Dealer North. Love All.

                                    ♠          K Q 6 4

                                    ♥          —

                                    ♦          Q 7 4

                                    ♣          A Q 8 6 5 3

            ♠          —                                             ♠          10 8 7

            ♥          A Q 10 4 3 2                             ♥          J 8 7 6 5

            ♦          A J 6 3                                     ♦          K 8 5 2

            ♣          10 9 4                                       ♣          J

                                    ♠          A J 9 5 3 2

                                    ♥          K 9

                                    ♦          10 9

                                    ♣          K 7 2

Are you an “Always person”  or a “thinking person”?

If you are an Always person you probably lead the Ace of Hearts as you bid them and partner supported them.

However if you think it through you might say “You have a lot of Hearts and so does partner- it looks like somebody has a Heart void and will trump the first trick” The Heart Ace is unlikely to stand up BUT if you were to lead the Diamond Ace a) it is likely to win and b) you can look at dummy and plan the rest of your “thinking” defence.

So, without much ado plonk down the Diamond Ace. As expected dummy turns up with a Heart void. Partner plays the ¨8 on the first trick encouraging you to play another Diamond which you duly do and immediately take the contract one off. Had you led the Heart Ace, declarer  easily makes 12 tricks from both Black suits and  to boot the lead also makes declarer’s Heart King into a winner.

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