This is aHand:

Easy Street.
By Andy Hung.

Playing quickly and confidently may be good when things go well but playing quickly and failing is not good bridge.

Remember to take your time and do some planning at trick one before you play, so you can prevent any unwanted mistakes.

This deal sets a good example of how thinking and planning can prevail.

Bidding.

We open 1NT in second seat (15 points, 4·4·3·2 shape) and partner has a small problem with a game-going hand (11 points) and 5·4·2·2 shape. Deciding that the only two games in town are 3NT and 4♠ he jumps to 3♠, trying to elicit support in that quarter. Since we have only a doubleton Spade we sign off in 3NT.

Play.

West leads the ♥3 against our 3NT and the first thing we should be doing is Counting and Planning. 

We can count five top tricks (two Hearts, two Diamonds and one Club) and therefore need to set up four additional tricks. Some extras might be obtained either from Spades or Diamonds but, given that Spades offers us better prospects than does Diamonds, the natural choice is to play on Spades.

Before planning the timing of our play, we should be thinking about how we should tackle the Spade suit. We have the ♠K, ♠Q, ♠J, and ♠10 and we can force our way to at least three tricks by knocking out our opponent's ♠A. A 3-3 or 4-2 break would allow us to take four Spade tricks. There is, however, a slight if familiar catch.

With the Spade honors spread between the closed hand and dummy, we must remember to play the honors from the short side first. In effect, we should first lead the â™ 10 and follow it up by leading a small one to one of dummy's Spade pictures.

So... what about the timing? On the ♥3 lead, should we win this trick in dummy or in the closed hand? Since we might need access to the table to cash those winning Spades we should preserve the ♥K on table and win the opening Heart lead in hand.

Then we play the ♠10 (which is allowed to win; no surprise there) and follow with a Spade to dummy's ♠J (which forces the ♠A).

A Heart return (nothing is any better for the defense) is taken by the ♥A and we are in the right place at the right time to cash three Spade winners. Yes, three. The fall of the opponents' Spades allows the ♠7 to grow up into a winner – essentially, it's the only Spade in town.

Now we are in Easy Street. Having taken two Hearts and four Spades we just need to wrap things up by taking the three top tricks we have in hand – the ♦A K and the ♣A.

Notice, in passing, how effective the defense of not taking Aces can be. You need to store that one in your mind for future use.