Something new every time

There are many things that make bridge the beautiful game that it is. One of them is that you can play thousands of deals and still see something new on the next one.

Here's an example: How do you win five tricks in this suit? Dummy has ♥Q 10 9 7 2 and you (declarer) have ♥A 8 3?

Playing at the Lightman Bridge Club in Memphis, Al was the declarer on this deal (low cards are approximate):

                ♠ 4 3
                ♥ Q 10 9 7 2
                ♦ 5
                ♣ A Q J 9 5
♠ A K J 9 7 2                     ♠ 6
♥ ---                             ♥ K J 6 5 4
♦ Q J 9 6                         ♦ 10 8 7 4 3
♣ 10 8 7                          ♣ 4 3
                ♠ Q 10 8 5
                ♥ A 8 3
                ♦ A K 2
                ♣ K 6 2

Al was South and opened 1NT. West bid 2♠ and North bid 3♥. East passed and Al bid 3NT. He had spades securely stopped and notrump distribution.

West led the ♠K and shifted to the ♦Q. Declarer won and led a club to the queen to advance the ♥Q. East could see that if he covered, it would be easy to set up the suit, so he played low. Al led another heart, and, when East played low again, inserted the 8 which held.

Declarer played the ♣K and another to dummy, on which East discarded the ♥6. On the next to last club, East discarded the ♥J (East could see that the dummy was entryless and declarer had the blocking ace), and these were the cards that were left:

                ♠ 4
                ♥ 10 9 7
                ♦ ---
                ♣ 9
♠ A J                         ♠ ---
♥ ---                         ♥ K
♦ J 9 6                       ♦ 10 8 7 4
♣ ---                         ♣ ---
                ♠ Q 10
                ♥ A
                ♦ K 2
                ♣ ---

On the last club, East discarded the ♥K, but Al had the answer. He discarded the ♥A. This allowed him to cash three hearts tricks in dummy to make two overtricks and score a top board.