The Free Lance-Star – Aug 4, 1978
1. You are declarer with the West hand in 5
and North leads the 
K- A and a low diamond. After you ruff South’s Jack, how would you play the hand?
2. You are declarer with the West hand at Three Notrump and North leads the three of clubs. South wins with the A and returns the Jack to your king. How would you play the hand?
1. Cash the A-K of trumps and, regardless of whether the trumps are divided 3-2 or 4-1, continue with a club to your Jack. Then play a low spade towards dummy, finessing the ten! If the ten wins, you’re home free and clear. Cash dummy’s last trump, discarding a heart, play the queen of spades and claim the rest. It is unusual to take a first-round finesse of the ten in a suit headed by the A-K-Q, but it is clearly the right way to play this hand.
For practical purposes, the finesse offers the best chance for the contract. After all, there is a 50 percent chance that North was dealt the Jack of spades. The only other way to play the hand is to try to execute a squeeze by cashing four rounds of trumps after ruffing the Jack of diamonds at trick three. This will succeed if either defender was dealt four or more spades as well as four or more hearts. However, the probability of finding the cards divided this way is far less than 50 per cent, and It is therefore better to put all your chips on the spade finesse.
2. Cash the A-K-Q of diamonds and play the queen of hearts. This assures the contract regardless of how the North-South cards are divided. Thus, if the queen of hearts loses to the king, you have an entry to dummy’s Jack of hearts that permits you to cash six diamonds, two clubs and a heart for nine tricks.
If the defenders allow you to win the queen of hearts (in order to deny you an entry to dummy’s diamonds). You counter by shifting to the king of spades and forcing out the ace. This also leads you to nine hicks consisting of two spades, two hearts, three diamonds and two clubs.
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