There are basically two ways for declarer to play this hand. One is right and the other is wrong.

Let’s say West begins by leading three rounds of diamonds, declarer ruffing the third. South sees that he has two likely club losers and that his best chance for the contract is to try to arrange an elimination play, which may or may not succeed.

He therefore cashes the A-K of trump, followed by the A-K of spades and a spade ruff. With all the spades and diamonds eliminated from both the dummy and his own hand, South then plays the ace and another club. After West wins with the queen, he is forced to return a spade or a diamond. This allows dummy to ruff as South sheds his club loser, and the contract is made.

That’s one way to play the hand. It’s good, but it has a flaw: When South cashes the ace of clubs at trick nine, West, who has been observing the developments to this point, may be shrewd enough to drop his queen under the ace. Declarer then loses two club tricks and goes down one.

However, declarer has a far better way to play that is almost certain to succeed. Instead of telegraphing his plan of action so clearly, which allows an alert West to counteract it, South should disguise his intentions so that it will not be so easy for West to realize what is going on.

At trick four, declarer should lead a trump to the king and then play a club to the ace. It would be next to impossible for West to drop his queen on the ace at this stage. He is not in position, so early in the play, to read declarer’s intentions.

From West’s viewpoint, South may be planning to take a club finesse later in the play, so dropping the queen of clubs under the ace might appear suicidal to him. He is therefore far more likely to play low on the ace. If he does, he becomes subject to the elimination play and cannot later wriggle out of it.

Tomorrow: Test your play.