Dealer East. Both Vul.

                             ♠        K 7 6

                             ♥        Q 8 5

                             ♦        A Q 8 7 6

                             ♣       4 3

          ♠        5 4 3                     ♠        Q 9

          ♥        9 4 3                     ♥        10 2

          ♦        5 3 2                     ♦        J 10 4

          ♣       K Q J 5                    ♣       A 10 8 7 6 2

                             ♠        A J 10 8 2

                             ♥        A K J 7 6

                             ♦        K 9

                             ♣       9

On this hand from Ok bridge about half the pairs made it and the rest went off, presumably because they ran the Spade Jack and lost to East’s doubleton Queen.

Well what is the correct way to play this holding?

 Do you plonk down the AK and hope somebody has doubleton Queen – that would work here but is completely against the odds.

You have two way finesse- Do you finesse West for the missing Queen or East for the missing Queen- it’s a complete guess. – from the lead you know that West has at least 4 points (king from King Queen lead_ and East has  4 points too (marked with ace from West’s King Lead.

So with nothing more to go on  let’s make the psychological play, using Zia’s tip – “If they don’t cover they haven’t got it “ (so many people cover the honour even when they should not do so and lead the Jack from the closed hand.  When West plays low (and doesn’t play the Queen), we now go up with the King intending to finesse on the way back. Now we “legitimately” find East’s doubleton queen and bring home our contract winning 5 spades, 5 Hearts and 2 Diamonds losing just the first club trick.