Bridge is a partnership game. It is very important that you have a trusting bond with your partner else you might see yourself playing against three opponents rather than two!

So just how much do you trust your partner?

Bidding:

The opponents had a natural and an invitational auction to 3♠.

Opening Lead:

♦2 - although a fourth best heart is definitely a reasonable alternative.

Play:

After winning the diamond lead with the ace, you then had to think about the best way to defeat this 3♠ contract.

At first you might think that it's possible that partner has led from a singleton diamond (so we return a diamond to give partner a ruff) but a careful analysis from the bidding suggests that declarer is unlikely to hold four diamonds as declarer did not rebid 2♦ over 2♣.

With such intimidating clubs in dummy (and four small clubs in your hand), you should turn your attention to the heart suit if you hope to defeat this contract.

Having the ♠A (control) gives you a big advantage since it makes a heart ruff entirely possible - so you return the ♥9. 

If our partner has the ♥A then he can duck our heart switch to keep communication, and if our partner has the ♥K instead, we'd then have to hope that our partner will have a side-suit entry back to his hand to provide us with a heart ruff. 

On the ♥9 switch declarer plays low as partner plays the king, winning, and the ♥3 is returned.

This heart card, the ♥3, is a suit-preference signal since our ♥9 switch suggested that it was from shortness.

Therefore, with this information in mind, when declarer plays off the ♠J from dummy we must not play a low spade from reflex (i.e. playing low and hoping declarer finesses into partner's potential ♠Q) because our partner has told us that he has a club entry.

So it is prudent that we keep our ♠3 intact and rise with the ♠A, switch to the ♣8 (also a suit-preference signal, suggesting that partner returns back a heart), and collect our heart ruff.

How to Play:

There is a Chinese saying:
'An image is worth 1000 words!'

You may want to take the
Online Player Guided Tour

1 - Bidding: Click the 'Play' button in the middle of the page to display the bidding box.

When you are ready, click the 'Start Bidding' button.

When a bid is alerted, it is shown on a yellow background. You can then click that bid to display the related alert.

When there is a comment or a question about your own bid, you can read it on the bidding box comments pane, and then, click the 'Ok' button to continue bidding.

Click 'Close Bidding Box' to proceed to playing the hand.

2 - Playing: The lead is automatic if you are declarer, otherwise you'll see the 'It's your lead' warning in the center pane.

You will play your cards and dummy's as if you were at a live table.

2.1 -Touching cards are considered equivalent! e.g. if you have 876 and you play the 7 while Vu-Bridge expects you to play the 6, then the 7 will blink and the 6 will be played.

2.2 -Sometimes there will be a comment or question during the play.
You should read it and click the 'Click to continue' button at the top of the comment text.

If its a question, there will be a 'Show Answer' button to click at the bottom of the comment panel.

2.3 - When a comment bears a 'Finish flag' button, you can click it to reveal hidden hands and continue playing. We use this to explain technical coups like end-plays, squeezes etc.

2.4 - You can review the last trick by clicking on the last won or lost trick (back of card) at the bottom of the screen. The last trick will show during 3 seconds and then play will continue.

2.5 - You can click the 'Undo last trick' button at the left of the screen in order to redo one or several tricks and review the attached comments.
You can review the auction by clicking the 'Auction' tab in the same area.
3 - Moving the comment panel:

When the mouse hovers the dark green background of the bidding box or the comment panel, you'll see a crosshair cursor and you can drag and move it around the page.

The left and right arrows on the top left corner of the comment panel allows you to increase or reduce the width for better readability.

4 - When a hand is finished, you can click the 'Board List' at the top of the comment panel, and play other hands From the same Series.

To play other Series, visit the Vu-Bridge's home page and click the 'Bridge Hands' button.