Tricks
Disclaimer
I make no claim to have invented these things, nor that they will always work. Just that they made a few hits for me and you may find them useful too. But not against me, please.
One thing: even if your opponents don't take the bait, it is nevertheless worth doing a trick like this just to learn a bit about their skill and resolution.
Lost Your Ace?
When you have the rare choice of either ruffing a suit or throwing away a loser without making a difference to the total number of tricks you will win, then go for the latter, especially if the opponents have an uncashed Ace in that suit!
Example: You are declarer in a 
contract. You have a single 
, no 
, and no losers in 
. The Ace of
is out and an opponent leads a . Throw your singleton rather than ruff.
You'll get the same number of tricks but the player
holding the Ace of may be unjustifiably peeved with his partner later.
Killer Queen
You are declarer in a suit contract holding a singleton Queen.
Dummy has K x x in the same suit
With lead in Dummy. lead low to the Q. If the right-hand opponent holds the Ace he might well be reluctant to play it (it would be a wrong move if his partner held x x or you held Q x). If the Q holds then ruff away the rest!
Can You Take The Heat?
In a situation where you are defending and you've put declarer under a bit of pressure already such as not being able to afford another lost trick, then playing a card in tempo that gives him a critical decision might be just that bit too much.
For example, declarer is in a 3-level contract. You are declarer's left-hand opponent on lead after taking 4 tricks off the top. Dummy holds A Q in a suit in which you hold the K. If you lead a low one smoothly he may panic and think "F it, time for some tricks on our side now", and play the Ace.
Too Late Mate
Lastly a real hand from a tournament (Chaux-de-Fonds, CH, 1998) where I gave the opponents the chance to make a critical mistake as soon as I could. It was later, after we scored our top, that I had the satisfaction of seeing them shout at each other.
Contract: 3
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The lead was of J to East's King and my Ace.
I realised I was in trouble in the minor suits and would need discards on s.
However if I drew trumps first I'd have no entry to Dummy to run the suit.
Although I suspected East had lead a singleton, I played the Q. East paused, but decided in the end not to ruff.
Maybe he thought his trumps would do more damage later?
Too late though, as I then drew trumps ending in dummy and was home for plus 1.
It's moments like these ...
