J 10 5
	Q 6 5
	A 10 8
	K Q 4 3
8		7 6 4 3
8 7		K J 3
K J 7 6 3		Q 9 5
A J 9 8 6		10 7 2
	A K Q 9 2
	A 10 9 4 2
	4 2		Contract 4 spades
	5		Opening lead: 6 of diamonds

At a glance, you'd think you knew what was going to separate the men from the boys. You always have to lose a diamond (on a diamond opening lead, which most were getting), a club and at least one heart. The key question would seem to be does declarer play the hearts by leading the queen toward the A 10 9 or by cashing the ace and going to the queen, thereby losing two hearts? You've got a 4-1 trump split, but you don't need to develop any clubs, and if you guess right, need lose only one heart and hence can stand the force. However, it didn't turn out quite that way. There were gifts offered and spurned and various other ways of going down.

Here's one, fr'instance, who went down simply because he didn't bother to draw the opponents' trump! Diamond to the ace, spade to the ace, back to the 10, queen of hearts, covered and won (right on!). Now it should be a piece of cake. You know trump can't be worse than 4-1, so you take two more rounds, knock out the jack of hearts and claim, no? Well, not quite. This one went to the jack of hearts immediately, not a danger as the cards lie, but it certainly could have been costly had West held the J of hearts. If it didn't cost, however, it was indicative of later costly play. The defense cashed a diamond and continued the suit, declarer ruffing the third round, and now instead of drawing trump and claiming, led a heart! Somebody's gotta be out of hearts but again that risky lead didn't prove costly. But now declarer led the fourth of hearts, when the defense can have no more! Well, finally declarer got his comeuppance, no? Well, no. For East declined to ruff! Finally, when the last heart was led and declarer was virtually begging to be defeated, East stepped in, ruffed and the defense had four tricks. Even if declarer had lost count of trump, one would think, once hearts were established, that he'd run his trump before the side suit.

Here are some more gifts offered and spurned. Diamond to the ace, low heart to the jack and ace! The hand's just about over! Draw trump, knock out the king of hearts and claim, for heaven's sake. But it wasn't to be. Whether declarer was intending to finesse the 10 or go up and lead toward the queen, we'll never know. But I might mention that declarer bid hearts as a second suit here, and so there's no real danger that East will be skunked out of a heart trick if he ducks. There'll be time to play your honors later.

Anyway, the defense was to get that trick back. Club to the ace at trick 3 -- a pointless play with a diamond opening lead, since you can't do anything with the developed club honor except sluff a heart winner, while giving the defense an extra lead. The defense cashed the king of diamonds, and led the Q of diamonds, which held as declarer sluffs a heart. As declarer sluffs a heart! C'mon now. I've got a number of hands which revolve around counting winners. Not a few times, I've wondered if I need a page on recognizing winners. After all, I guess you can't count 'em if you can't recognize 'em. But a failure to recognize the viability of that heart suit here is astounding. You could win four heart tricks, just one less than the number of spades you win. You've got an 8-card side suit. You can't treat the deuce of hearts as a loser!

Oh, and incidentally, declarer allowed an opportunity for a ruff in the short hand. West, in with the ace of clubs, could have led a heart to the king, gotten a ruff and then cashed the king of diamonds for the setting trick. Just plain careless play. You don't need to knock out the ace of clubs. You can't do anything with the K Q (though a few who didn't get a diamond lead could, of course). The hand is open before you. Cash out trump, knock out the king of hearts and let 'em have a diamond and a club. A simple hand.

The real crux of the hand is whether declarer cashes the A of hearts and leads toward the Q, or leads the Q toward the A 10 9. Once declarer makes the right play there, the rest of the hand should have been a piece of cake.