Dealer North. Both Vul.

                                    ♠          J 4 3

                                    ♥          2

                                    ♦          10 2

                                    ♣         A K 10 7 6 5 4

            ♠          9 8 2                                       ♠          K 7 6

            ♥          A 10 7 6 5                              ♥          K 8 3

            ♦          Q 7 5 3                                   ♦          J 9 8 4

            ♣         9                                              ♣         Q J 2

                                    ♠          A Q 10 5

                                    ♥          Q J 9 4

                                    ♦          A K 6

                                    ♣         8 3

From the play of the first two tricks it looks like West does not want to cut himself off from his partner hence the hold up and he also hopes his partner will be able to grab the lead and lead through your remaining Q9 holding and take you one off .

With this in mind, you need to consider all your options – You could rely on the Clubs breaking (and then there would be no Hand of the week problem) or you could rely on the Spade finesse. If the spade finesse works and the suit breaks 3-3 then you will have enough tricks i.e. 4 Spades, 1 Heart 2 Diamonds and 2 Clubs. If the spade finesse doesn’t work and the spades break badly, then and only then, should you fall back on the clubs breaking 2-2

After winning the second trick enter the dummy and play the Spade Jack which East covers. Now play 3 more Spades and when the Clubs fail to break you can claim just the 9 tricks.

(NB Had you played the clubs first you would still be OK as you can then finesse the Spade Jack at trick 5 but the main point of the hand is to consider all your options).

You can also view  watch the following movie to see how the hand pans out. (You need bridgvu.exe programme  and it is available free from   http://www.haroldschogger.com/videos.html or BridgeBase programme on your machine already to view it )

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