It's important to know how to play the various card combinations.
Try this one.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #40
Dlr
S
Vul
E/W
AQ53
10762
104
987
10764
85
K97
KJ42
K98
9
A86532
Q53
J2
AKQJ43
QJ
A106
West
North
East
South
1
Pass
2
Pass
4
All Pass
BIDDING: South bid game
after North's raise.
PLAY: West led a low
trump and declarer stopped to count his losers. He saw one
possible spade loser along with two in both diamonds and clubs.
The only suit that offered any hope was the spade suit. So
declarer won the heart lead followed by another to dummy's ten.
He then led a low spade from dummy and East had no good answer.
Finally he won the king and shifted to a club. Declarer won the
ace, unblocked the spade jack, and then led another trump to
dummy. Next he discarded two of his losers on the spade ace and
queen.
It is important you see that no other spade play by declarer would have
succeeded. Also, note that if East ducked the first spade lead,
declarer would win the jack and follow with another to the ace. A
third spade from dummy would allow South to ruff East's king and later
discard a loser on the spade queen. He would lose only three
tricks.
Also notice how lucky declarer was. An opening club lead (or two
rounds of diamonds and then a club shift) would defeat the
contract. West chose the wrong time for a trump lead.
