Dealer East Both Vul.

                                    ♠          A J 9 4

                                    ♥          A K

                                    ♦          6 5 4 2

                                    ♣          A Q 7

            ♠          8 6 5                                         ♠          Q 10 7 2

            ♥          7 6 5 3 2                                   ♥          4

            ♦          J 10 9 7                                    ♦          A K 8 3

            ♣          10                                            ♣          9 8 6 3

                                    ♠          K 3

                                    ♥          Q J 10 9 8

                                    ♦          Q

                                    ♣          K J 5 4 2

What do you lead against their 5© contract? - Plan your defence

On our hand this week the opponents bid up to 5h which we do not double in case they have safer havens to run to.. It is tempting to lead your singleton but the maxim “Long in trump lead Length is much better here.

What this means is with 5 trumps you lead from your own long suit and hope declarer loses control of the actual trump suit.. So you now lead your Daimond Jack.

Partner wins and plays a second top diamond which declarer has to ruff. The good news now is that declarer has one less trump than you and is about to lose control of the actual trump suit.

He wins and plays two top Hearts. He cannot draw your trumps as you will have one left and merely be able to play winning Diamonds. So he tries Clubs and you ruff the second one and play back another Diamond and again poor declarer is in same boat, as he will be back to onle less trump that you,

Eventually you will make 1 Diamond, 2 Ruffs and a second Diamond at the 11^th hour when declarer has run out of trumps.

NB With a non Diamond lead (and continuation) declarer will easily make 12 tricks from 5 Hearts, 5 Clubs and 2 top Spades.

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