This is aHand:

You reach a reasonable contract of 4â™  having opened 1â™  and rebid 2â™  and the defenders rapidly cash the first three Diamond tricks.

After this poor start (for you – East-West are looking smug) you need the rest of the tricks so you cannot afford a trump loser.

With nine cards in a suit headed by the Ace-King-Jack the percentage play is to play for the Queen to drop. In other words, you cash the two top Spades and hope that the ♠Q falls either singleton or doubleton. If one opponent started life with ♠Q × × then you will lose a trick in trumps. Tough bananas – better luck next time.

However you can improve your odds a little by taking out an insurance policy against East having all four Spades. It costs you nothing to play the ♠K first (play the high cards from the short side first is good practice anyway) then if West shows out you can finesse the ♠Q.

Of course, you will need to take the finesse twice. What is more difficult to see, but is nonetheless important, is that if West started life with ♠Q 9 8 7 he could not be denied a trump trick no matter how you played.

This, then, is the play. The defense take the first three Diamond tricks then switch to a Club which you win in the closed hand. You then start drawing trumps by playing the ♠2 to dummy's ♠K. 

West does indeed show out on the first round of Spades but this marks the ♠Q as being in East's hand. You next play the ♠4 from the table (through your victim with the critical honor card) and East forlornly plays the ♠8, fully aware that you can beat whatever card he plays. You content yourself with the the ♠10, reserving the ♠A for the job of taking the ♠Q later.

Since there are still two Spades outstanding you need to repeat the finesse. With that in mind you play the ♣J to North's ♣K purely to place the lead back in dummy. Now you play the ♠6 from the table – once again through your victim – and, once again, East has no winning option. When he plays the ♠9 you casually win with the ♠J before playing the ♠A to crush East's ♠Q.

That's job done. You dot the is and cross the ts by cashing the last two trumps and the ♥A K for ten tricks.

You succeed on this deal because you remember to play high cards from the short suit first, identifying the 4-0 Spade distribution but positioning yourself to overcome it. True, you need to finesse twice against East's ♠Q and that needs entries on the table. Problem? No problem!

Well, you've graduated and are now ready to handle this situation whenever it arises. Good for you!