When West leads the ª7 you immediately know dummy’s 10 will hold the first trick because of the Rule of 11 (11-7 =4) as you can see all four cards higher between your hand and dummy. In fact you can work out that West has led from KQ97.

With the 10 winning the first trick you have 5 tricks in the bag. If the Diamonds break you will only need to find three more and as the clubs are so sturdy compared to the Hearts, clubs looks a better bet for suit establishment. However if the Diamonds break badly then you will have to put all your eggs in the Heart basket hoping the suit breaks 3:3 (or that communications between East and West are severed).

Firstly, you will test the Diamonds to see if it will produce all four tricks. After two rounds. West discards. You will now have to change tack and go after Hearts. If the opponents duck a Heart you can change to Clubs. However West takes the first Heart and perseveres with Spades. You now cash your Hearts delighted to see the suit break 3:3. You now cash out winning 2 Spades, 4 Hearts and 3 Diamonds.

Had you gone after Clubs you would have been a trick short as the opposition will establish 5 defensive tricks by way of 1 Club, 1 Heart and 3 Spades.

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

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