LEARNING CENTER

K then 2. Partner's 10 is an attitude signal showing that partner wants you to continue spades. You are hoping to give partner a ruff on the 3rd round of spades. Playing the 2 is a suit preference signal. You could play any of your low spades so by playing the lowest, you are telling partner that you have something in clubs. 

Heart now. If you were allowed to look at the dummy before leading, you might have led a heart to begin with since the only use this dummy has is ruffing spades.

You did lead a spade, though, and partner discouraged. This means that partner does not want you to continue (it's VERY unlikely to be a singleton). The 3 does not suggest a particular suit switch -- a signal can only be one thing and this is just an attitude signal, not an attitude and suit preference signal.

Since dummy doesn't have anything very threatening except for the possibility of a spade ruff, you should try leading a trump now. It's not clear that you can prevent declarer from ruffing a spade after this start, but you should try (and this is safer than any other switch). 

J. This is a suit preference situation for partner since dummy will ruff the next club. In this particular situation, partner could play a high club to signal for hearts or a low club to signal for diamonds. Partner chose a medium club. What does that mean? It's possible that the 5 is partner's highest or lowest club spot, but more likely it means "no preference". 

We don't hate when dummy ruffs as long as dummy is the hand with longer trumps as is the case here. Once you force dummy to ruff by playing another club, you have as many trumps as dummy. This technique is called "tapping" dummy. This means you are creating a difficult scenario for declarer who might lose control of the hand if he attempts to draw trumps. 

2. When you are in a scenario like this, the name of the game is "get out of your hand without helping declarer". Here, partner's play of the queen GUARANTEES the J (with Qx, partner must play low). That means that it is "safe" to exit a heart. You could play the 2 to signal to partner that you would like for partner to play a club (much better than a diamond since you potentially set up two tricks for your side). Playing a heart also caters to the unlikely scenario of a singleton heart. You might also exit a spade as this is likely "safe", but there's a slight chance that partner has Qxx of spades (or the singleton heart). 

Take a look at a full deal to see why it's important to exit passively here:

Vul: None Dlr: W	A853  98  QJ2  A843
76  AK432  K6  KJ92		109  QJ7  1087543  105
	KQJ42  1065  A9  Q76

 Even if you exit a heart, partner had better play a club now or you may get endplayed later (Declarer can play the A and another diamond later after ruffing a heart and drawing trump). 

K, Q, and another heart. Yes, your partner is screaming "I have the K." So what? Declarer only has 13 cards: 6 spades, three hearts and four cards in the minors. Declarer can throw away a potential losing diamond on any of the clubs. Your only hope for an extra trick is in the trump suit. Since you know trumps are splitting 2-2, your best hope is that partner has the 10. This will cause an uppercut if partner ruffs with the 10 (which he will in this situation). 

The full deal:

Vul: NS Dlr: S	872  876  AQ74  AKQ
QJ  AKQ9532  5  J109		103    KJ10932  86542
	AK9654  J104  86  73