Hand 1 Given that you can be sure of the spade finesse, there are 2 possible approaches to this hand. Approach 1 would be to assume the Ace of diamonds is onside and the play follows a simplistic course – win the heart, draw a couple of rounds of trumps finishing in dummy. Take the spade finesse and then play a diamond towards your King. Approach 2 is to assume that the diamond Ace is offside,in which case you need to generate 3 spade tricks, but the spades are almost certainly breaking 7-0. Duck the opening lead and ruff the likely heart continuation. Cash the Ace of trumps and play a trump to the 9. Now a spade finesse holds. Discard the Ace of Spades on the Ace of Hearts and continue with a ruffing finesse against East. The King of Clubs remains as a re-entry to dummy. You might think that both lines have an equal chance of success (50% on the position of the diamond Ace), but approach 2 has the added advantage that West will often continue with a heart at trick 2, even when the Ace of diamonds is with East (and hence a diamond switch and spade return would beat you). Well done if you spotted both lines. Hand 2 North’s response at the 2 level was game forcing under the N/S methods. West led the King of hearts and both opponents followed small when you won and laid down the Ace of trumps. The winning line is to set up the clubs for a diamond discard. The JT of spades is a sure entry provided you don’t cash another top spade. At tricks 3 and 4 play off the top clubs and then ruff a club with the spade 8. Suppose this holds. Now exit with a low trump. West will win, cash his 2 heart tricks and switch to a diamond. You win, ruff a club high and enter dummy with a trump to cash the last club, pitching a diamond. You just lose a trump and 2 hearts. Hand 3 Clubs offers the best chance of an extra trick. Play a club to the Ace and another back to your ten. If necessary, you later play a club towards the Queen. This line only loses to Jx with West and is around a 94% chance. Hand 4 You need to take care of the fourth round of diamonds. A dummy reversal offers the best play. Ruff the spade at trick 2 and lay down the King of clubs. When both opponents follow, play a heart to the King (East can’t really have the Ace else he would be too strong for his weak 2 opener). Ruff a spade and exit with a heart. Say a diamond is returned. Win with the Queen in dummy and ruff a heart high. A second diamond to dummy is followed by another high heart ruff. Now a trump to dummy’s Ace and ten draws the trumps as you discard your losing diamond. This way you make a heart, 3 diamonds and 7 club tricks. Hand 5 If you exit with a diamond at this point, you leave yourself exposed to a finesse. A heart exit gives up a trick to declarer’s King, so you have to exit with a club. If you play Ace and another club you will find it impossible to discard well on 3 rounds of trumps. A low club is no better: you will be able to discard a heart and 2 clubs on the spades, but will then be thrown in with a diamond to concede a trick to the King of hearts. To shift the burden imposed by your controls in three suits, you must exit with the Queen of clubs. On the next 2 trumps you can throw the Jack of hearts and the Ace of clubs. If south plays his last trump, you can discard the heart Queen, because you still hold the precious 3 of clubs. Hand 6 West leads the Queen of clubs. You win and test the hearts. When West show out on the second round, continue with a spade. Let’s say East wins and plays a third trump. Now play a club to hand, ruff your last spade and lead a low diamond from dummy, ducking in hand. Whoever wins this trick will either have to concede a ruff and discard or else play another diamond. In the latter case, you must make 2 diamond tricks for your contract. Hand 7 After winning 2 clubs you consider your next move. A red suit shift is not promising: partner would surely have led your suit if he held a diamond honour, and he is unlikely to hold Txx in hearts. Before continuing with a ‘safe’ club, stop to consider the end position. On dummy’s last spade you will have to discard a heart, in which case declarer leads that suit from dummy, or a diamond, in which case a diamond is led from dummy. Either way 9 tricks are South’s. However, if South has a singleton spade (quite likely on the bidding), you can defeat the contract by switching to a spade. This forces declarer to run the spades before cashing the ace of clubs. Now you can afford to discard your small club, keeping 3 hearts and 2 diamonds. Declarer cannot deal with this no matter how he himself discards, you either set up a long heart or endplay South according to his choice of play. Hand 8 You need a plan to deal with your fourth diamond. No problem if diamonds break but if they are 4-2 it is most likely East that holds 4. You might find East with 3 trumps in which case you can draw just 2 rounds of trumps and then play diamonds, ruffing in dummy. However, if East holds 4 diamonds, you don’t need to risk the trump position as you know that East holds the King of hearts and he can therefore be squeezed in the red suits. A squeeze will not operate if you just run the trumps because there is no entry to dummy. You must therefore use the trumps in a different way: after the Queen of hearts holds trick 4, continue by ruffing a spade with the nine of clubs. Then a trump to dummy’s Jack allows a further spade ruff. Unblock the Ace of hearts and then play your last trump to dummy, squeezing East in the red suits. Hand 9 You defend 3NT with a heart lead to the 9 and King. Declarer plays 2 rounds of diamonds and you have to make a discard. Firstly it is obvious that declarer has false-carded in hearts as partner would not have played the 9 at trick 1 if he held the Jack, hence you conclude that declarer does not fear a heart continuation. Clubs cannot produce enough tricks for the defence but it is possible that South hols Kx or Qx in spades and that a spade switch from partner is therefore required. On the second diamond you must discard the queen of hearts. This card carries 2 messages – it illuminates the heart position and shows a strong suit preference for spades. Hand 10 West is known to hold 9 major suit cards and 2 diamonds. You need to make 4 club tricks to fulfil your contract. Since East holds twice as many clubs as West, it looks like East is favourite to hold the queen. However, you lack the entries to play East for Q9xx in clubs, so the real decision is whether to play West for Qx or 9x in the suit. It may appear that this is an even money chance, but there are 4 variations of 9x and 5 of Qx because Q9 doubleton must be included. It is therefore with the odds to play West for Qx and to this end you should play the Ace of clubs and then a low club to dummy. .