Hand of the Week
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♦ | Pass | Pass | Dbl |
| Pass | 1♠ | Pass | 2♦ |
| Pass | 2♠ | Pass | 3♥ |
| Pass | 4♥ | All Pass |
West leads the ♦K. You take this with the ♦A and both opponents follow when you play the ace of trumps. West will hold almost all of the outstanding high cards, so how do you plan to take 10 tricks?
Solution
If hearts are 2-2 or clubs are 3-2 then you have at least 10 tricks, so the sole concern is what to do if neither suit divides well, as in this layout:
When West discards a diamond on the ♥;K, you continue by cashing the black aces then exiting with the ♦J. After winning the ♦Q, West cannot play a third diamond – the ruff in dummy would be your 10th trick. Nor can he play a club without conceding the contract. Only the ♠K delays the inevitable. You counter this by ruffing then leading a low club. West rises with the ♣J but is then endplayed for a second time. No matter what he plays, you have 10 tricks.
Notice that if you play the ♣K after ruffing the ♠K, East discards a spade, and no matter how you wriggle the defense takes a trump, a diamond and two clubs.
You may ask what would happen if West had the trump trick? Well, on most resulting layouts, you would need the clubs to be 3-2 (or for a defender to have a singleton ♣Q or ♣J).