Dealer North. Both None Vul.

                                    ♠          10 8 6

                                    ♥          J 9

                                    ♦          9 8 3

                                    ♣          K 10 8 6 2

            ♠          J 9 7 5                          ♠          K 4

            ♥          Q 7 5 2                         ♥          K 10 8 6 4 3

            ♦          A 2                               ♦          6 4

            ♣          Q 5 3                            ♣          A 7 4

                                    ♠          A Q 3 2

                                    ♥          A

                                    ♦          K Q J 10 7 5

                                    ♣          J 9

When I was playing this hand on OK bridge I was somewhat horrified that my partner raised me to 5¨. However, a take-out Double followed by a bid at the 4 level suggested that I had a very good hand

No time to panic. Could I get home?

Initially I had just two winners  i.e. the 2 Major suit Aces. However when you have bad count of winners it’s a good idea to count losers and then it might not be so bad.. On the losers count there are hopefully no more than 2 spades, 2 Clubs and 1 Diamond, with lotsof potential from dummy’s club suit.

So after winning the first trick you are now in the right hand to take the club finesse which has to be correct or you will not get home. West covers your Jack lead and East wins with the Ace. Suddenly  things are looking up with three club tricks established.

East now gets off lead with Spade king (that’s nice) and you win with the Ace and hope that it is not a singleton.

You now start by drawing trumps East wins and plays a Spade. Fortunately East follows suit and now the rest are yours after drawing trumps. You lost 2 minor suit aces and brought home your contract with 2 Spades, 1 Heart, 5 Diamonds and 3 clubs.

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