This is aHand:

On this deal you reach a poor contract. It happens...

You have plenty of points between you but the fatal flaw in many No-trump contracts comes if you and partner have a mutual shortage.

In short, can you make this contract, despite it being well against the odds?

Bidding.

After East Passes as dealer we open 1NT with a 4·4·3·2 hand and 16 points. North confidently raises that to game holding a balanced 12-count.

Play.

West leads the ♥5 against 3NT and we must pause to assess our prospects once dummy appears.

The basic, time-honored, strategy is Count – Plan – Execute.

We should start by counting our top tricks; here we can see seven (one Heart, three Diamonds and three Clubs). That leaves us with two more tricks to find.

The problem on this deal is the mutual Heart shortage (as in Hand 1, that is bad news) and that the opening lead is about to remove our one and only stopper (the ♥A).

This  leaves us wide open in the suit, meaning that we cannot afford to give up the lead; should we do so we’d be swamped by a deluge of tricks in Hearts (not to mention the ♠A) by the opponents.

Our only chance for nine tricks (once we have failed in the attempt to score a trick with dummy's ♥J) is if we can make four Diamond tricks and four Club tricks to go with the ♥A. This means that the five missing Clubs have to break 3-2 and the six missing Diamonds have to break 3-3. Either the suits break well (and 3NT makes) or they don’t (in which case 3NT fails). Que sera sera.

The important thing to do is to watch the cards and count. We start with the three top Clubs and, when they behave nicely by breaking 3-2, we know we can cash the fourth round of the suit.

After finishing with the Clubs we can turn our attention to Diamonds, playing off the ♦A K Q. Watchpoint! We must play off the ♦Q early – preferably on the first round of the suit – or we run the risk of blocking them. At the risk of appearing to be an endlessly repeating recording: Play the high cards from the short suit first.

On the third round of Diamonds, West shows out! So... is the lowly ♦7 the thirteenth Diamond? Yes! And it provides the vital ninth trick.

In case you missed it, the "extra" Diamond was thrown away by an opponent on the fourth round of Clubs – the suit was 3-3 originally. Of course, we expect that you knew that as you were watching like a hawk.

Was this a lucky contract to make with Clubs 3-2 and Diamonds 3-3? Yes, very!

[Note. The chances of a 3-2 break are 68% but the chances of a 3-3 break are a mere 36%. It is a curiosity that an even number of cards (here, six missing Diamonds) are unlikely to split evenly. If you want to know why, we suggest you contact an actuary].