This is aHand:

Let's look at that last hand from the other side of the table. The thinking is a little different, perhaps a little more complex.

We think our role from this side of the table is a little more complex than when we were sitting in third seat.

After the Stayman auction to 3NT, we have to pick a lead, and Hearts are the suit. The ♥10, top of an interior sequence, looks about right. This dislodges dummy's singleton Ace and we know declarer has at most three Hearts (remember the bidding!) So there are hopes that we can run the Heart suit – maybe North has ♥K × × and declarer ♥J × ×...?

However... these hopes evaporate when partner, at trick 1, signals his dislike of Hearts with his play of the ♥2. (Remember the days before we learned positive and negative attitude signals? The ♥2 would have been just following suit).

We look at the dummy and after we Do the Math,  we know that partner has 8-ish points. Where are they? We're not sure, but they ain't in Hearts.

At trick 2, declarer tries to set up the Clubs. We could duck, but why? We have a little tempo going here, and we should take advantage of it.

At trick 3 we could continue Hearts (playing partner for the ♥J and declarer for a bit of an idiot) but that's not really profitable. Diamonds are pointless to lead – even if partner has the ♦A Q that only will give us a couple of tricks. Going for the big money we shift to Spades and, holding a mini-sequence, we lead the ♠10.

It turns out that was the right choice, the killing defense. We end up with the ♣A and four Spade tricks.

And all because partner told us at trick 1 not to bother playing Hearts again. Neat!