The lead looks like a doubleton club and your contract is in danger if West holds ♥ Qxxx. The solution is to play off  ♥ AK: If hearts are 3–2, the most you can lose is a heart, a spade and a club.If East has four hearts, you should be safe. Drive out the ♥Q, and if East wins and returns a diamond, win in dummy and lead the ♠K. Only if West has the ♠A and East a singleton diamond or a doubleton club can you go wrong. The more likely scenario finds West with four hearts to the Queen. Now if you exit with a high heart, West wins, puts East in with a spade and gets a club ruff, the setting trick. There is a possible way out. After taking the top hearts, play ♦AK and another diamond. If East shows out on the third diamond or plays the lowest outstanding diamond (meaning that West will win the trick), discard a spade, cutting off their lifeline to getting a club ruff.

One line would be to draw trumps and play 3 rounds of hearts ruffing. If the hearts break you are home and if not, you can fall back on the club finesse. This line is close to 70%. Better however is to duck the first round of hearts completely. Then you can set up a fifth heart whenever the suit breaks 4-2. Your two club losers disappear on the ♥A and long heart. If hearts are 5-1, you still have the chance of the club finesse - and a success rate of over 90%.

You win the heart and draw 3 rounds of trumps. Now the bidding makes it likely that West holds seven hearts and that East holds the ♣A, so continue with the ♣K from table. If East wins, he cannot profitably continue diamonds, and if he plays a second club, you make 5 trump tricks, 3 clubs, a diamond and a heart. 

You have 2 possible finesses to take on this hand. You could finesse the diamond, or play towards the ♠K, to get a discard for your losing diamond. So which one do you play? The answer is that if you play spades first, then if it loses, you still get the chance to take the diamond finesse, and thus you succeed 75% of the time. If you take a diamond finesse and it loses (50%) then you are defeated. Hence the spade play is vastly superior.

There are 10 top tricks and you might be able to take 2 minor suit ruffs in dummy. For this to work you would need to duck a club and cash 3 rounds of diamonds with no-one ruffing. A better line is to play for a dummy reversal. Win the trump lead on the table and play the ♠A and ruff a spade in hand. Now a trump to dummy for another spade ruff with ♥9. Now take two top diamonds finishing on the table and ruff another spade with the ♥A. Then you can ruff a diamond on the table, draw trumps and make the ♣A and ♦Q for 12 tricks. The defence score the last trick. The key play is to take 2 rounds of daimonds before the last spade ruff. If you dont, then West can discard a diamond on the fourth round of spades and you cant get to dummy without the defence getting a ruff to go with their club trick.

You need to force out the Ace of diamonds and then use your diamond winners as trump substitutes. However, careful timing is required. If you lead a diamond at this point, West can win and force you with a second spade. When you run the diamonds, West can simply discard losers and in the end he will be left with a winning trump and a winning spade for 1 down. The winning line is to cash one high heart before leading diamonds. West wins and forces you but now when you run the diamonds, you discard all the hearts from dummy and ruff your second heart on the table with the ♣K. Of course, if West ruffs in at any time, you simply overuff and claim.

Standard technique in the heart suit is to duck trick one so that West cannot profitably continue the suit, but that can't be right here. If you duck trick one, West switches to a diamond and if the club finesse loses, you are in danger of losing 5 tricks. Best is to win the opening lead, cross to dummy in spades and finesse the club suit. This way you will come to ten tricks as the cards lie.

If you ruff the second spade and draw trumps, you will be in trouble if the trumps break 4-2. You will have to finesse a diamond for your tenth trick and if it loses, you are at the mercy of the spade suit. Best is to discard at trick 2 and ruff the third spade. Then when you ultimately take a losing diamond finesse, East will have no more spades to play and you can secure your ten tricks.

On the bidding, East is marked with both black Kings, so you have chances of an endplay. Draw trumps - lets say that takes 3 rounds, and now make the key play of Ace and another spade, ducking in dummy. If East started with ♠Kx, he must either play a club round to dummy's Queen, or concede a ruff and discard.

If diamonds break there will be no problem, so assume they are 4-1. Ruff the opening lead, draw trumps and ruff dummy's second club. Now cash the 2 red aces and exit with a heart. What can the defence do? After taking two hearts they must give you a ruff and discard or play a diamond. If East plays the diamond, you just cover his card. If West plays a diamond, you can just duck and he is then endplayed. 

You have to hope that the heart finesse is working, but if that is the case, you are home. Cross to hand and take the heart finesse. If it wins you can play off the ♥A and your black suit winners before exiting in hearts. West will win and have to lead into your diamond tenace.

This is a simple hand but the sort that many players get wrong. Duck the first spade and win the second. Now take ♥AK and ♦AK and ruff a diamond in hand. It does not help the defence to overruff. You then ruff a spade in dummy and establish the fifth diamond with a further ruff - gaining access to it via the ♣A. If you mistakenly win the first spade, the defence can draw dummy's last trump when you later concede the spade. The defence can always prevail if they switch to a club at trick 2, as they now can take 1 spade, 1 trump and 2 clubs, but this is a risky play and unlikely to be found at the table.

On a good day you score 2 clubs, 4 diamonds and 4+trumps to make your game. However, if East gains the lead, a heart switch could mean trouble. Win the opening lead in dummy and play the ♠8 and run it if East plays low.. Later you can cash a top trump and take a marked trump finesse if the layout is as shown. If East plays the ten on the first round, you finesse the Knave. If this loses you again later play a top trump and enter dummy to play a spade to your ♠7 if trumps started 4-1. This way you only go down if East hold ♠QT9x

At imps, your play is clearcut.  Since you are taking the diamond finesse to West, the correct play is to rise with the ♠A at trick 1 and finesse the diamond.  If this loses West may well continue with another spade or a heart giving you 11 tricks, but in any case 10 tricks are now assured.  If you get too greedy and run the spade at trick 1, East will win and switch to a heart.  Now when the heart finesse is wrong you finish up 2 down when the ♦K is offside.  At pairs, you might risk running the spade, and could finish up making 13 tricks if everything is right for you.  The choice is yours!

The duplication of values means that you will have to pick up 5 club tricks and that will only be a problem if one opponent holds all 3 cards in the suit - a 22% occurrence. The approach on these hands is to find out as much as you can before making the crucial decision. To that end you should duck the first trick and win the spade continuation. Now cash the other spade, both diamonds, and the three heart tricks and see what transpires. On this hand you are lucky in that East shows out of both majors on the third round and West follows to 2 diamonds. Therefore West can hold at most one club and so you play the suit accordingly. You were lucky to find a hand that allowed you to complete a full picture - but you often make your own luck on these sorts of hands

If a lead looks like a doubleton and smells like a doubleton, it probably is a doubleton.    Why would anyone lead from an AQ into a notrump bidder?    Win the ♦K and assuming a 3-2 trump division, draw trumps and exit with the  ♦J.   Note:  When the adverse trumps are 4-1, a long suit is usually led.

East, on play with the ♦Q has an unhappy choice of plays.    If East elects to exit a heart, play the queen and if it is covered, you are reduced to the club finesse.    If East exits a club, the most you can lose is a heart.    If East exits a diamond, ruff in your hand and discard a heart from dummy.    You now have to play clubs for one loser.    The best play is low to the king, low to the ace and then low to the jack if the queen hasn't appeared.

The danger on this hand is that West will gain the lead and play a club through dummy's King, which in the light of the bidding, will surely spell defeat. The only suit in which West's entry can hurt is trumps - so try this play. Win the lead in hand and play a low spade towards dummy. If East wins he can do no harm but if West has the ♠K he may well duck at trick 2 if the layout is as shown. If that occurs, you can return to hand with the ♠A to take a diamond finesse. Then you will be able to play diamonds and throw clubs from hand, losing just a trump, a club and a diamond. No guarantee of success but certainly the best line.

The best line is to win the ♠A at trick 2, draw trumps and start on the diamonds.  If one defender hold Axx he will hold up for 2 rounds as we have seen.  However, this means that so far you have not lost a diamond trick.  Now exit with a spade.  West has to win this trick and if he started with a doubleton diamond, the defence cannot cash the ♦A.  If West continues with a fourth round of spades, simply discard a diamond from hand and leave West on lead.  He will now have to lead a club - a lucky guess or West holding both club honours now sees you home.

BTW : the latests county newsletter came out yesterday.

Your best play is to cash three rounds of hearts, discarding a club, cross to the ♦K, leading the jack as West may cover. Assuming no cover, cash the ♦A and exit with a spade. West must now give the contract except when he started with 3 low diamonds. If west exits with a diamond to East's Queen and a club comes back, you will have to guess.Notice that you are far better off adopting this line of play than taking the diamond finesse. If the queen is onside, you make 4♠ whether or not West covers. If the queen is offside, you are far better off playing the ace-king as East may have started with Qx or Qxxx. The recommended line of play has a good chance of finding West short in diamonds because East started with a singleton spade so is more likely to have length in diamonds.

Best play is to draw trumps and play the ace and another diamond.    If West follows to the second diamond with the lowest missing diamond it is safe to play low from dummy because East will have to win the trick.    If East happens to have started with honor doubleton, East is endplayed.    If East has a safe diamond exit and diamonds break 3-3, the spade finesse is unnecessary.  If diamonds do not divide 3-3, the spade finesse is still available.

Also, when a second diamond is led and it is not clear who will take the trick, rise with dummy's king and play a third diamond.    If diamonds break 3-3, you have the rest; if not, the spade finesse beckons.   The key to the play is determining how the diamonds break before taking  what could be a needless spade finesse.

You have 3 losers and a potential second trump loser. Hands like this are a pure guess as to who holds the ♥J. However, if the opponents were to lead trumps, this would solve your problem. The best line is to win the club and lead one back. The defenders might think you are angling to ruff a club on the table and play a trump for you. If they don't, you are no worse off than the heart guess.

You know from the bidding  and play to-date that East is at least 5/5 in the minors.  West didn't bid 1♠ so East is probably 3055 shape.

The winning line is to cash the ♦A and ruff a diamond, then play two rounds of spades and ruff a spade in hand. A further diamond ruff is followed by a second spade ruff. Then you can exit with the ♥J and West, down to his original three hearts, has the choice of being endplayed if he won the ♥K (he would have to lead from the T3 into declarer's A8) or ducking, in which case declarer's heart losers would be reduced to one.

Did you see that West has erred on this hand?  A spade discard (instead of a diamond) at trick 3 would mean that West could overruff a spade with ♥T and exit safely - still taking a trick with ♥K.

You have can make 12 tricks whenever West holds the ♠A, which on the bidding is fairly certain. After winning the diamond lead with the ace, you just draw the trumps, discarding diamonds from the table. The only way to make 12 tricks is to utilize dummy's spade suit, despite the fact that there appears to be only one (club) entry to the dummy. One possibility is to seek a second club entry to dummy by leading the two of clubs, intending to finesse dummy's 10. This would rely on luck, since you would need West to hold the ♣J. In any case, an alert West would always spoil your plan by inserting the J if he held it.

In fact there is no need to rely on such a dubious approach. You should lead the queen of clubs and overtake it with dummy's king. You then play the ♠K, discarding a diamond. West wins with the ♠A and has no good return. A spade will give the lead to dummy, allowing you to throw a diamond and club. Similarly, a club exit will promote the 10-9 of clubs into an entry, no matter who holds the ♣J.

You have 7 tricks and need to develop 2 more from spades and diamonds.  Clearly if the diamonds break 3-2 there are no problems.  If they are 4-1, you need to tackle the suits in the right order to give yourself the best chance of success.  Start by playing a top diamond from dummy.  If an honour falls on your right, unblock the ♦9.  Now continue with a low diamond to your 8.  If West wins this (from an original holding of HHxx), he sets up a finesse for you to gather 4 diamond tricks, giving you at least 9 tricks in total.  He therefore ducks the diamond and your 8 wins.  Now you have 3 diamond tricks without losing one, so you can turn your attention to spades, making 4 tricks whenever the suit breaks no worse than 4-2.  You will then make 4/5 spades, 2 hearts and 3 diamonds.

On this hand you simply need to count your tricks.  You have 4 red winners and can make 6 trump tricks even if either player has 4 trumps in defence.  All you need to do is discard a heart on the third club trick.  You can win the next lead and play off a top spade in hand.  When you discover 4 spades with West, a spade finesse allows you to pick up the suit.  If you mistakenly ruff high in hand at trick 3, you can no longer cope with West holding 4 spades.  

If the diamonds break there is no problem, but if they are 4-1 you have only 9 tricks.  You could try the ♥Q at trick 3 but is that a sensible play?  West is very unlikely to have switched to the ♥J when holding the King, and the ♥Q might be useful later as follows.  

Win the ♥A, draw trumps (which break 2-2) and test the diamonds.  If they break 4-1 you can ruff your last club and exit with the ♥Q.  If the ♥K is in the same hand as the singleton diamond, that player will then have to give you a ruff and discard for your tenth trick.

You have 10 tricks - 6 spades, 3 hearts and a diamond, but unless you are careful, you may have 4 losers. If you ruff the third club and it gets overruffed (very likely on the bidding), then a diamond return  will leave you stuck in dummy. Now you can't enjoy you heart winners. The solution is to not ruff the third club on the table. If the defence switch to diamonds, you have a trump to lead to hand to enjoy your ten winners.

South figures to have five spades (probably would not have passed 4♠ knowing of a 4-3 fit) and has one club leaving South with 7 red cards.  If South has four diamonds and three hearts, partner has a singleton diamond and might have led it in desperation. Most players like to lead singletons so much that they lead one even if they don't have one. No, it looks more like South has three diamonds and four hearts. If that is the case, partner has a doubleton heart and you can give partner a heart ruff if you shift to a heart and play a heart each time you get the lead in spades.

It looks like East has ducked with ♥AKx. With a singleton diamond, East would likely have taken the trick and shifted to a diamond, so that scenario can be ruled out. The best way to avoid two diamond losers is to start with the ♦AK. If an honour falls, the most you can lose is two hearts and a diamond. If nothing exciting happens in diamonds, play a third diamond. If the suit breaks 3–3, no problem: You lose two hearts and a diamond. If East has ♦QJxx, you will be defeated, losing two hearts and two diamonds, but if West, has ♦ QJxx, you can still ruff a diamond in dummy, once again losing two hearts and a diamond. The trap to avoid is leading a diamond to the ten after the ♥9 holds. If the suit is 4–2, West will win with an honour and get out with a club. You ruff, but when you play the ♦AK, East ruffs the third round of the suit, cashes a trump, and West takes the setting trick in diamonds.

Whenever you have a holding such as the diamond suit on this hand, it is better if the opponents open up the suit, rather than you have to do it for yourself.

You can take advantage of the favourable opening lead by discarding a club from dummy at trick on the second top heart, and then playing ♣A and a club to the King before leading the ♠Q from dummy.  On a good day, East might cover from Kx, clashing the spade honours, but on this occasion, East wins the ♠A and since anything else gives a ruff and discard, he exits with ♦9.  You cover with the ♦10 and this in turn goes ♦J, ♦A. Now you play a second spade which West wins, but he is in turn endplayed, forced to concede a trick to your ♦Q (or allow you a diamond discard if he plays a side suit).  Either way you lose just 2 spades and 1 diamond. 

This is a very straightforward hand. You need to safeguard (if possible) against East gaining the lead and pushing a club through the South hand. Win the lead, draw trumps and cash ♦AK. Now exit with a heart. The only time you can now be defeated is if West holds 3 small diamonds and the ♣A

This hand is all about the heart suit.  Do you play for the drop or finesse the ♥J?

East clearly has long spades so is maybe short in hearts.  However, you should try to get a count of the hand.  Your first move should be to ruff the club with ♦10 as this preserves your low diamonds to use to get to dummy.  When you cash the ♦A, the ♦J falls from East.  Then you can play the ♦8 to the 9 in dummy, ruff a club, and then re-enter dummy with the ♦6 to ruff the last club, on which East discards a spade.  You now know East started with 3 clubs and 1 diamond.  West's initial lead of the ♠7 would generally show a 4 card suit.  If he held a five card suit he would have lead his lowest card, and with only 3 spades, we would have heard more from East (holding 8 spades).  Hence you can be confident that East's shape is 7213 and that the Q♥ will drop doubleton. 

If trumps are no worse than 3-1, you have a complete elimination play available.  Duck trick 1 and win the heart continuation.  Draw trumps in 3 rounds, ruff dummy's last heart and then play 3 rounds of diamonds.  The defense will then have to open the club suit or give you a ruff and discard.  However, when you play a trump to dummy at trick 3, East shows out, so you need to reconsider now that the trumps are 4-0.

The solution is a partial elimination.  Continue as before, drawing just 3 trumps and ruffing a heart, before playing 3 rounds of diamonds.  You are in luck as East has to win this trick and play a club. You duck this trick to West, who exits with his last trump.  Win this on the table and finesses the ♣10.  

To succeed when trumps are 4-0, you need the club honours split and East to hold the ♦Q.  Note that you have to draw 3 of West's trumps, else he could ruff the third diamond and exit with a trump, leaving you to play the club suit yourself.

This is a hand which really plays itself.  If West has the expected ♠A, then you also hope that he is controlling the club suit.  Simply play out most of your trumps.  If you view the full hand you will see that in the end position, West will hold  ♠AJT and ♣QJ8 and have no good discard.  A spade is fatal as declarer now plays a spade towards dummy ensuring 2 tricks with the ♣A as an entry.  If West throws a club in the end position then he is stuck when a spade is led.  He has to duck to avoid giving 2 tricks in the suit as before, and now having avoided a spade loser, declarer simply plays 2 rounds of clubs, establishing a second club winner for himself.

It is often a good thing to play out a long suit even when you cannot foresee the exact ending as defenders often will discard incorrectly, or as in this case, the play to the final few tricks just falls into place.

A simple count count of your winners gives 6 outside the diamond suit, hence you need three tricks from that suit. You could win the lead and finesse a diamond (say it holds). You return to hand for a second finesse but this time it loses, and if the suit is 4-2 offside, you can no longer set up an extra diamond trick. The correct play is to simply duck a diamond in both hands at trick 2. Later you finesse (or not - it only affects a possible overtrick) and this way 3 tricks are assured provided the suit is no worse than 4-2.

You expect to make five clubs, five trumps, the ♠A and a spade ruff. The only worry is a 4-0 trump break (West cannot have four diamonds). As you expect West to hold the ♥A and entries to your hand are few, a little care is needed when the full deal is as shown.

After taking the ♠K with the ace, you should ruff a spade with the eight of trumps. Then, cash the ♦A and continue with the ♦10. Presumably, East will cover this with the jack. You will take this with the Q, cross back to dummy with a club and pick up East's remaining trumps by leading the ♦5 and covering East's card. Then, after drawing the last trump, you will have your 12 tricks.

You should ask yourself why East did not win the heart and play back a club as that would give the defenders 4 clubs, a heart and a spade trick to set your contract.  The answer must be that East has no more clubs and does not know where partner's presumed entry lies.  Now for West - he has 6 clubs and only 1 heart.  If the ♦J were singleton, West would hold a 5116 shape and would surely have made a 2 suited overcall.  The fact that he didn't marks his shape as 4126.  The ♦Q is therefore going to fall and hence you rise with ♥A to cash another heart and all the diamonds to make an overtrick.  Well done if you found this line - you have to listen to the bidding and consider the defensive play to get this one right.

You might play the ace and another spade, thinking you are getting rid of trumps, but that turns out to be an error.  West has the king of spades but he also has four of them.

If South continued a third round of trumps, West would win and lead another club.  That would force out dummy's last trump and West would now have the last trump and a good club.  That would result in down two. South still had chances but when he got around to leading his diamonds, West ruffed in on the second round. 

South does better to play spades in less hasty fashion.

Here is one possible line out of a couple that exist.  It might not be the best line but it shows how you might play when you fear a bad trump break.

Go to the queen of hearts and lead the queen of spades for a finesse.  It will win when West smoothly and correctly lets it win.  Lead the jack of spades.  East shows out, but you finesse again anyway.  West wins but South is in control.  If West leads more clubs, South ruffs and dummy has an entry plus good trumps and South can get the rest of the tricks.

Question:  What is the other line?

South, after ruffing the third club, can lead a low spade from his hand and can continue play along the lines shown above.

The main point is to show that 4-1 trump breaks do happen and sometimes can be catered to with careful play.

With the ♥ K marked with East, South does best to play low from dummy and win the ace intending to use the ♥Q as a later throw-in card. South draws trumps, strips diamonds and exits a heart to the queen and king. East is fixed. A heart return is a ruff and discard while a club return goes into “Jaws” (the AQJ). Either way it's all over but the shouting. An equally divided side suit such as hearts in this example can often be used as a throw-in suit to force a favorable return. However, the side suits must be stripped, the opponents' trump drawn, and at least one trump must remain in each hand before the 'grand exit' in the evenly divided suit. 

The first thing to appreciate is that playing on clubs will inevitably lead to the loss of 2 clubs and at least 3 heart tricks.  Clearly diamonds must be your source of tricks.  There will be no problem if the suit breaks 3-2. If the suit is 4-1, you can succeed whenever West holds 4 cards and East has the singleton 8 or 9.

The ♥K is the only side entry to dummy, so win the first trick in hand with the ace. Then lead the ♦10. When this is covered with the jack, win with dummy's king and play the 3 to your 7, East follows first with the ♦8 and then shows out.

West has no answer: If he takes this trick, you will be able to finesse the ♦6 on the next round of the suit. If West plays low, you continue with a diamond to the ace and another diamond to set up a long diamond, with the ♥K as the entry to cash it. Of course, if West had not covered the ♦10, you would have played low from the dummy and won the trick. Then, the A, K and another diamond would have set up a long diamond, again with the ♥K as the entry.

There appears to be a mass of tricks available on this hand, so now is the time to be carfeul.  There will be no problem if the clubs behave so assume you have a loser in the suit.  If you duck at trick 1, East will win and may embarrass you by switching to a spade.  Then if a club has to be lost, you may end up losing a heart, a club and 3 spades.  The winning play is to rise with ♥A at trick 1 and play a club to the Ace.  If either opponent show out on the first round of clubs, a low club towards the J will ensure 5 tricks in the suit and 9 in total.  The most the defenders can take are 1 spade, 2 hearts and a club.

As with all hands, counting your tricks and forming a plan at trick 1 is the key to success.