This is aHand:

With two 4∙3∙3∙3 hands and a combined 28 points the obvious spot is 3NT and we duly arrive there, noting a 1♠ intervention by West on the way.

We have one Spade winner, three Hearts, one Diamond and three Clubs. That totals eight tricks – so we are one short of target. We hope to get our ninth trick with a 3-3 split in either Hearts or Clubs or maybe a Diamond finesse. Not too much to hope for, right?

We decide to duck the first trick and take the second. Both the bidding and the play (East showing up with the â™ 10) confirms the 5-2 Spade break. There's no point in holding up the â™ A again (indeed, it would be quite wrong to do so) so we take the Ace and consider our chances.

We try three rounds of Clubs and West shows out on the third round. East (sly as ever) drops the ♣10 and ♣J on the last two rounds, hoping that you'll miscount the suit. A repeat performance follows in Hearts, down to East's shenanigans in false-carding.

Meanwhile, West has had to discard twice and throws two small Diamonds away, professing little interest in that quarter. A wily pair of defenders, these two, aren't they?

Now, you could just take the Diamond finesse and hope that something is right for you on this hand but why perform a menial task when you can get someone else to do it for you?

We know we have have stripped West of everything except Diamonds and Spades. We also know that West only has three winning Spades left. So we throw him on lead with a Spade and invite him to cash his winners. As he does so we have plenty of trash to put in the dumpster.

When West has finshed enjoying himself he has nothing left but Diamonds and has to lead one around into the ♦A Q. Regardless of where the ♦K is we have two Diamond tricks and the contract. It's more satisfying to know that the Diamond finesse would have lost had we taken it ourselves.

There's nothing quite like making an opponent take our finesses for us...