1. What do you make of the lead?
   It looks like a count lead, showing a 3 card suit (in the suit bid by partner). It might also be an attitude lead, showing a high honor
   
   Ask your opponents how they lead into partner’s bid suit.


2. You played the ♥K from dummy. East won the ♥A and returned the ♥J. How many losers do you have?
   You have 3 losers: 1 Spade, 1 Heart and 1 Club.


3. Assuming from bidding that the ♠K is in East, how can you eliminate 1 loser?
   You can throw 1 card on the ♥Q, but that won’t help, as you still remain with a Club and Spade loser. So, you should play a Club from dummy to hand, to make it expensive for East (who is marked with all the missing honors) to play his ♣A.
   
   If he does play it – You make 2 Club tricks and you can throw 2 Spades on the ♣Q and ♥Q.
   
   If East doesn’t win with the ♣A – you can win with your ♣K and discard later a Club on the ♥Q.


4. Which card will you play from hand: Discard a Club, Discard a Spade or ruff?
   Ruff the second Heart and keep your ♥Q, as you still don’t know which card to discard on it.


5. How do you continue?
   After ruffing the second Heart at trick 2, play two round of Diamonds (ending in dummy) and continue with a Club from dummy.
   
   If East plays the ♣A – win any return, play the ♣K, Diamond to dummy and discard 2 Spades on the ♣Q and the ♥Q. This means you lose 1 Club and 1 Heart.
   
   If East plays a low Club – Win with your ♣K, return to dummy with a Diamond and discard your second Club on the ♥Q. This means you lose 1 Spade and 1 Heart.

Things to remember

1) In situations when you can’t discard enough losers on side top card(s), you need to try to “steal” a trick. Like here, discarding a Club or Spade on your ♥Q will not help. So you need to play a Club from dummy and make it expensive for East to win the trick (winning the ♣A promotes 2 Club tricks for you). So if East plays low – you win the ♣K and now you can discard your remaining Club on the ♥Q and avoid losing a Club.

2) In special situations where you don’t know (yet) which loser to discard on a high card – Consider ruffing the trick, and postpone your decision for later, when you have more information about the hand.

3) You may ask your opponents about their lead agreements. Some pairs prefer to show COUNT when leading their partner’s suit, which means the show the number of cards in that suit (similar to 3/5 leads or low from 3+ cards). Others prefers to make ATTITUDE leads: a LOW card promises an honor, and second highest card (= middle from 3 cards) denies an honor.

4) When finding a fit in a minor suit and you are looking for slam in that suit – You can agree with your partner to play Minorwood (this is something that always needs agreement between partners). You can agree to play 0314 or 1430. According to Minorwood, if Club is trump, then 4♣ would be asking Aces, and if Diamond is trump – then 4♦ is asking aces (so the 4♣/♦ bid is called Minorwood and is similar to the 4NT Blackwood).

Responses to Minorwood:
a. On the 4♣ Ace ask (0314):
4♦ = 0 or 3 (1 or 4 if playing 1430) out of 5 keys (♣K is 5th keycard)
4♥ = 1 or 4 (0 or 3 if playing 1430) out of 5 keys;
4♠ = 2 out of 5, no ♣Q
4NT = 2 out of 5 with ♣Q

After any response – 5♣ now is “to play”.

You can continue to ask specific Kings with 5♦.

After 4♦/♥ responses, you can bid 1 suit above to ask for the ♣Q, on which responder bids 5♣ without the ♣Q, or his closest King to show that King + the ♣Q (same as in Blackwood).

b. On the 4♦ Ace ask (0314):
4♥ = 0 or 3 (1 or 4 if playing 1430) out of 5 keycards (♦K is 5th keycard)
4♠ = 1 or 4 (0 or 3 if playing 1430) out of 5
4NT = 2 out of 5, no ♦Q
5♣ = 2 out of 5 with ♦Q

After any response – 5♦ is now “to play”.

You can continue to ask specific Kings with 5♥.

After 4♥/♠ responses, you can bid 1 suit above to ask for the ♦Q, on which responder bids 5♦ without the ♦Q, or bids his closest King to show that King + the ♦Q (same as in Blackwood).

Minorwood has many advantages. The most significant one is that you can stay low and play 5♣/♦ if you are missing 2 keycards (while if you use 4NT Blackwood with Clubs as trump – what will you do if partner responds 5♦ and you are missing 2 keycards?).