You have finesse possibilities in three suits. Even if the diamond finesse loses, you still have a chance if either the heart or club finesse works. However, if you play carefully, you have a 100% line assuming that West has 5 spades. At trick 3 you should lead the ♥J.  Say West wins and shifts to a high club, best defence. Go up with the ♣A, return to your ♥A and run the ♦Q. Say it loses. Not much the defence can do at that point. If a spade is returned, you have nine tricks: four diamonds, two spades, two hearts and the ♣A. Even if West has the ♣K and a club is returned, you still have nine tricks. Notice that if you had taken the diamond finesse before leading the ♥J, you go down. East wins and clears spades, and now West has the ♥K as an entry to run spades.

Lots of players would win the lead and start on the trumps. This is not the correct play and stems from a failure to count your losers. There are 3 in clubs, and 1 each in the other suits. If you play trumps immediately, the defence will continue diamonds and ultimately collect their 6 tricks. However, if you win the diamond lead and play hearts, you can cash 2 heart winners after the next diamond lead and pitch your diamond loser. A very simple hand that just requires a tiny amount of planning at trick one.

You have 11 tricks and spades represents your only hope of an extra trick. If the spade honours are split, 2 finesses will suffice, but West's diamond shortage suggest length in spades, and a greater chance of West holding both honours. With correct timing, you can cater for both pssibilities. Play a club to the Ace. If Esst follows, you are now a sure thing. Cash two more rounds of clubs (noting West's shape) and follow with a diamond to the King. West is down to holding major suit cards and cannot hold the position. If he discards a spade then you just duck a spade , whereas if he comes down to a singleton heart, then cashing the ♥A removes his exit card so that ducking a spade to West ensures a spade return.

Suppose you follow a wooden line such as winning the first trick and knocking out the Ace of trumps. A spade is returned and now you try a diamond finesse. If that loses and a club is returned, you will go down if the finesse loses as ou have a loser in each suit. This really is just a matter of counting your potential losers - which could be one in each suit. A simple way to eliminate your spade loser is to win the first trick and play ♣AJ. Then win the spade return and cross to dummy with a diamond to pitch a spade on the ♣Q. Now you can play trumps and just lose 3 tricks. 

The crux of the deal is avoiding a second diamond loser. In isolation, the best play in diamonds is to finesse the 9 on the first round. This succeeds immediately when East holds the ♦J10 because the 9 will force West's king. When the 9 loses to the jack or 10 from West, you finesse the queen next time. This gives you two chances, but that line fails on this layout:

The way to overcome this arrangement is to eliminate the clubs and hearts before touching diamonds. The only trap is failing to manage the entries required to bring this about.

You must ruff three hearts to eliminate the suit and then return to dummy to lead diamonds, so you need four entries in all. After taking the opening lead with the ♥A, you immediately ruff a heart high and lead another high trump to dummy's ace. A third heart ruffed high eliminates the suit, as planned, and you will still have the ♠4 left. Use it to cross to dummy with the 8 to ruff dummy's last heart, thereby eliminating the suit.

The ♣K and a club to the ace removes the clubs and returns you to dummy for a fourth time.

Now it is time to play a diamond and cover East's card. East will likely play the ♦8, West takes the ♦9 with the jack but is endplayed for his troubles. He has the choice of giving you your 12th trick by returning a diamond into your tenace or playing a club, which gives you a ruff-and-discard. In that case you throw a diamond from dummy and ruff in your hand. After cashing the ♦A at trick 12 you make the last trick with dummy's remaining trump.

The result is the same if East plays the ♦10 on the first round of the suit. West takes the queen with the king, but your ♦A9 is now a tenace and you will still be able to hold your diamond losers to one if West returns a diamond.

You should thank West for not leading a trump. It destroys the entries necessary to bring off the above elimination and endplay on the given layout.

The percentage play for no heart losers is to take a second round finesse, but is this the best play on this hand? If you can make 5 trumps, you can score 3 diamonds and 2 aces for 10 tricks. The important thing is not to lose 4 tricks. Win the lead and cash 2 top hearts, then play Ace and another daimond. The best the defence can do is take a diamond and a club before switching to a spade, but now you can play diamonds, throwing losing spades from hand and just conceding a trump trick. Timing is key. If you had finessed in trumps on this layout, the defence could take their club trick and switch to spades before the diamonds are established - resulting in you going 2 down.

The 4-0 trump break is awkward.  You have 3 certain trump losers but it looks as if you can use the spades to take care of any losing clubs. If you play another trump towards dummy you will be alright if West takes the Ace and say exits with a another diamond.  You can ruff and then play spades.  Although West will ruff in, the Queen of hearts will serve to draw West's last trump whilst at the same time being an entry for the spades.  However, this line is not foolproof.  If West has the foresight to duck the second round of trumps, dummy's late entry to the spade suit has disappeared and you will eventually lose 3 trumps and a club.  The winning play is to play on spades as soon as the 4-0 trump break comes to light.  West will have to ruff at some point and will probably exit with a diamond.  You ruff and now play a trump to the Queen.  Since West has been reduced to 3 trumps, he can no longer prevent you accessing dummy and will be held to just his 3 trump tricks.

It is no use playing a spade towards the Queen as West will rise with the King and ut his partner in with a diamond to get a heart ruff, killing your ♥A. West will know his partner has a diamond entry because he will have seen 2 discards from East. The solution is to think ahead. Cash 3 rounds of clubs before playing the second spade. West rises and plays a diamond and East wins and pushes a high heart through. Your Ace of hearts gets ruffed but now West is stuck. He either concedes a ruff and discard or gives you a diamond trick. Either way, you make the game.

You have 7 top tricks and various chances to develop 2 more.  It's not much use playing for hearts to break 3-3 as that will only generate one extra trick  and will probably generate 4 losers in hearts and clubs putting you under pressure.  A simple line is to win the club and take an immediate spade finesse.  If it loses, you will need to play the diamonds for 4 tricks by finessing the Jack and hoping for the suit to break.  However, if the spade finesse wins, you only need 3 tricks from diamonds so you should play this suit in the optimal way by cashing the King first, then the Ace and then back towards the Jack.  You are well rewarded on this hand as a look at all four hands will show.

There will be no problem if the diamond finesse is right, so it looks natural to run the ♦9 at trick 4.  Suppose this loses to the King and East plays a heart.  You now have the choice of the heart finesse or playing the clubs to be 3-3.  Those with knowledge of the odds would know that the finesse is 50% against a 3-3 break at 36%, so the finesse it is.  Bad luck! West has the ♥K and cashes his 2 winning spades.

You should not have put yourself in this position.  The best line is to take AK clubs after winning the ♠A.  If both opponents follow it is safe the play a third round winning with the Queen.  Now you know whether or not the clubs are breaking and hence whether or not to take the heart finesse when East plays this suit.  Success is not guaranteed, but you have maximised your chances.  

If trumps are 3–2, the contract is solid. Just draw the trumps and throw a spade from dummy on your fourth club. A spade ruff on the table is your thirteenth  trick. But what if hearts are 4-1, with the Knave not dropping singleton? If West has 4 trumps, you gain by laying down ♥KQ and taking the marked finesse whereas if East holds four, you need to play ♥KA to allow for the marked finesse - so what do you do? The key to playing trumps is to consider the whole hand. The only way to ruff a spade in dummy is to draw trump first and then run clubs. However, if trumps are 4–1, that is unlikely to work. On the other hand, a ruff in hand of the ♦7 can be taken without having to draw trump first. Therein lies the answer. Declarer should win the ♠A and cash the ♥K. When everyone follows low, he should next play the ♥Q. If trumps are 3–2, he can claim (draw the last trump). But, if RHO shows out, he is still alive. (If LHO shows out, he was never realistically making the contract.) Next comes the ♦AK and then the ♦7 ruffed with the ♥T. If this lives, declarer now plays a heart to the 9 for the marked finesse and then the ♥A to claim 13 tricks.

This should be simple. If you duck the spade around to West, you give him the opportunity to switch to a club and this could leave you with 4 losers. The key is to establish the heart for a club discard. Rise with the ♠A and play a heart. Now the only thing that defeats you is a 5-0 trump break - a very slim chance.

If the spade finesse loses you have a loser in each suit. If you cross to dummy with a diamond to take the spade finesse, the defence can continue diamonds and easily set up their 4 tricks. You need to play on hearts immediately to try and build a second winner in the suit. Win the opening lead and play a low heart to dummy. If West wins the King, your problems are over and the spade finesse is for an overtrick. If West plays low on the heart, it is best to assume he does not have the King (most players would rise if they held this card) so insert the ten and hope this draws the King.

You need spades to be 4-4. and you can't release the ♥K before making a diamond trick. The only chance is to time the play in a way that puts the defenders on lead when they could cash three spades and then be forced to give you a second trick in a red suit. As the only sure way of achieving this is to endplay the defence with a spade, you should win trick one. Cash the ♣A at trick two, then play a heart to dummy and run the clubs, throwing 3 hearts and a diamond from hand. Now is the time to exit with the ♦K. If this is ducked, get off play with a spade. The defence can take 3 spades and at most 1 diamond before having to give you the ♥K. If the defence win the diamond and take their spades and exit with a diamond, then you rise with the ♦Q and will only be defeated if East started with a singleton ♦A. Note that the natural line of trying to cross to dummy with a diamond fails. East wins the trick, the defenders cash the spade suit, then exit with a heart. You never make a trick with the ♥K, losing three spades and two diamonds.

Often the technique on hands like this is to run your long suit, but here this would be a mistake as you would have to make discards from your major suit holdings, fatalyy weakening your hand. You can tell from the opening lead (low from an honour holding) that West holds the ♦Q. West needs a diamond honour to make up his minimum 15 points and if East held that card, he would have played it at trick 1 if he did not hold the Jack. Hence you can play to keep East out of the game. Win the opening lead with the ♦K and play a top heart. West can win but if he continues with the ♦Q, you duck and win the next lead to knock out the remaining heart honour. This way you come to 9 tricks. If West leads a low diamond on the second round, you rise with the Ace to block the suit. 

Given that West holds the ♠Q, you have a chance of 12 tricks provided you get the timing right. Duck the opening lead and see what West does. He is very unlikely to cash the ♣A at trick two so lets say he switches to a trump. You win in hand, cash the ♦A and take the spade finesse. Now pitch your remaining diamond on the ♠A and ruff a diamond. Go back to a trump and ruff another diamond. Now if diamonds have broken, you can enter dummy with a trump and get rid of both your clubs on the good diamonds. If the diamonds are not good, then at least you have 10 tricks with the remote chance of an eleventh should the ♣A be onside.  

It looks natural to run the spade to hand at trick 1. If West has led from the ♠K you could easily finish with 10 or 11 tricks. However, your target is to make the contract. If you allow East to win the first trick with the ♠K, he can switch to a club. Now if the diamond finesse is wrong, you will lose a diamond, three clubs and a spade. The correct line is to rise with the ♠A at trick one and run the ♦9. If the diamond finesse loses you can later add another spade to go with your 7 red suit tricks. The defence cannot take more than one spade, two clubs and a diamond.

With 3 aces to knock out, there is a danger that East will be able to set up and cash 2 spade tricks eventually. There is not much you can do if East holds all 3 aces, but there is room for West to hold one of the Aces and if it is the Ace of the suit you attack first, there is a way to make the contract. Duck trick 1 and win the spade return. Now attack hearts and if West wins the Ace, he will not be able to continue spades and you will have time to set up 2 diamonds and a club. No-trump contracts are generally a race to set up tricks and ducking at trick 1 puts you a tempo ahead when the cards lie as shown.

You have plenty of tricks but you might be in trouble if the spades break badly. Suppose you start with the Ace of Spades first. Then if Spades are 4-1 with West holding ♠Kxxx, he will hold off his ♠K until the third round of the suit and then South will have to play on clubs and West will make a small trump. If South crosses to dummy with a diamond say and finesses the ♠Q, then West ducks. You might try the effect of continuing with the ♠T but West can win and exit with a club and you are left with no way to get to dummy to draw the last trump. The winning line after ruffing at trick 3 is to continue with the ♠Q. If this holds, follow with the ♠T. If West takes this trick you can ruff the next heart with the ♠A and enter dummy to draw the last trump. 

You should consider the lead carefully. Why has West led dummy's first bid suit? It is quite likely a singleton and you might suffer a club ruff if East holds the ♥A so you first need to dispose of your club. Win the opening lead and play a spade to your King. Ace and another diamond ruffed in dummy allows you to throw your remaining club on the ♠A. Now is the time to lead a trump from dummy. If East rises with the Ace and leads a club, your best chance is to ruff high and play the opposing trumps to be 2-2 (you are down in any case if West started with a singleton club and ♥Jxx)

It looks like you might win 6 spades in hand, the three top red suit winners in dummy, and a club ruff brings your total to 10. You do need to be careful however. Suppose you win the heart lead and cash 2 diamonds to pitch a heart and then play a club from dummy. East will win and lead 2 further rounds of hearts and which West can throw a diamond as you ruff high. You concede another club and East persists with a further heart and agin you ruff high. Now you can ruff a club and cash 2 top trumps in dummy, but whenever West started with ♠8xx he will overruff you when you play a diamond from dummy and that will be your fourth loser.  This is indeed an unlucky layout but it need not have bothered you. Simply ruff a diamond in hand at trick 4 before conceding a club. When the defence continues along the same lines as before, the timing is different and in the endgame you are left with only the Ace of trumps in hand and cannot suffer a trump promotion

If you try to establish the heart suit immediately, you risk failure if East attacks one of your black suits. You will finish up having to guess the position of ♦Q. The contract is safe if you play a diamond to your ten immediately however. If this loses, west cannot profiably attack either black suit and you have time to get the hearts going.

You can't afford to draw any more trumps at this stage else a losing diamond finesse will see you lose control of the hand. Suppose you take a diamond finesse at this point. It loses and a heart comes back - is there still hope?

The answer is yes - you just need the minor suits to behave. Ruff the heart return and cash 2 clubs and 2 diamonds finishing in dummy. If this has passed off without incident, you can ruff dummy's last heart with the ♠ J. That gives you 5 spade tricks in hand, 2 clubs and 2 diamonds. The ♠ K remains on the table as your tenth trick. You have made the contract via a dummy reversal.

With a delicate trump suit and some ruffing to do you need to be careful with the timing. Win the first trick with dummy's Ace and duck a round of trumps. Win the likely diamond continuation and cash the Ace of trumps. If all follow you can then arrange to ruff 2 spades in dummy. These ruffs, together with 2 top spades, 2 diamonds, a club and 2 trump tricks in hand brings your total to 10. It is essential to duck an early round of trumps else you will suffer a spade overruff. If you play Ace and another heart, the defence can draw too many trumps and leave you short of tricks.

You can easily afford a trump loser but you must be careful to time the hand correctly for if the spades are 4-1, there is a danger that you will lose control of the hand. If you play off the Ace of spades and continue spades, West could hold up the King until the third round and then force dummy with another heart. Hence you would have to abandon trumps and play clubs and West would beat you by ruffing with his low trump. The winning play at trick 4 is to play the ♠Q and if it holds, continue with the ♠T. If West ducks again, you cash the ♠A and play clubs. If West takes his ♠K early then you have a trump in hand to take care of a heart return.

If hearts break you have 13 tricks so assume they don't. If anyone has 4 or more hearts it will surely be East. If that is the case then you surely have a double squeeze provided you time the play carefully. You must ruff a diamond at trick 2 so that only West is guarding the diamond suit. Then play off all the trumps and 2 top hearts.. If East has kept all his hearts then he must already have relinquished his club guard.At this stage, dummy will have ♦5 and ♣A74. On the ♥Q, West will have to discard a club to keep a diamond, so your clubs will now be good.

The lead of dummy's bid suit will certainly be from length in this auction. The textbooks teach you to attack the entry to the danger hand first - the club finesse can wait until either East has no more hearts or else the suit has broken 4-3 and is no danger. So did you enter dummy with a spade to take the diamond finesse? Unfortunately, the finesse loses and West continues with a spade. Now when you take the club finesse, East is in to cash his spade winners. The principle of playing diamonds before clubs is a good one but you must not squander a spade control to take the diamond finesse - simply win the heart at trick 1 and play a low diamond from hand. It doesn't matter who takes the trick or what is returned. A later club finesse gives you 2 spades, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 3 clubs for your contract.

You can develop a spade, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and 4 clubs for your contract. The danger is that West will develop his diamonds before you have time to get at your 9 tricks. If you cross to a club and take a heart finesse, you will go down. West is marked with all the missing high cards so all you need to do is play a spade towards dummy at trick 2. If West wins, you have 2 spade tricks and wont need the heart finesse. If West ducks, the ♠K will score and now you can develop your heart winners.

If you assume that partner has started a peter with a doubleton club, then you look to have 2 clubs, a club ruff (or overruff) and hopefully a heart trick. The problem with playing off 3 rounds of clubs is that declarer will discard the ♥3 on the third round of clubs and you will not come to a heart trick.  The solution is to ensure you take your tricks in the right order. Switch to a heart at trick 2. Partner can win and return a club. Now you have 3 tricks and a further club promotes your side a trump trick.

Unless the ♦A is singleton, they are sure to duck the first round of the suit. Hence you need to try and give the opponents a guess in diamonds. Suppose you start by leading the Queen of diamonds and overtake with the King. Lets say West follows with the ♦5. Now you lead the ♦J from dummy and East has a problem if he started with say ♦A43. He will not know whether partners 5 was low from 567 or high from 52. If he decides on the latter then he may duck to deny you 4 diamond tricks.  Once you have stolen 2 diamond tricks, you can cash out.