LEARNING CENTER

3. It rarely matters whether 1NT is old-fashioned 6-10, or the more modern 6-12 (some treat it as forcing).
We still must jump-invite with this hand (2NT is also a possibility).

2. You have to lose 2 clubs, a diamond and a spade. Your only hope to get rid of a loser (presumably the spade) is to use dummy's diamonds. If diamonds are 5-1, you have no chance. Dummy has some entries, but you don't want to use up the A right away; you might need it later, especially if diamonds split 4-2. If you take it (call it "panic" or call it "not planning ahead") at trick one, you will go down (as you will see later).

10, A, trump a diamond high. If they are 4-2, go to the 9 and trump another diamond, then draw trump.

That's a mouthful, but if you carefully study it, you can hopefully see why it is the correct plan.
You want to save the 8 so you can use it to cross to the 9.

If diamonds are 4-2, you will need all your entries. So, trumping this trick high and then starting diamonds will work (unless there are horrific splits).

The full deal is below. See if you can follow the play-by-play to see why this is the correct line of play.

Click here to play practice deal #4.