. Dealer South. NS Vul.

                                    ♠          K Q 10 7

                                    ♥          10 9 2

                                    ♦          10

                                    ♣          10 8 6 4 2

            ♠          J 9 6 5 4 3                                 ♠         

            ♥          Q 5                               ♥          J 3

            ♦          8 7                                ♦          A Q J 9 4 3 2

            ♣          A 9 5                            ♣          K Q J 7

                                    ♠          A 8 2

                                    ♥          A K 8 7 6 4

                                    ♦          K 6 5

                                    ♣          3

When I watched  this hand I witnessed a comedy of errors. Firstly, EW pushed North South into a possible making Game. Then East didn’t Double to ask for a special lead and then they let the contract through with an overtrick.

Now let’s rewind. Partner has Doubled. Without the Double you would of course lead a Diamond but now the Double asks for an unusual lead, probably dummy’s first bid suit. North bid Spades and you have six so there is good chance that partner is short there.

So you will lead a Spade, but which one? Expecting partner to ruff, you also need to tell him how to get back to your hand with a suit preference signal. You will lead the ª3. Partner, as expected, ruffs the first trick and now plays a Club because you played your lowest spade indicating you wanted a Club back. You win the Ace (even if partner plays the King) as you need to give partner another Spade ruff. Partner ruffs and cashes his Diamond Ace and you have taken the contract one off just...........

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