Dealer East. Both Vul.

                                    ♠          K 9 6 4

                                    ♥          Q 9 4

                                    ♦          A 9 2

                                    ♣         10 9 2

            ♠          10 8 2                                     ♠          A Q 7 5

            ♥          A 7 6 3 2                                ♥          J 8

            ♦          Q                                             ♦          J 7 6 5 3

            ♣         Q 6 5 3                                   ♣         J 4

                                    ♠          J 3

                                    ♥          K 10 5

                                    ♦          K 10 8 4

                                    ♣         A K 8 7

Some people think that being in 1NT is the hardest contract to make which sometimes can be true if the points are equally spread 20- 20 or 21-22 and the opponents have the first initiative as they lead and could easily win the race for seven tricks.

However sometimes playing 1NT can be a lot of fun too especially if you are careful.

On our hand today, West leads from his long suit and since we have the 9 and 10 between both hands we are now guaranteed 2 tricks from this suit.

Where to go for the rest of the tricks? Diamonds and clubs seem a fair bet and without much ado, after winning the first trick in hand with the 10 (East playing the 8) we play a low Diamond delighted to see the Queen pop up. The Theory of restricted choice now says the touching honour (Jack) is now twice as likely to be with East.. So, after winning, we take a Diamond finesse through East playing the 9 to keep us in North. West duly discards. At this point in time we can now count 8 winners by way of four Diamonds, 2 Clubs and two hearts.

So, let’s force out the Heart Ace to establish our 8^th trick.

West wins the Ace and switches to Spades. We play low and East wins with the Queen and switches to a Club. .We now cash out our 8 tricks and at the 11^th hour play a Spade to the King. West wins, cashes his winning Diamond and has to concede the last trick to the Spade Nine in dummy. Out of nothing with just 23 points we amass 9 tricks.

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

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