Dealer E W Vul.

                                    ♠          10 4

                                    ♥          7 5 3 2

                                     ♦          9 8 7 2

                                    ♣          6 4 2

            ♠          J 5                                ♠          8 3 2

            ♥          A K 8 4                         ♥          Q J 10 9 6

            ♦          K J 6                             ♦          5 4 3

            ♣          Q J 9 7                         ♣          8 3

                                    ♠          A K Q 9 7 6

                                    ♥          —

                                    ♦          A Q 10

                                    ♣          A K 10 5

W         N        E         S

1NT      NO       2¨        4ª

NO       NO       NO

West led the king of hearts on which East played the queen.

When Eat drops the Queen at trick 1 he is saying he has the Jack to follow. Since the opponents are playing a strong No rump (15-17) you can work out EVERYTHING at trick one – you have 22 points and left hand opponent promises 3 with his play at trick 1 so West MUST HAVE ALL THE REMAINING 15 POINTS.

 After ruffing and drawing trumps in three rounds, declarer could count nine winners. A, a 3-3 club break would bring a tenth trick without any real work The problem occurs when West began with four clubs – he is unlikely to have begun with doubletons in both black suits, having opnd 1NT initially..

When the cards are as shown, declarer must set about end-playing West, for if he plays ace-king and another club now West will take his two winners and exit safely in hearts.  As declarer must ruff, there will be no way to make the contract for West is down to K-J-2 of diamonds and a heart. No matter what declarer does, the defence will make two tricks in the red suits.

Strangely, these difficulties are overcome by playing a fourth and fifth round of trumps before exiting in clubs. This forces West to come down to six cards. Most defenders would have had to discard the last Heart the ace, protecting their minor suit lengths. Next, declarer cashes his two top clubs and exits with a club and West cashes his two winners then has to play around into Declarer’s Diamond holding giving declarer his 10^th trick.

You can also play out the following hand  to see how the hand pans out. (You need bridgvu.exe programme  and it is available free from   http://www.haroldschogger.videoes.html or BridgeBase programme on your machine already to view it )

alternatively watch the film of the hand being played out by going to www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm