Playing the cards. First, Make a quick plan
SWOT: Look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunties and Threats
Count winners (especially in No Trumps contracts) and losers (especially in Trumps contracts).
How many tricks can you definitely win? How many extras will you have to "create".
Do you have any suit shortages in the hand that has the minimum number of trumps?
Are you going to pull trumps straight away, or use trumps in the short hand to "ruff", or are you going to cross-ruff ?
Are there any finesses to be tried?
Establish long suits, so that small cards can win.
Ducking (make your losers early in No Trumps, and use up cards the enemy can use to lead horrid suits to each other).
Missing powerful cards - where are they?
Think about the bidding - what will it tell you about where the good cards are?
