suppose the ten drops from West. Now play your club. Say the defence wins and cashes 2 hearts and exits with a spade. Win in hand, play a diamond to the King (West showing out), ruff a club, then a spade to dummy for another club ruff. Now exit with your last spade and you sit with the ♦Q9 for your last 2 tricks.

You have 10 top tricks and have to decide whether to try for your two extra tricks in clubs or hearts. If you run the ♥J, hoping East has the queen, you will make your slam 50% of the time. Perhaps more. Say West has the ♥Q and doesn’t have the ♥A. He might not return a heart and now you have a chance if the club finesse works. So running the ♥J actually gives you a bit more than a 50% chance.Now let’s consider clubs. If you take the club finesse and it works, you still need the clubs to break 3-3. This comes to 18%. But you aren’t exactly dead if they break 4-2. You can’t give up a club, but you can cross to dummy and run the ♥J. You can’t make the contract if East has the ♥A, (he will simply take it and the fourth club as well) you must play West for the ♥A. It’s about a 30% chance that all this will happen. The bottom line is that it is far better to attack hearts rather than clubs because you need only one piece of good news, the ♥Q with East, to make 6NT. Working with clubs and finding the ♣Q with East is still not enough to guarantee the contract.

25% of the time, East will hold both missing club honours. Duck the opening spade lead and win the likely spade continuation. Cross to dummy with a trump and lead a low club. If Est plays a club honour, win and cross back to dummy with another trump. The top spade allows you to throw the ♣J and you follow with a ruffing club finesse. Of course, if you do end up losing a club trick along the way, you still have the original chance of the Ace of diamonds being on-side. You have merely transferred a losing diamond to a losing spade, but in doing so, have given yourself a sizeable extra chance.

If the trumps break 2-2 (around 40%), then your contract is secure. Ruff the opening lead and draw trumps in 2 rounds. Then cash 4 rounds of clubs and exit with a low spade from both hands. If West wins, he must lead away from his ♠K or concede a ruff and discard. If East wins, he gives you a ruff and discard as he will have nothing other than diamonds left. Either way your spade loser goes away.

The heart lead is annoying as on any other attack you might have been able to dispose of your heart loser. You have plenty of chances in the minor suits but you might lose a heart and a club so need to avoid losing 2 spades. It would be nice if opponents openend up the trump suit, and they might do this if they thought you wanted to ruff a heart in dummy. Winning the Ace and returning a heart might work but West may be reluctant to switch to trumps from a holding that includes the Knave. East however, might see less harm in a trump switch. The best line therefore is to duck at trick 1 and try to lure East into a trump return. This is a small extra chance but will work surprisingly often. Of course, you may still bring home your contract on a heart return from East at trick 2 but you will have to get a bit lucky with your guesses.  

Ducking trick one also means that even if you lose two subsequent trump tricks to East, clubs cannot be attacked - and a favourable diamond break could allow two club discards.

Never give up. Of course you need a defensive error but just simply exit with a trump. East wins but if he tries to cash a club, you ruff and cash your spades, dicsarding all of dummy's diamonds. Your twelfth trick is a diamond ruff on the table.  When you look at all four hands, do you blame East for leading the ♣A rather than the ♦A?

You probably have a spade loser and the diamonds may not sit well (or you might misguess the suit). If you get a favourable break in spades, you will be able to discard a diamond from dummy, so you might well play a spade to the 9 to keep West off lead. As the cards lie, this will work but you can improve on this chance if you play correctly. Win the lead and use 2 trump entries to ruff hearts. Now Ace of spades and a spade to the 9 will not only win when spades are 3-3 but also when East has a doubleton spade honour as he will be endplayed. If it turns out that East has 4 spades and can exit safely with a spade, then you will need a correct guess in diamonds (doomed to fail on this occassion)

You have a club to lose and there are three obvious red suit losers. Clearly you need to do something with the club suit. You need split club honours (or both with East) to succeed. If you lead the ♣Q from hand, East can win and the defence will switch to hearts - curtains. The potential winning line is to cross to dummy with a trump and lead a club from the table. If East plays low, your Queen will lose to West's Ace, but now you have a ruffing finesse against East, which will allow you to dispose of a heart loser. Could East have found the play of rising with the ♣K on the first club lead? I doubt it would be found at the table but the defense to 4♠ is easy if you start clubs from hand. Always put defenders to the test if you can.

If the heart finesse works then you will have 11 tricks. You can improve on your chances by not playing trumps immediately. If East holds the Ace of clubs, eliminating spades and diamonds will force a heart return or a ruff and discard when he wins the trump Ace. Hence you should cash 2 top diamonds throwing  a spades from dummy, then ruff the Queen of diamonds high before exiting with a trump. If your luck is in, East will win and is endplayed - otherwise you will need the heart finesse.