MPs
Dealer: South
Vulnerable: E-W

AUCTION
SOUTH	WEST	NORTH	EAST
1	Pass	1	Pass
1N	Pass	4	Pass
4	Pass	6N	Pass

West leads the J, you play the queen, and East discards the 8.

Plan the play.

Solution

There are only nine winners off the top--2 hearts, 4 diamonds, and 3 clubs--but there are certainly tricks that can be developed in spades and/or hearts. In fact, if the heart suit is favorable, you might even take all thirteen tricks on a squeeze of some sort. Trouble is if you take the heart finesse and it loses, the defenders will just cash the A for down one. If you set up spades, that brings your total to eleven tricks; so you will still need to get another heart (or club) trick.

The reason you should tackle spades first is this: if you can persuade the defenders to take their A, you will not need to take the heart finesse at all. You will have set the stage (rectified the count) for a squeeze against West (who is known to hold the club length). The opponents could make life a little more difficult by ducking two spades, but let's assume East rises with the ace when you lead a spade from the board. Unblock the K under the ace (not really necessary here but always cool) and win East's return (say a diamond) in dummy. Your plan should be to come down to this position:

Now you KNOW that West must hold a good club (else your 8 becomes the twelth trick) and AT MOST one heart (there are only two cards remaining in each hand). So, when you lead the heart from hand, if West doesn't produce the queen, go right up with the king--hopefully, dropping a doubleton Q from East.

The sequence should be QJ, QJ pitching a club, A (unblocking the jack if you want to give East the impression you might be finessing into his doubleton queen), AK arriving in hand, and AK, arriving at the diagrammed position above with the lead in hand. Also notice that while you are cashing your winners, you need only keep an eye out for West's T and 9--no need to count hearts or any such thing. The Q will either appear from West or drop from East; that is, assuming the hand could ever be made (Q on the left or doubleton on the right).

The full deal:

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