This is aHand:

Keeping Calm Under Pressure
By Paul Bowyer

The enemy sail into game on this deal.

Dummy is intimidating – how might your side take five tricks?

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Bidding.

After two Passes West opens 1♦ and East can only respond 1NT

West raises to 3NT, hoping his Diamonds are going to be a rich source of tricks.

Play.

We naturally lead our fourth-highest Spade (the Three) against 3NT and survey dummy with its strong six-card suit.

East thanks his partner and calls for dummy’s Jack – overtaking with the Queen in hand. Next comes the ♦J – should we cover?

Well, the only time that covering is right is if the ♦J were single, giving partner ♦10 9 × – is that likely? Not really; on all other layouts covering simply gives the game away. We play low in tempo and East eyes us suspiciously. With three Diamonds the odds play is to cash the two top Diamonds – declarer does exactly that and says something rude when partner shows out on the ♦A.

We are on lead at trick four with the ♦Q – what next?

This is the $64,000 question – what is the best defense now? Could declarer have started with ♠Q ×? Are all the Spades ours to take?

The answer comes from partner’s Spade card at trick one – it was the lowest Spade. Would he, indeed, should he, have played the Four from ♠10 9 8 4 or from ♠9 8 6 4? The answer is No, he wouldn’t (or shouldn’t).

With no shift offering the slightest hope we carry on with a low Spade (the Two) and hope declarer hasn’t got the ♣A. If he has, there is no defeating this one. We need to retain the ♠A as a link with partner’s hand.

Declarer runs the Diamonds but we hold on to three winning Spades and ♥K ×. East tries his luck with a Club but partner is wide awake – he grabs his Ace and fires back a Spade. We cash three Spades and declarer is one down.

Postscript.

It is normal to signal encouragement/discouragement when dummy wins trick one. However, where it is safe to do so it is best to indicate length (high-low showing an even number) where you can.

Here, with four Spades, partner should begin a peter (playing high low) on dummy’s ♠J. Indeed, had he held ♠10 9 8 4 he would have blocked the Spades had he played the four.

In any case, with a four-card suit why wouldn’t partner want to encourage a Spade continuation?

The important thing to note is that declarer doesn't seem to have nine tricks if he lacks the ♣A. He has just five Diamonds, two Spades and a Heart. So we can afford to show a little patience.