Plan your play if 4ª after the ª6 is led

            Dealer North. Love All

                                    ♠          A 7 5

                                    ♥          9 4

                                    ♦          K 9 4 2

                                    ♣         8 5 4 2

            ♠          10 8 6                                     ♠          J 3

            ♥          A 8 3 2                                    ♥          10 7 6 5

            ♦          Q 8 5                                       ♦          10 6 3

            ♣         A J 3                                       ♣         Q 10 7 6

                                    ♠          K Q 9 4 2

                                    ♥          K Q J

                                    ♦          A J 7

                                    ♣         K 9

When this hand was played against me my esteemed opponent had a mental block, and after the lead he won the first trick in dummy and  took an immediate Club finesse and when the Diamond finesse failed too he went one off losing 2 Clubs, 1 Diamond and 1 Heart.

Now let’s replay keeping East off lead. After the spade lead, we can play a second spade ending in dummy and whilst there, we need to take a Diamond finesse losing to West, the safe hand, who cannot now play a club without giving a club trick away. West gets off lead with his last trump and now you merely play two more rounds of Diamonds. ending in dummy. If they do not break you could take the Club finesse now . In fact they do break, and now you can chuck a club on the 13^th Diamond. You will ultimately make 5 trumps, 2 Hearts and 3 Diamonds losing 1 Heart, 1Diamond and 1 Club. Despite West’s passive defence you can prevail and you kept East off lead.

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