Set up a long suit a.s.a.p

You win ♥ K with ♥ A and can count eight top tricks – five spades, ♥ A and ♦ AK. If diamonds split 3-3, you have the possibility of two extra length winners in diamonds. However if you draw trumps straight away, eight tricks is all you’ll finish with.

The reason why you have to refrain from drawing all the trumps is that dummy’s ♠ Q is the one and only precious entry to dummy’s long diamonds. You can afford to cash ♠ AK at tricks two and three, but you must not play a third spade, for that would squander dummy’s ♠ Q entry prematurely.

Assuming both opponents follow to both spades (otherwise you can kiss goodnight to your contract – as you cannot finish drawing trumps with dummy’s ♠ Q), you cash ♦ K, cross to ♦ A and trump (‘ruff’) 3. If both opponents have followed three times (a prerequisite for success), you cross to ♠ Q and cash ♦ 54 length winners. Ten tricks made.

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Win ♦ K lead with ♦ A and count nine tricks via six spades, ♦ A and ♣ AK. Your only chance of a tenth trick lies in the length of dummy’s clubs, and you must be careful not to squander dummy’s trump entries (note plural).

You can cash just one high spade from hand, say ♠ A. Now ♣ K, over to ♣ A and ruff ♣ 3 high (say ♠ K) – otherwise West will overruff. The 4-2 club split revealed, there is more work to be done, but you can now lead ♠ 3 to ♠ 9 (the precious second spade entry) and ruff ♣ 4 with ♠ J. You lead ♠ 4 to ♠ Q (drawing West’s last trump) and can now lead ♣ 6, a length winner. Away goes a red-suit loser and that’s 10 tricks and game made.

Note you could afford for clubs to be 4-2 because you had a second entry. Without ♠ 9, you’d have needed 3-3 clubs.