Dealer North. NS Vul None Vul.

                                    ♠          A K J 9

                                    ♥          Q 10 8 3 2

                                    ♦          A Q 2

                                    ♣          4

            ♠          8 4 3                             ♠          10 6 5 2

            ♥          K 7 6 4                          ♥          J 9 5

            ♦          10 7                              ♦          6 4 3

            ♣          K J 9 3                          ♣          7 6 2

                                    ♠          Q 7

                                    ♥          A

                                    ♦          K J 9 8 5

                                    ♣          A Q 10 8 5

Initially you have a winners count of 11 winners- 4 Spades, 1 Heart  5 trumps and 1 club.

You will need to ruff 1 Diamond in dummy the short hand to bring the total to 12.

In order to generate a thirteenth trick you can take a club finesse  (50% chance) or rely on trumps breaking 3.:2 (66% chance). If you rely on trumps breaking 3.2 then you can now ruff a second Diamond in dummy the short hand  and now the total rises to 13 tricks.

With all this in mind win first trick in hand and immediately play Club Ace and ruff a club. Now cash one top trump before returning to hand via the Heart Ace. Now trump another Club without fear of being overtrumped. Now come back to hand by trumping a Heart. You now cash two top Diamonds delighted to see them break 3:2. Now the rest are yours.

You made 5 trumps from the long hand 1 Club, 1 Heart 4 Spades and 2 Clubs ruffed in dummy.

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