NEIL HAYWARD BRIDGE

Contract: 6♥ by South

Opening Lead: ♥6. What is your plan?

Recommended Line: You see you are a trick short of your target. You can find the twelfth trick in spades (you need West to hold the ♠K, a 50 percent chance) or in clubs. In the club suit, a 3-3 break makes things easy, while a 4-2 break is more challenging. Which do you go for, spades or clubs? Well, that’s a no-brainer: the club suit breaking 3-3 or 4-2 gives you combined odds of over 80 percent. So you draw trumps and get the clubs going. But the problem is: if clubs break

4-2, playing the ♣A, then a second club, will leave you unable to reach the fifth club. The solution is remarkably simple. Give away a club trick after drawing trumps. They win and return a diamond, let’s say. You must win in hand, preserving dummy’s entries. Now play ♣A and ruff a third club. The remaining diamonds in dummy allow you to set up and cash the fifth club. Simple can be brilliant. *