This is aHand:

Sometimes when you try to calculate winners and losers the total doesn't add up to thirteen.

On these occasions you may need more careful scrutiny of the cards.

Having made the right diagnosis you then need the correct medicine...

Bidding.

After three Passes we open 1♥ and North raises that to 2♥. With 19 points and a delightful 5·4·3·1 pattern we can hardly bid less than 4♥.

A simple sequence of 1♥ – 2♥ – 4♥.

Play.

Dummy's 4∙3∙3∙3 hand is something of a disappointment (it's always nice to have side-suit shortages on the table). Not that 3NT would have stood much of a chance after a Club lead...

Anyway, as declarer we should (“must� would be a better word) study the dummy and Count our tricks after the ♦Q lead.

We can see two Spades, five Hearts, two Diamonds and no Clubs. That only comes to nine tricks. How about losers? At first glance there is a Spade loser, no Heart losers, one Diamond loser and one Club loser. Hmmm. Nine winners, three losers – this does not compute!

Look more closely at declarer's hand. With four Spades there are actually two Spade losers, not one. What would happen if we drew trumps? Now there would be two Spade losers so the arithmetic now balances – nine winners, four losers. Sure, Spades might break 3-3 in which case the long Spade would be boss but it would be unwise to bank on it.

In these cases it is usually wise to try to ruff a loser in the dummy. There is nothing in dummy on which to dump the Spade loser so we should try to trump it.

The trump pips are such that a Spade ruff cannot be over-ruffed. So… we win the Diamond lead (it doesn’t matter where), cash the ♠A K and concede a Spade to the enemy. Win the return (a Diamond, as it happens), ruff a Spade on the table and now (and only now) draw trumps.

Our ten winners are two Spades, six Hearts and the ♦A K.