Contract Bridge

1. Win the trump in dummy, ruff a diamond, cash the K-A of clubs and ruff a club. Then ruff a diamond, a club and another diamond, at which point you are out of diamonds and clubs in both hands. In this way you lose only three tricks -- a diamond and two spades.

You play the hand as though you were declarer with the East cards and West were the dummy. It would be natural, if you were East, to ruff your diamond losers in dummy -- and almost any East who became declarer at four hearts would automatically do so. The line of play should not change merely because West happens to be the declarer.

2. You start with eight tricks and must consider the best way to acquire a ninth. There are two realistic possibilities. One is to cross to your hand with a club and lead a spade toward dummy. If North follows low, you must then guess whether to play the jack or the king. Mathematically, you have a 50 percent chance of succeeding on this line of play.

The alternative approach is to attack hearts instead of spades by cashing dummy’s A-K. If the queen appears, you are home, and if the ten appears, you can assure the contract by leading another heart. If neither of them appears, you can then lead dummy’s third heart and make three notrump unless North started with four hearts headed by the Q-10.

The second line of play is far better than the first. You have about an 85 percent chance of developing a third heart trick by playing in the prescribed manner. Even if both opponents follow low on the A-K, you are still about a 4-1 favorite to make a third heart trick by leading another heart from dummy, since the suit might divide 3-3, or South might have started with the Q-10-x-x.

Tomorrow: The magic number.