This is aHand:

You have a choice in the bidding; do you? Don't you?

In the play you have to make best use of your assets.

Be careful, though, you have to make sure you can reach your source of tricks – you have to be able to be in the right hand at the right time.

Bidding.

After three Passes we open 1NT with 16 points and a 4∙4∙3∙2 hand.

With 9 points and a handy five-card Diamond suit partner raises to 2NT, inviting us to bid game. What should we do? Well, with a maximum for 1NT (15 points) we’d bid 3NT, with a minimum (17 points) we’d Pass. What do we do with 16?

Well, the answer is that we’d usually Pass unless there were grounds for an upgrade. Such grounds would be a five-card suit (usually a good five-card suit) or perhaps a hand stuffed with intermediate cards (Tens and Nines). In this case there are no grounds for upgrading our hand – indeed the holding of ♦A K alone actually weakens the hand. So the prudent call is Pass, leaving the contract in 2NT.

Play.

West leads the top-of-a-sequence ♠Q and we can count seven top tricks (two Spades, one Heart, three Diamonds and a Club), which is one short of our target. Diamonds (dummy's long suit, note) is the most promising source of extra tricks.

If East-West's six Diamonds were split 3-3 then there would be five Diamond tricks available (and nine in all). However, we have to take notice that the Diamonds are tangled up (the technical term is blocked) – even with a 3-3 break we couldn't run off five consecutive Diamond tricks.

We should start off by taking the Spade lead in hand so that we have as many high cards as possible in the dummy as ways of accessing the long suit. Then we must untangle the Diamonds by cashing the ♦A K before crossing to the table. Using up a major-suit Ace (to reach the Diamonds) opens us up in whichever suit we use but it can’t be helped. We go over to the ♥A and try the effect of the ♦Q.

Now, if Diamonds split 3-3 (or the ♦J has dropped early) the ♦10 would be a winner and all would be sweetness and light. Not today, however. Our left-hand opponent still has the boss ♦J and we are short of a trick. Still, there is little to be done but to continue with the assault on Diamonds – shifting suits is pointless. A Diamond is conceded to West's ♦J and this sets up the thirteenth Diamond as a winner.

West could play a Heart and allow his side to take a few Heart tricks but he is unaware of this and, anyway, the Heart suit is blocked for the defense. Entirely logically, West leads another Spade to drive out the ♠A, so we take that on table  with the ♠K and cash the last Diamond. The ♣A takes the eighth trick and East-West have the rest.

Eight tricks are made via two Spades, one Heart, four Diamonds and a Club.