Dealer North. Love All

                             ♠        2

                             ♥        A 9 8

                             ♦        A 4

                             ♣       K Q J 9 8 5 4

          ♠        K 8 6 5                           ♠        Q J 10 9

          ♥        K 5 3 2                           ♥        Q 10 6 4

          ♦        J 7 5 2                            ♦        8 3

          ♣       2                                 ♣       A 7 6

                             ♠        A 7 4 3

                             ♥        J 7

                             ♦        K Q 10 9 6

                             ♣       10 3

When I was playing this hand a "so called expert"  sitting South held up the first trick and the “real expert” sitting East switched at trick two to the Queen of Spades and now my partner could no longer make the contract as he had to lose three tricks in Spades, 1 in Hearts (the lead) and of course the Club Ace.

Now let’s reply it correctly. When the ª2 is led Declarer knows that West has led from a four card suit so the most number of tricks they can make in Spades is ONLY THREE. Therefore declarer must take the first trick and force out the Club Ace and proceed to make his contract.

Now he is guaranteed his contract as he can take 9 tricks from 5 Clubs, 3 Diamonds and to Major suit aces.

What is the lesson that he can learn from this hand? If there is another problem suit that you do not want the opponents t switch to and also be aware that the ©2 lead guaranteed that the nasty opponents could never take more than 3 Hearts tricks. Well done East for switching and realizing this. Well done South for providing me with this hand J

You can also watch the following movie to see how the hand pans out. To view this programme you will need  to download htttp://www.haroldschogger.com/bridgevu.setup

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