Dealer South. None Vul.

                                    ♠          K J 5

                                    ♥          A K Q 8 5

                                    ♦          A K J 3

                                    ♣         K

            ♠          6 3                               ♠          Q 10 8

            ♥          9                                  ♥          10 7 4 3 2

            ♦          Q 10 7 4 2                              ♦          8 5

            ♣         Q 9 7 6 3                                ♣         J 10 2

                                    ♠          A 9 7 4 2

                                    ♥          J 6

                                    ♦          9 6

                                    ♣         A 8 5 4

 (NB The bidding was bizarre to say the least)

 This hand is pretty simple and was played against me on Ok Bridge and the declarer's play was almost faultless when he brought home 12 tricks and I thought we would have an average board. However, many players seemed to have gone off and I quickly discovered why.

They put all their eggs in one basket and proceeded to have smashed eggs. After winning the first trick they played off top Hearts and when the suit broke badly they had to go down. They were simply optimistic or lazy- I am not sure which.

Initially you have 10 winners- 2 Spades, 4 Hearts (only) and two more Ace Kings in the Minors.

As long as the spades are no worse than 3:2 you can establish 2 further Spade tricks and that will be your contract as long as you do not cut yourself off from dummy.

After winning the first trick you can come back to your hand with a top spade and then finesse into the KJ of spades and you still have the Jack of Hearts as your entry back. My particular declarer played the Spade Jack and when East covered he ducked a round of Spades retaining control of the suit and when the Spades subsequently broke he was able to claim his contract.

Had the Spades broken badly he can then fall back on the Diamond finesse and hope the Hearts break favourably. If, as the rest of the failing declarers saw, you do the Hearts first its too late 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

  alternatively watch the film www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm

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