Dealer  NS VUL.

                                    ♠          A Q J 10 9 8

                                    ♥          6 3 2

                                    ♦          A

                                    ♣         K 10 5

            ♠          6 4                              ♠          K 7 5 2

            ♥          A J 8 7 5                    ♥          Q 10 9

            ♦          9 7                              ♦          J 6 5

            ♣         J 9 6 3                                    ♣         8 7 4

                                    ♠          3

                                    ♥          K 4

                                    ♦          K Q 10 8 4 3 2

                                    ♣         A Q 2

When this hand was played by Zia Mahmood, he proved why he is one of the world’s leading players. With West not leading a Heart he reasoned West must have the Ace.  He also reasoned that for East to support Hearts East  must surely hold the Spade king.

Therefore instead of opting for a simple finesse through West he would  instead take  the ruffing finessing option against East.

With all this in mind, he took the first trick in dummy with the Ten winning. He cashed the Diamond Ace  and came to hand via the top Club. He drew trumps in two more round before playing a Spade to the ace. He now ran the ªQueen and East was fixed. If he KINGED it, declarer would trump and if not declarer chucked Hearts. There was still the carefully preserved Club King to get back to dummy’s established   Spades. He now made all 13 tricks

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