Card-reading is the art of deducing how the opponents’ cards are divided. Each bid made and each card played by the defenders tells a story. The trick is to read the story, interpret it correctly, and then find a way, if possible, to take advantage of the knowledge gained.

Take this case where South wound up in four hearts after West had overcalled with one spade. West led the queen of spades, and East took dummy’s king with the ace. East returned a spade, taken by West, who then led his singleton diamond to dummy’s jack. Declarer’s problem now was to avoid the loss of more than one trump trick.

South realized that in order to lose only one trump trick, the missing trumps would have to be divided 3-2. But this alone would not do the job. The player with the doubleton heart would have to have the ace if the contract was to be made. Furthermore, the first heart lead would have to come from the correct hand to have any chance of success.

Since West had made a vulnerable overcall on a queen-high suit, it seemed likely that he had the ace of hearts. The first heart play therefore would have to come from the South hand.

Accordingly, declarer crossed to his hand with a club at trick four and led a low heart. West played low, and dummy’s queen won. On the next heart, East produced the ten and, with fingers crossed, South played low. West was forced to win with the ace, and the contract was home.

The key to the winning play was West’s one-spade overcall after East had turned up with the ace of spades at trick one. All that remained was to work out how to take advantage of the knowledge that West had the ace of hearts.

Tomorrow: Test your play.