Analysis:
Apart from the small matter of having nine top tricks these hands are dreadful. We are lucky the red suits are not reversed, for we would have ended up in 4♥ with little chance of a tenth trick.
As it is we still need a bit of forethought. Unless the diamonds are 4-0 we can take five tricks in the suit, but now that the defence have removed our only side suit entry to dummy we should be thinking about where the fourth diamond trick will be won. We must unblock by playing ♦9, ♦8 and ♦6 on dummy’s three masters. That way we can win the fourth diamond in dummy with ♦5.
Note that we must work this out immediately. If we lead A♦ and casually play the three from hand, we are already doomed. We should always be careful when a long suit has small cards.
