K862
                                        K54
                                        J5
                                        AK106

        Q43                                                             -
        QJ1072                                                       A9863
        109863                                                       Q742
        -                                                                  J982

                                    AJ10975
                                    -
                                    AK
                                    Q7543
 
 

Contract Six Spades, opening lead the Queen of Hearts:

Well, when you ruffed the first heart, did you play the spade ace or King first?  Is it a guess?  Well, you should reason that the only way to lose a club trick on this hand is if East has all four clubs, otherwise a simple finesse will pick up the suit.  Therefore you should assume that this is indeed the case.  So if East has all four clubs, who is more likely to hold length in Spades? West of course..... so you should plonk down the Ace of Spades at trick 2.  Easy isn't it!!
 
 
 

Clive Keep   June 2004