North-South vulnerable.  
South deals.
                              NORTH
                              S: K 10 3 2          
                              H: K 7 6 3     
                              D: J 8         
                              C: K 10 9  


                              SOUTH                         
                              S: Q J 6
                              H: Q 10 5     
                              D: A K       
                              C: A J 7 5 3
                  SOUTH    WEST    NORTH    EAST                  
                   1NT     Pass     2C      Pass
                   2D      Pass     3NT     Pass
                   Pass    Pass
     The competition is rubber bridge and the opening lead is the
six of diamonds.  Before reading on, develop your plan as
declarer.
     The situation is not great.  You will need to knock out one
of the major suit aces in order to come to nine tricks.  If the
diamonds break five-four (the best you can hope for) or six-
three, it won't matter which defender has which major suit ace. 
Whoever gets in will continue diamonds and you will not be able
to give up the lead again without being defeated.  This means
that after you clear one of the major suits you will have to pick
up the club suit without a loss.  Easier said than done.
     You should select spades as the suit to attack - it will
yield three tricks after the ace is dislodged and if the suit
breaks badly (five-one or worse) you can get by with only two
tricks and maintain a control.  You start with the queen of
spades and West hops right up with the ace (East plays the five). 
The queen of diamonds smothers the jack and extracts your last
diamond stopper.  You cash the jack of spades and play a small
spade to the king.  East and West follow to both of these spade
tricks.  The ten of spades is played from dummy.  East discards
the four of clubs.  You pitch the five of hearts.  West discards
the two of clubs.  What is going on?
     The first thing that you can pretty much count on is that
clubs are not breaking three-two.  If they did divide this way,
someone has given up the hand.  You also know that they are not
breaking five-zero.  This leaves four-one as the only
possibility.  If West started with four he now has three.  While
you can pick off the queen, you will not be able to return to the
South hand to enjoy the rest of the club suit.  Aside from that,
why would West throw the two of clubs after East threw the four
of clubs unless it was a totally useless card?  
     If East started with four clubs you can pick the queen up
and run the long clubs.  This should be the way to go.  Continue
with the king of clubs and watch the cards fall in your favor.
     Here is the whole hand.  
                              NORTH
                              S: K 10 3 2          
                              H: K 7 6 3     
                              D: J 8         
                              C: K 10 9  
            WEST                             EAST
            S: A 9 4                         S: 8 7 5        
            H: 8 4 3                         H: A J 9 2    
            D: Q 10 7 6 4 3 2                D: 9 5               
            C: 2                             C: Q 8 6 4     
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: Q J 6
                              H: Q 10 5     
                              D: A K       
                              C: A J 7 5 3
     As it turns out, so long as you played spades at trick two
and not hearts, you were always going to make.  The ace of spades
is West's one and only entry.  
     From a defensive perspective, once West has shown up with
the ace of spades and the queen of diamonds, he can hardly have
more that a black jack or the queen of hearts.  It doesn't look
as though the chances for defeating this hand are good - but
pitch the two of hearts.  There is no reason to give anything
away.  And as far as West is concerned, why hold on to diamonds
that you know you can never get to.  Keep your singleton club so
you won't give the suit away on the first play.
     Here is the rule for today:  Each card that you play sends a
message to your partner and your opponent.  Send the right
message, play the right card.
___________________________________________________________________