“The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances.” - Sir Walter Scott

Put yourself in East’s shoes today, defending three no-trump. West might well try a major suit, but let’s say he leads the diamond two, which rides to South’s ace.

How should declarer tackle the hand? A natural but unsuccessful approach would be to start on the clubs. East should win and start on one of the majors (a spade looks natural, but a heart also works). East has enough entries to take his four top winners, together with a long card in one of the majors.

If declarer realizes that he can always succeed when a club honor is onside, he might begin by trying to knock out one or the other of the major aces. It looks best to lead a heart to dummy’s queen since East may not read the heart position. If East simply wins and exits with his second diamond, declarer drives out the spade ace, cashes the third diamond winner, and forces East to pitch a major-suit card. Then he cashes the rest of his major-suit winners and passes the club 10 to East, who has one winner to take, but must then lead into dummy’s club tenace.

East’s simplest defense is to hold off on the first lead of either major suit, then win the second, and lead a third round. Now, unless declarer is psychic, he will not find a line to bring home nine tricks.

Declarer can still make his game by cashing all his top diamonds at once, but that is far from obvious.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Your partner has made a game-try, and you surely have enough to make a move forward. My first thoughts would be to bid two no-trump. Since partner is marked by his try with some spade length, no-trump may avoid the ruffs. All your soft cards in the side suits suggest that nine tricks may be easier than 10.