West leads the ♥K, East follows with the four. Can you help South come to nine tricks?

Solution:
Even though West has opened the bidding, you need to hope that East has the ♣K. Your first task is to enter dummy so that you can take the club finesse. The key play arises at trick one - you need to dump the ♥Q under the king. Doing so ensures that the ♥J is an entry to dummy. Say West continues with the ♥A and a third heart, East discarding a diamond on the third round.

The time has come to make the second key play of the deal. Now that you are in dummy, you should take the club finesse. You should run the ♣10, so that the lead is in dummy to take a second club finesse. On this trick, you need to take the precaution of unblocking the ♣9. If the club suit divides 4-1 and West has the singleton ♣8, this play enables you to run the ♣7 the next round, which once again retains the lead in dummy, giving you the chance to take the club finesse for the third time.

While unblocking the ♣9 under the ten is a farsighted play, which wins precisely when West has the ♣8 singleton which is not a high occurence, capilaizing on such chances will give you an edge over your opponents. Thanks to L.Subramanian of Chennai for this deal.

Analysis:
The double dummy analysis points out that an initial spade or diamond lead would defeat the contract. If West does not lead a heart, declarer cannot manufacture a heart entry to dummy. When declarer first leads a heart towards dummy, West will win the king. If declarer leads a low heart to the jack a second time, West will win the ace, making sure the ♥Q will win the third round. If declarer instead leads the ♥Q, West will counter by ducking.

Bridge Baron's line of play
Bridge Baron made short work of this deal, and followed the suggested line of play, unblocking the ♥Q under the king, as well as unblocking the ♣9 under the ten.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 2NT by North or South.

Bridge Baron deal No : N2189-55159-28073-17505-37942-83635