“(A driver) is a king on a vinyl bucket-seat throne, changing direction with the turn of a wheel, changing the climate with a flick of the button, changing the music with the switch of a dial.” – Andrew H. Malcolm

On the lead of the spade jack against four hearts, you have two potential spade losers, at least one loser in trumps, plus two losers in clubs. The only chance of reducing this loser-count to three is by taking two ruffs in the dummy.

You cannot reasonably hope to ruff both spades, because one defender surely will produce a trump higher than dummy’s seven on the fourth round. So, what can be done?

You must aim to ruff a club instead. Take care not to touch trumps. Instead, win the spade lead, cash the other top spade, and ruff a spade. Now duck a club. Doing so lets you retain control of all the suits.

At this point it would not assist the defense for East to win and play a fourth round of spades. That would let West ruff with the heart eight, but you would discard a club from dummy. You subsequently would ruff a club, losing just one club trick and two tricks in trumps.

If the defenders return something else when you duck a club, you will play a fourth round of spades yourself. No matter which defender holds the last spade, your plan is to ruff in dummy if that looks safe (if West discards on the fourth spade). But if West ruffs high or follows with the 13th spade, you can discard a club from dummy and subsequently hope to ruff a club there for your 10th trick.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: As a general rule, assume that when both opponents are bidding, the deal is worth only a partscore for your side. You might do more than simply raise to two diamonds if East had passed. But as it is, your hand has gotten much worse in the auction, so just raise to two diamonds and be prepared to sell out with such sterile distribution, unless partner comes to life.