BRIDGE

YOU are South, playing in 4♥ at Teams. Plan the play after West leads ♣10. AGAIN, the significance of teams is important; at duplicate, many declarers would play for an even trump split or, worse still, take the finesse. You plan to make the safety play, which ensures against more than one loser, when either defender holds all four trumps.

Lead a low trump from hand and West shows out; you win the ace and return a trump forcing East to put in the 10. Next you must play three rounds of spades to discard a diamond, before knocking out the ♥Q. East’s hand is ♠Jxx ♥Q10xx ♦QJxx ♣Jx, and declarer is fortunate that the doubleton is in clubs and not spades.