I thought my decision to wear flannel pajama bottoms with a jean jacket and aviators was bold and fashion forward. My sister laughed really hard, called me an upside down lumberjack, and then chased me with her camera to try to get a picture. I avoided any more bold fashion choices.

You can't be afraid of looking silly in bridge.

With that in mind, here's a problem for you.

You hold:

AKQ32
3
8764
1098

None vulnerable. The auction starts:

West	North	East	South
	1	2	?

What's your call?

I like the diamond fit, and the singleton heart rates to be useful. I'd upgrade to a 2 bid rather than a negative double. It's a point short, but the shape sells me. The auction continues:

West	North	East	South
	1	2	2
4	4	All Pass

The lead is the A and you take stock.

Well this isn't the best contract-- you have a heart loser and then you have to deal with clubs-- but it's not the worst either. The A lead is a mixed blessing. It means you won't have to guess clubs (West has the AK), but it also means that you need clubs to be 4-3 and not 5-2.

West wins the first trick, East plays the 5 (standard signals). West continues with the K and you hold your breath and see the 6 from East. A good sign. West switches to the J. Let's play the K (it's not going to to any good later). East wins and plays the Q.

You eventually find out trumps are 3-1, East holding three to the jack. What's your plan?

Sure, you ruffed the fourth trick, with no losers to spare in order to make your contract. After that, most players would just draw three rounds of trump and play the top diamonds. You need to always count, though. What does East have? East has six hearts (from the preempt), 3 spades, and at least three clubs. That leaves at most 1 diamond.

If you draw three rounds of trump, you are doomed. You can lead towards dummy, but if West plays the J or 10, you can't repeat a finesse, because you can't get back to your hand. If diamonds are 5-0, we're sunk. So let's assume they are 4-1. The only things that matter are which one East has. If East has the singleton J or 10, we need to play an honor first, and then finesse. If East has a singleton 8, 5, or 2 then we need to finesse on the first round. We were much happier before we did this stupid counting exercise.

Since there are 3 possibilities where playing the 9 is right and only two possibilities where playing a high one is right, we might as well go with the odds. After ruffing and drawing two rounds of trump, we play a diamond to the 9 (and close our eyes and hope we don't look very dumb).

The full deal:

Vul:None Dlr: North	10987 K8 AKQ9 Q73
4 J1042 J1082 AK42		J65 AQ9765 5 J65
	AKQ32 3 7643 1098