This is a hand where you need to avoid a trump loser, so it is important to find the Queen. Ruff the third diamond and play a low heart to the King in dummy. If the King holds then it looks like the Ace is with West. Since he passed as dealer and has shown up with 10 points, you should play East for the ♠Q. If the King of hearts loses to the Ace, then you are back to just guessing the trump position. Playing hearts is called a discovery play and sometimes it can help you place the missing cards. It may not always work, but it costs nothing to try. 

If you can bring in 5 diamond tricks you are home. Unfortunately, if you have to overtake the ♦Q to get to dummy, you will be reliant on diamonds breaking 3-3 - only a 36% chance. You do however have an outside entry to dummy but only if you dropped a high club from hand at trick one. Win the spade switch and cash 2 top diamonds before playing a low club towards the ten. The defence cannot prevent you from now scoring 5 diamonds, 2 spades and 2 clubs. As usual, the play to trick one was critical.

If things lie badly you might lose a trick in each major, and you can afford that. However, you are in danger of being forced in clubs if trumps are 4-1.South must lead the jack of spades at trick three! Should West win and lead a club, South ruffs and advances the ♥J. Let's say East wins and leads another club, dummy can ruff with the nine of spades. A diamond to hand allows South to draw trumps and claim. If the ♠J holds, South cashes two top trumps and starts on the hearts. All the defence can now make are a club and one in each major. If you play 3 rounds of spades from the top early , you get forced. If you take just 2 trumps and play hearts, you eventually suffer a heart ruff. 

South must be credited with 7 spades.  He has made a diamond and has 2 Aces in dummy so that is 11 tricks.  The first conclusion therefore is that South must be void in clubs if you are to have any chance.  The second conclusion is that South must hold the ♥Q, else West would have led a heart from KQ.  Now things are beginning to shape up.  If you let partner win the ♦Q, South will doubtless try to bring down the ♣K in 3 rounds, reducing West to ♥Kx and ♣K in front of dummy's ♥A7 and ♣Q, with atrump to come. To defeat the impending squeeze, you must overtake the ♦Q with the Ace and switch to a low heart.  Even if South holds ♥ QTx, you are still giving yourself the best chance (he might play the Queen).

Your problem is to avoid losing a trump and 2 hearts since a diamond must be lost. Win the trump Ace and play a heart to your Ace. Now ruff a heart with the ♠K and return with a club to ruff your last heart with a low trump. This way you only lose a trump, a heart and a diamond.

It looks like East is now out of clubs so trying for club ruffs in dummy is no good.  You lead a top spade and West follows with the Jack.  On a second top trump, West discards a club.  Now the hand is easy.  Simply play a top club from hand.  If East ruffs if he must lead a heart into your AQ for 2 discards.  If East declines to ruff a club, you exit with a low trump to achieve the same result. 

The bidding marks the missing Kings with West.  The lead indicates that West has at most 5 spades.  A simple line therefore is to win the ♠Q and cash just enough diamonds to exhaust West of that suit and then exit with a spade.  Having cashed his spade tricks, West will have to lead away from one of his Kings to give you a ninth trick.  Is this contract 100% on the play to trick 1? - No not really- it is just possible that West holds a 6 card spade suit and has led his fifth highest to fool you!  If that is the case, remember to congratulate him on his defence.

There are two things which might go wrong - you might have a bad break and a trump loser, or you might find that they take a ruff at trick one before you get to draw trumps. In practice five of the six players with this problem leapt to 7♠, the other one bidding 5♥ and then 7♠ over partner's 6♣ bid.  After your leap to slam, the bidding goes P - P - X  with double asking for an unusual lead.  East led a club and the four heart opener ruffed that for down one.  Sad!

After the event, the discussion turned to his to bid the hand better.  Two strands of thinking developed -

a)  if you can persuade partner to bid spades before you then this hand can go down as dummy and the preempt is on lead and a minor suit ruff is now inconceivable.

b)  if partner is very short in spades, then 7♦ might be easy while in spades you have a trump loser.

Can you make handle either of these options?  A takeout double over 4♥ is a dangerous choice as partner might pass.  The cue bid over 4♥ is read by partner as showing spades and a minor, so it might work but here it got a club response.  The final thought is bidding 4N which, because it bypasses spades, shows the minors.  If over this partner preferred diamonds, there would be a very good case for bidding 7♦ .  When partner bids clubs on today's hand, you could always try a cue bid of 5♥ and here partner will cue bid 5♠. Just what you want! You raise to 7♠ and partner scratches his/her head.  With any luck they can't find anything to do and they pass.

This is all a bit fanciful, but I bet the players concerned won't bid 7♠ on the first round next time they have this hand!

When your contract looks assured, you should consider what could go wrong. The only danger is that trumps break 4-0 and that the diamonds don't come in - not very likley but you can take precautions. Ruff a spade at trick 2 and lay down the Ace of trumps. East shows out but you can cash 2 more trumps in hand and cross to dummy with a diamond to ruff another spade. Now a club to dummy allows you to draw the last trump, throwing a small diamond from hand, and claim the remainder. A simple dummy reversal but if you play a trump at trick 2 you will be defeated.

You have 12 tricks on top.  The trump lead deprives you of a heart ruff so you will have to look elsewhere for your extra trick.  Whilst the club suit offers the best chances (you will ultimately take a club finesse if nothing exciting has happened), you should give yourself an extra chance (albeit slim). Draw trumps, cross to dummy with a heart and play Ace and another diamond, ruffing.  If a top honour falls you can go back to dummy with a club to lead another diamond.  If either defender started life with ♦ KQx, you have your thirteenth trick.

The key point of this hand has been reached. You are obviously going to take the diamond finesse and this is in to the hand with the long clubs. Hence there is no point in ducking trick 1. You just win the Ace, cross to dummy and run the ♦J. If it loses, you hope the club suit is blocked, as it will be if East started with ♣KJ doubleton. Obviously you also make whenever the club suit breaks 4-3.

One line might be to draw trumps and try to get the diamond suit right - but I wouldn't fancy the diamond guess if West follows with small cards.  If trumps are 2-2 then you would have 2 dummy entries to take a double diamond finesse - a 75% shot.  You could also get your entries to dummy by ruffing a heart and later using the ♠Q as a second entry. Either line might fail if diamonds are 4-1 and the defence can manage to get a ruff.  An alternative play is to just cash 2 more hearts, throwing diamonds from dummy, and then play Ace and another diamond.  This line works whenever diamonds are 3-2, and also in many cases when they are 4-1 and you can engineer 2 ruffs in dummy.  This is the best percentage line.

One line is to croos with atrump and take a spade finesse. If this loses, you still have the chance of a 3-3 break. You can do much better than this however. Win the lead and play ♠A nd then ♠Q. Suppose the defence win, cash 2 diamonds and switch to a club. Now you can win in dummy, ruff a spade high, cross back in trumps and ruff another spade high. A trump to dummy allows you to enjoy the fifth spade for a club discard.

The contract is now a sure thing. Draw three rounds of trumps. Only East can hold diamond length and you can cater for him having all 5 missing diamonds. Play the ♦10 towards dummy. If West shows out, duck the trick to East. If East wins, you later have a ruffing finesse against him. If he ducks, you can later ruff a diamond and concede just one trick in the suit. Anything less than a 5-0 diamond split makes your task easier. You can also succeed by leading the ♦2 towards dummy provided you rise with the Ace when West shows out.  A small diamond towards your ten places East in the same dilemma as before.

Now you have a trump loser, you can't afford to lose a diamond trick. That will be no problem if the suit breaks 3-2, so consider a less favourable break. The solution is simple once it occurs to you. Just ruff a heart to hand and return to dummy with a club. Now lead a diamond from the table. Only West can hold long diamonds. If East ruffs in, he ruffs a loser, if he throws away, you simply play off your club winners and exit with a trump to achieve the same ending.

You have 2 poential losers. One line might be to take a spade finesse, another to play a diamond to the Queen. Both of these plays are 50%. Can you do better? Yes - in fact you can improve on these odds considerably. Win the lead and play a low diamond from both hands. Let's say a club is returned. You win and play Ace and another diamond, ruffing high. You still have 2 dummy entries to set up the long diamond and get back to enjoy it. You only go down if diamonds are 5-1.

You might consider setting up the spade suit, but dummy entries are short, so that line looks doomed even if the trump suit behaves. Making tricks from trumps is a better option. Finesse the club and if it wins, play Ace and another diamond ruffing. Then a spade to hand to ruff another diamond. Cash the ♠K and ♣A before ruffing a club in hand. Now another diamond, hoping to ruff it in dummy. As the cards lie, West ruffs in and leads another club. Now you must be careful to ruff in dummy and under-ruff in hand. That way you can lead a spade from table and ruff low. West can overruff but is endpalyed to give you the ♥ K for your tenth trick. 

Win the heart, draw trumps and play a diamond to your 8. West wins and has to play a diamond or a spade or concede a ruff and discard. If he plays a spade you just run it, and a diamond allows you to set up a diamond for a spade discard.

From your point of view, you don't want declarer to discard a losing heart on the fourth diamond. Whilst you don't know how the spades lie, the best defence at this point is to return the ♠K. This denies declarer an entry to dummy. At the table, declarer won the ♠A and played another spade, but West ruffed. 2 rounds of hearts followed by a third spade promoted an extra trump trick for the defence, giving them a penalty of 1400.

6♠ is 100% once there is no trump loser - it is just a matter of counting your sure tricks. You have 6 spades, 3 diamonds, 1 heart and 1 club on top and you always have an extra trick in hearts irrespective of who has the ♥K.  Just draw 3 rounds of trumps and lead the ♥Q, throwing a diamond from dummy.  This gives you 12 tricks no matter how the opposing cards lie. The diamond suit is an illusion on this hand as you don't need to generate any extra tricks in the suit. Somehow this is not easy to see at the table.

If you look at the full deal, you will see that the diamonds break 5-0 on this hand, so 7♠ looks doomed as the King of hearts does not drop doubleton. However, this hand shows the fascination of the game in that the grand slam can still be made on the above layout. Can you see how?

Win the trump lead and test the heart suit  to see if the King falls. When it doesn't, you just run all the trumps.  East comes under pressure in 3 suits. He cannot discard 2 diamonds without immediately conceding defeat so say he bares the ♣K. You cross back to hand with the ♦A and play off 2 clubs to squeeze East again.  

You are looking at a loser in each suit, so your best chance is to hope that West has four clubs, in which case the opponents may not be able to cash a club winner before you can set up dummy’s spades for two club discards. The critical move is to lead a diamond at trick two and hope West’s only side-suit entry is in diamonds. As East seems to have the majority of the missing high-card strength, West probably owns no more than a reasonable diamond suit to go along with an apparent club sequence. Suppose East wins the diamond and leads a low club to the 10 and king. Now, in order to make this contract, you must assume that East has both the ♥A and the ♠K. After winning the second club, play the ♥Q from dummy. East, marked with the ♥ A, is not likely to have a singleton heart and a doubleton club and not jump to 5♦  (and if he does, he is endplayed). If East has two hearts, he will win the ace and exit a heart, the best defense. West’s distribution should be 2164. After winning the heart return in dummy, lead the ♠9 to the ace and then a low spade, covering whatever spade West plays. If West plays an honor, cover with dummy’s queen; if East wins and plays a low spade, discard a club. West has no more hearts and no more spades. Now you can ruff a spade and set up the suit for a second club discard. If East exits a diamond instead, ruff in your hand, discard a club from dummy, and you have the wherewithal to ruff two clubs in dummy. Suppose East has three hearts and ducks the first round. No matter. West’s distribution should be 3064 so spades are 3–3. Without playing a second heart, play the ♠A and another spade as before. If East wins and gets out with the ♥A and his last heart, win in dummy, ruff a spade to set up the suit and return to dummy’s last heart to cash two winning spades, discarding two losing clubs.

It is clear that South holds ♠AQx and it is going to be impossible to beat the contract unless you can shut out dummy's diamonds.  The way to do this is to play the ♥Q, a little known blocking play.  If the Queen is covered by the King, partner must play his part and duck.  To lead a low heart instead of the Queen is not so effective.  South will let it ride round to his 10 and will subsequently enter dummy by finessing the ♥J  

Count your tricks as always.  The club lead means you have 5 spades, 2 clubs and 2 diamonds so you are on trick short.  The extra trick might come from a successful diamond finesse, or the cards might lie in such a way that you make a heart trick.  However, a little thought will show that you will always make a heart trick if the opponents lead the suit rather you you having to broach it yourself.  You should therefore draw trumps and cash your clubs before playing 3 rounds of diamonds, refusing the finesse.  Whoever wins this trick will have to open the hearts or give you a ruff and discard.

If South held ♠Kxx, it would be easy to see the need to duck.  There are 2 diamond honours to knock out and this can be done safely if they are divided or if East holds both.  By ducking the first spade, declarer ensures that East will not have a spade to return when he gets in with his diamond honour.  A little thought will show that with West marked with the ♠K, the ♠QJ are effectively the same as holding the King - hence you should duck at trick 1.  If you win trick 1 and play a diamond, East can win and return his spade and West will clear the suit with a diamond entry to enjoy the established spades.  If you duck trick 1, East will return a spade, but you have 2 spade stops and now East is out of spades when he wins his diamond trick.

[If West held both diamond honours, there must have been a good chance of the hand opening the bidding]

If East gets in you will lose a club and 3 diamonds. If you try a club to the King and hope West holds the Ace you are doomed to failure. West passed originally and has already shown up with 9 points so wont have the ♣A. Your best shot is to deceptively duck the heart switch in both hands. You hope that West will think he has struck gold and will continue with a second heart. Then you can win, play ♠A and cross in trumps and pitch your club on a heart. Then a ruffing club finesse sees you home with a trump entry still in dummy.

You have a diamond loser that isn't going anywhere and must therefore avoid a trump loser. Many players would lay down the ♥A in case they drop a singleton Queen, but this is wrong. If the hearts are 3-2 it doesn't really matter, but when hearts are 4-1, West is 3 times more likely to hold a singleton small card than a singleton Queen. and you cannot afford to waste the ♥9.   Just cross to dummy with a diamond and run the ♥J

You look to have 2 spades and a diamond trick, so where will the setting trick come from. The bidding tells you that partner will have no useful honour cards, so the only chance of an extra trick is in trumps. If partner holds the ♥9 and ruffs the third spade with it, then you will make a trump trick. You need to be careful, however. If you play 3 rounds of spades and partner does indeed ruff, declarer may just discard a losing diamond if the layout is as shown. To prevent this development, you should cash the ♦A before playing a third round of spades.

The best line is to hope for a 2-2 club break. Win the club switch in hand and then ruff a heart. Cash the remaining two top trumps in dummy and attempt to return to hand with a club. If clubs break, then you can draw trumps, discarding the ♣ AQ and setting up 3 club winners in hand for 10 tricks. The alternative line of ruffing a heart and then overtaking the ♠Q works when spades break 3-3. As you should know, the odds of a suit breaking 2-2 when missing 4 cards are greater than a 3-3 break missing 6 cards, making the suggested line a better shot.

You have 12 top tricks and an extra one if the diamonds split. If diamonds are 4-1, you should be able to squeeze an extra trick if the hand with 4 diamonds also has the ♠K  Win and draw 5 rounds of trumps, discarding a diamond from dummy. Now play off the ♠A, ♣AK and ♦AK. If diamonds have broken, continue with a third diamond and then ruff a spade to hand to cash the last diamond. If diamonds are 4-1, ruff a low spade in hand. This will bring down the ♠K whenever the hand with 4 diamonds also held this card. The ♦Q and ♠Q are your last 2 tricks.

This is a hand where you must plan ahead (aren't they all). A careless declarer might throw a heart away from dummy at trick 2. This will result in defeat. At some point you lead a heart from hand but West rises with the Ace and plays another heart and you eventually have to take a losing spade finesse. The winning line is to discard a spade from dummy at trick 2 and draw trumps before playing a low heart from hand. If West takes his Ace, you can later throw a spade from hand on dummy's ♥K. If he ducks the heart, you can return to hand with a trump, play a club throwing a heart from dummy and exit with a heart to endplay West.

If the spade finesse works you are home and if it loses you have the 2 way heart finesse in reserve. However, an elimination play improves your chances. Ruff the third diamond and lead a club to the Ace and a trump off dummy. Rise with the ♠A and eliminate clubs before exiting with a trump. If the ♠K had dropped under the Ace you are home and the heart finesse is for an overtrick. If spades are 2-1 whoever wins the ♠K will have to give you a ruff and discard or open up the hearts. The only problem arises when spades are 3-0, in which case you will have to view the heart suit.

There will be no problem if trumps break 3-2 so you need to think about a 4-1 trump split. First priority is to get rid of the club loser so win the lead and take 3 rounds of hearts, throwing a club. Now you can afford to lose 2 trumps and a diamond, but you must be careful not to lose control of the hand. Play one top trump and then lead diamonds. The most the defence can do is take the diamond ace and a ruff in the suit, but then you can take another high trump and run the diamonds. You cannot lose more than 3 tricks on this line. If you take 2 top trumps early then the defence can ultimately win the diamond, draw your remaining trumps and have a lot of clubs to cash.

Remember the bidding. East opened vulnerable at the one level and is henced marked with the ♥Q and the ♦K, thus both red suit finesses are doomed to failure. Fortunately, a squeeze can come to your rescue. You need the rest of the tricks and one player is guarding 2 suits so all you need to do is ensure that one of your threat cards sits behind the hand that is to be squeezed. Its a good job you hold the ♦T. Win the heart switch with the Ace and cash the ♦A before running all your trumps. You are left with a heart and the ♦T, dummy with ♥KJ and East with ♥Qx ♦K with a discard still to make. If he doesn't throw his diamond, you know that his ♥Q will fall.

It looks like you must lose 2 trumps and a club, but don't give up yet. Finesse the ♥J and if it holds, you are well on your way. Cash the ♥K and enter dummy with a spade. Pitch a spade on the ♥A and ruff a heart. Now a spade to dummy and a spade ruff. If all this passes off OK you can exit with a club. East wins but on his forced club return, you ruff in hand and West's second trump trick is smothered out of existence. 

The lead gives you 3 spade tricks and you have 3 more quick winners. Clubs will produce 3 more tricks provided West holds the King and less than 4 clubs. It is better odds to play diamonds, where the suit will set up unless East holds QTxx. Hence you should win the lead, unblock the ♠A, and play the ♦A, on which we will say that East drops the ten . Now the best play is a diamond to the King. You don't mind losing a diamond to West as if hearts are led from that side, the defence can take no more than 3 tricks in the suit. If you finesse the diamond and it loses, the ♥9 switch could prove embarrasing if the layout is as shown. If East started with ♦QTx, you will have to hope that the cards are such that the defence cannot take 4 heart tricks. If the ♦T had not fallen on the first round, then you have to assess the chances of losing a diamond to East and suffering a fatal heart switch versus playing the ♦K and finding West with ♦QTxx.

On this hand, you need to set up the spade suit when they break 4-3 and also keep control of trumps. Win the diamond in hand and cash the 2 trumps in dummy. Assume everyone follows else you are going down.  Now the key play is to lead a low spade from the table and discard a minor suit card on this trick. Win the return on the table (a diamond say), ruff a low spade and draw trumps before using the other minor suit entry to access dummy's winning spades.

You should know the shape of South's hand. From the bidding and play so far, declarer is 6115. If declarer can get to dummy to lead a spade towards hand then you will be limited to one spade trick to go with 2 red suit tricks. If partner has a sure club trick then South will be defeated, so assume his clubs are good. The winning defence is to win ♠ A, take your ♦A and then exit with a club. This way you will come to a second trump trick. If you fail to cash the ♦A, preferring to play a club at this point, then declarer can tke 2 club tricks and exit with a diamond, forcing you to give the required entry to dummy whatever you now return.

One line would be to hope that hearts break 3-2 and just draw trumps and cash winners. An improvement would be to abandon trumps and play hearts immediately. If both opponents follow you revert to drawing trumps and you are also OK if West has 4 hearts as well as 4 trumps. However, you can do much better than that. Play a heart to dummy and cash the ♦K, discarding a heart from hand. Now you can ruff a heart high, draw the trumps and claim.

This is a hand where you need to combine all your available chances. If clubs are 2-2 you are safe for 13 tricks by discarding a spade on the fourth heart and ruffing a spade in dummy. You also have the chance that the ♦A will fall. At trick 2 play a club to the Jack and ruff a diamond. You are out of luck in that the Ace does not fall. Now cash a top trump in hand. Assume that the clubs break 3-1. Now it's time to play hearts - the player with the third trump might have 4 hearts. If indeed you are able to cash 4 heart tricks, throwing a spade from the table, you can now ruff your third spade on the table. Note that it is important to retain a high trump on the table, else your third spade might get over-ruffed.

If the spades come in you have no problem, so assume tha East holds ♠J9xx. If East also holds the ♥Q (or five diamonds) he can be squeezed provided you take your tricks in the right order. Win trick 2 and cash the heart Ace and then 4 rounds of clubs, pitching a heart from hand.Now a spade to your Queen allows you to cash the other top diamond. East cannot keep both his spade guard and a red suit winner. If you carelessly play the ♠Q at trick 3, you can no longer enter hand to execute the squeeze.

You have masses of tricks on this hand but lack an important card - the Ace of trumps. This gives the defence control of that suit. Suppose you ruff the diamond and play a trump: If hearts are 4-2 which is with the odds, the defence will hold up their Ace on the first round and then be able to force you in diamonds. The solution to not being forced is to not ruff trick 2 but to discard one of your winners. The defence cannot continue diamonds as you can ruff in the short trump hand. This play carries a small risk.The defence may be able to switch to a black suit and obtain a ruff in that suit if it breaks 4-1 and the ♥A is with the long holding but I would assess this risk as much less than that of a 4-2 trump break.

You expect the clubs to break 4-4 from the looks of the opening lead. The red suits need to furnish 5 tricks and they can easily do this but only if you play the suits in the right order. Suppose you start on diamonds and the defence duck 2 rounds. Now if East holds the ♥A he may be able to deny you an entry to dummy to cash the diamonds. However, if you play on hearts first, the defence can never deny you a diamond entry, so you will make 3 hearts and 2 diamonds whilst the defence can only get 2 red aces and 2 clubs.

You can tell from the lead that partner has no more clubs since the only missing club is higher than the 6 and partner would not have led low from a doubleton. Hence you have a club ruff coming. However, this by itself will not defeat the contract unless you can take 2 further tricks and it is difficult to see how that can happen. If West held ♦AK he would surely have led one of them to begin with. Declarer most likely holds the ♠A and therefore your best chance is that West has the ♦A, Switch to the ♦Q at trick 2. If it holds, now is the time to give partner his ruff. If declarer covers the diamond, you get back in with the Knave for the club ruff. A simple case of thinking ahead.

You could take the spade finesse, but if it loses and a heart comes through, then 3 rounds of hearts gives you a problem. You have to ruff the third round in dummy but how high? If East started with 3 decent trumps, they will beat you with a trump promotion. An alternative line might be to cross to dummy and cash 2 clubs, throwing hearts. If that passes off without West ruffing, then you might well scramble home, losing a trump, a heart and a diamond. It is a messy way to play however, and risks running into club and diamond ruffs. The best line is to eschew the spade finesse and play a spade to the Ace at trick 2, followed by a low spade from dummy. Now if East rises with the King to play a heart, there is no trump promotion and you can just ruff the third heart high.

Making 4 club tricks will see you home but the obvious danger is that the defence will hold up the ♣A until the third round and you will need a side entry to dummy to cash your winners. This entry can only possibly come from the heart suit. However, an alert defender will deny you a heart entry by ducking your King or by rising with the Ace if you lead a low card from hand. The solution is very simple - play the ♥K at trick 1 and later you cannot be denied a heart entry to dummy. The rule of eleven tells you that East has only one card higher than the five and you have seen that card when he plays the ♥8. Don't take your eye off the ball at trick one.

The only danger is that trumps are 3–0 , so how do you start the suit with nothing to indicate who might hold 3 trumps? There is a subtle reason to start with the ♥A. Suppose West shows out. You still have a chance to make. If spades are 3–3, you will be fine. Play the top spades, ruff the third round and then throw a diamond on the fourth round as the opponents get their Queen. The extra chance comes if spades are 4–2. If you lay down the ♥A and find RHO with ♥Qxx and a doubleton spade, you can still make your contract. Play the top spades ending in dummy, and then play a third spade. If RHO ruffs with his natural trump trick, you throw your losing diamond. If he declines to ruff, you ruff and go back to dummy’s ♥K and play a fourth spade. Again, if East ruffs, you throw your diamond. If he discards again, you ruff, ruff a club and play the fifth spade (now good) to throw your diamond loser. This won't work if you start with the ♥K because if LHO has ♥Qxx, you can’t benefit from 4–2 spades the wrong way. You have to ruff the third spade and LHO will overruff and cash a diamond winner.