Dealer West Love All

                                    ♠          J 8 7 5 4 2

                                    ♥          7 6 3

                                    ♦          6

                                    ♣         Q 8 3

            ♠          3                                              ♠          10

            ♥          K Q J                                      ♥          10 9 8 5

            ♦          Q 9 7 5                                   ♦          K 8 4 3 2

            ♣         A K J 10 6                              ♣         9 7 2

                                    ♠          A K Q 9 6

                                    ♥          A 4 2

                                    ♦          A J 10

                                    ♣         5 4

Many players (my students amongst others) lead an Ace and for some strange reason follow it up with the King.

 This can be a very dangerous habit, especially when you see the Queen in dummy. Firstly, you run the risk that your King would be trumped by declarer and secondly, you establish that Queen in dummy for a possible discard.

 When you declare, you count winners and losers and as a defender you should adopt the same habit. After winning the first trick you see 3 points in dummy and declarer’s bidding suggests 18 points so partner is marked with no more than 3-4 points. So it seems partner is unlikely to take much part in the downfall of this contract. Needing 4 tricks to defeat the contract you will now need to get those Hearts going. You play the King of Hearts and declarer ducks so you play another Heart which declarer takes. After taking his heart he attempts to play a second Club and you are on the ball and take your King and cash the winning Heart to defeat the contract by one, by way of 2 Hearts and 2 Clubs.

Had you played a second Club at trick two, declarer would prevail and be able to throw one of the Heart losers on dummy’s Club Queen, which you would have kindly set up.

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

alternatively watch the film www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm