Bridge is a game of options and judgement sometimes the bidding sways the judgement and, at other times, declarer gathers inferences from each card played to build that possible distribution of the opponents cards which can give him the contract.
Todays hand is a "Dummy Play Hand", that needs to be tackled in the right order of preference and timing to give the declarer the best chance to make his 3NT bid contract against the best possible defence and adverse distribution to the limit where declarer has a chance, provided his timing is right and his options logical in their choice of preference.
NS held the following hand in the 3NT contract bid with an opening 1C strong to norths negative 1D response, rebidding 2NT raised to 3NT by his partner.
Opening lead is 2S by west against the contract of 3NT by south. One look at the dummy and declarer visualised 2 spade tricks, 2 heart tricks, 2 diamond tricks and 2 club tricks, making a total of 8 tricks. He needed just one club trick more to make his contract, which looked fairly straightforward and not too complex.
But in bridge illusions often cloud proper timing in play and a little hasty judgement can land you in an irrecoverable course, doomed to failure. There is in bridge a saying which is pertinent for all contracts: Assume distribution of the most adverse opponents cards to guide you to a safety play that can guarantee the contract, come what may.
Bridge safety plays are standard, specific and if applied on the principles of safety can steer you on the right track. But sometimes players do get carried away by the enormous strength that a suit offers, without realising the pitfalls in between. Habitual in their standard play of leading towards the hand holding two honours, players fall in the trap of a bridge illusion that has led to the downfall sometimes of even the top most experts at bridge.
Put yourself in the south seat and work out the solution to the making of 3NT which on the lie of the cards does not look too difficult. Well at trick 1, you obviously preserved the spade entry of the AS in dummy for the club suit and won in hand with the KS.
At trick 2, did you play towards the KJ of clubs as did the declarer? Well - then you have blown away your ice-cold contact for west held 4 clubs to the AC and on the first club he let it ride to the JC, and on the next club from dummy towards the QC, he would take it with the Ace and knock out your spade entry leaving you with a trick short, denying you the third club winner which could have given you the contract. On the other alternative after the winning the JC, even if you come back to hand in the red suit to lead the QC from hand, West will win the AC, knock your AS and still leave you with a trick short in clubs denying you the third club winner again.
Bridge has many hidden pitfalls lurking at every corner and the careful and thoughtful declarer caters to the safety play at every turn. This hand is not too complex. It really demands that if clubs are 4-1, and east holds them, this contract will make on the normal defence for east will duck the clubs twice and deny you the third club winner as with the first club trick, he shall knock out your AS entry in dummy. Thus, the "Safety Play" demands that if west holds 4 clubs, the contract is ice-cold, provided you cater to that holding and play QC first.
Assuming west wins and continues spades, declarer holds up and on the third spade, declarer can duck a club catering for clubs 4-1 with west assuring of course that spades are 4-3 as is apparent from wests opening lead of 2S.
The opponents can cash 2 spade tricks and 2 club tricks alone. In the next alternative, if the defence duck the first and second club, you can always return with a red winner and play the third club towards the last honour. In the actual case when west played a low club towards dummy, there was no recovery making the bridge axiom "It pays to play safe" true.

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North      South
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A83          K75
974          AK8
86          AK93
KJ543        Q62
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