Isn't it just like partner to bid most aggressively when you have to play the contract? That happened to George Steiner playing with Gaylor Kasle.

The heart game was no shoo-in here: It was missing the A-J-x-x-x of trump, with two sure diamond losers — and what about the clubs?

West led the diamond 10 in response to his partner’s lead-directing double. East won the king and switched to a low spade. Steiner took the spade in dummy and called for a low heart. Up popped the jack; That was one hurdle cleared.

West took the heart ace and played a second round of diamonds to East’s king. Back came the club 10. Steiner won with the ace, picked up trumps with three more rounds (as East discarded three diamonds), then played a spade to the king and ruffed a spade. It wasn’t a sure thing, but it looked as though East had started with four spades. This meant that his original shape appeared to be 4-1-5-3.

If so, Steiner realized that he could catch East in a show-up squeeze. When Steiner played the last heart from dummy, East had to find a discard from the spade queen and the club 9-7. East discarded a club on the heart, and Steiner threw his spade.

When Steiner played a club from dummy and East produced the nine, Steiner was confident that the queen would drop under the king. It did, and Kasle’s aggressive bid paid off with a near top.

South claimed that he had been desperately unlucky to run into a lie of the cards that led to his defeat in today's deal. But you, the jury, will get to decide his case. Was he unlucky or careless?

What happened at the table would probably be mirrored at many tables in even a top-level duplicate field. Against four hearts West led three rounds of spades. Declarer ruffed the third one, cashed the heart ace and king, and was discomfited to see West with the length. He switched his attention to clubs, and when two rounds of the suit stood up, he played a third. West ruffed and exited with the heart jack to leave declarer with a diamond loser.

South was at fault for not taking the diamond finesse after two rounds of clubs, but as the cards lie, that would not have helped.

However, a better approach would be to ruff the spade at trick three, then play the heart ace and follow up with the heart 10. If West wins and plays another spade, you can ruff in dummy, then cross back to hand with the diamond ace, and draw trump. If East wins and leads a diamond through, you simply rise with the ace and run the clubs after extracting the remaining trump.

Almost but not quite as good is to draw one trump, then cross to dummy with a club to play a heart toward your hand, intending to finesse. However, you might conceivably run into a club ruff by following this line.

Thomas Bessis is part of what would surely be the strongest bridge-playing family in the world, since both he and his brother and his parents have been successful in U.S., European, and world championship events.

Here, he was declarer in four hearts. Against that contract West led the club queen, which was allowed to hold. A second club was ruffed by Bessis, who continued with the heart queen.

When it was not covered, he rose with the ace as, on the bidding, he fully expected East to hold the king — which might even have been singleton. Had West held high-card values, it was perhaps more likely that he would have made an unassuming cue-bid of two hearts, showing diamond support, instead of making the pre-emptive bid of three diamonds directly.

Next came a successful finesse of the diamond queen, then the ace and a diamond ruff eliminated the suit. A club ruff eliminated that suit too, and now declarer exited with a heart and could claim his contract when East won the trick.

The point was that with the minors eliminated, either he would receive a ruff and discard, or the defense would have to broach the spade suit, and with East on lead, the defense could get only one trick. If West had shown up with the heart king, East would have been a lock to hold the spade king, and declarer would have been able to hold his spade losers to one by force.

Today's deal is from the 1960s British Bridge World Simultaneous Par Contest.

The directed contract was three hearts by South, and the required lead was the unbid suit, diamonds. East wins the opening lead with the 10, and has to decide on a plan at trick two.

The problem is that declarer must be denied diamond ruffs in dummy, but besides that East should realize he must restrict the diamond discards from declarer’s hand.

Ace and another heart apparently solves the first part of the problem: Dummy’s hearts as a source of ruffs are removed. But that does not deal with part two. Declarer simply draws the last trump, then throws losing diamonds from hand on clubs. And if East passively exits with anything but a trump, declarer plays to ruff diamonds in dummy and emerges with at least nine tricks.

The card to defeat the partscore is the heart five. Appreciating that the heart ace is still lurking, ready to deal with dummy’s second trump, South sees that playing for diamond ruffs is a hopeless plan. He cashes the club king and ace, then discards a low diamond on the club queen. If clubs break 3-3, all would be well.

But as the cards lay, West ruffs the third club, returns a trump to East’s ace, and there are still two diamond tricks to come — one down.

While most declarers were in four hearts in today's Yeh Brothers deal, Liu Jun was in three no-trump.

It might have been easier to pass out three diamonds doubled: A trump lead will apparently net a minimum of 300. But on the informative auction shown, West led a diamond to the nine and king. A club finesse held, the next one lost as West threw a spade, and back came a low diamond. Declarer won in hand, cashed his spade and heart winners, and presented East with a diamond. That player could cash three diamonds, but then had to concede the last three clubs to dummy.

East should have returned the diamond jack at trick four, in which case West would have had the option to win the diamond six on the third round. But declarer has a resource.

He advances the heart queen, hoping for a bare jack or nine with East, then cashes one club, pitching a heart, comes to hand with the second top spade, and exits with a diamond. If East wins, he must surrender the game-going tricks in clubs. If West wins, he has a spade to cash, but can’t manage more than one heart trick.

Incidentally, if West pitches a heart on the second club, declarer wins the diamond return and returns a third diamond. If East cashes out, West is squeezed in the majors; if East switches after taking a diamond or two, declarer sets up hearts as before.

In today's deal from last year's Yeh Cup in Wuxi, China, three hearts looks to be high enough. But Agustin Madala bid game and received a diamond lead to the king, a spade shift to the ace, and a second diamond. He rose with the ace, pitched his diamond loser on the top spade, then finessed the heart jack, noting West's seven. Now he played a club, ruffed a diamond as East threw a club, took a second top club, and played dummy's top spade to pitch his last club.

Next came a second diamond ruff as East pitched his last spade, and since the defenders’ only plain-suit cards were spades, declarer could safely exit with the heart jack, knowing that if East won and had a spade to lead, declarer would be able to ruff low and not be overruffed. As the cards lay, East won and played back a heart, letting Madala finesse and claim his contract.

East had only one chance to make declarer’s life harder. When the fourth diamond was led from dummy, ruffing low would have given up any hope of getting a second trump trick. But might East have given declarer a losing option by ruffing high?

Declarer has to overruff, then has to read whether to exit with a high trump or a low one, depending on whether the remaining heart honor is bare or the nine is falling. I think declarer should get this right; if West has false-carded with the trump seven from 9-7-x, good luck to him.

Yaniv Zack of Israel reached four hearts in today’s 2011 Yeh Brothers Cup deal. West led the club queen, ducked all around, then helpfully shifted to a spade to the king, ducked, followed by a spade to declarer’s ace. Now Zack passed the heart 10 successfully. He repeated the heart finesse, took the diamond finesse, cashed the diamond ace and queen, and crossruffed with his remaining trumps. He ended up taking six trump tricks, three diamond tricks and the spade ace. Had West covered the heart 10 with the queen at trick four, the crossruff fails. But there is a route to success — though I would take my hat off to anyone who found it!

When in dummy at trick four, lead a diamond. If East plays low, you put in the jack, draw a second round of trumps with the jack, and play a second diamond, ducking East’s king! East is endplayed, forced to lead a club, and you now have an extra winner and just enough entries to unscramble them. Equally elegant, if East puts up the diamond king on the first round to avoid this endplay, you win, cash the heart jack, ruff a club, take the heart king, and lead a diamond to the queen.

In the four-card ending, dummy has a card in each suit, while you hold two spades and two diamonds. You lead the club king and pitch a spade, forcing East to win and return a club, exercising a suicide squeeze on his partner as you pitch a second spade.

When China ZH and Indonesia met in the first phase of the Yeh Brothers Cup, both were on the cusp of qualifying for the top group; but one bad match by either could drop that team into the Swiss. This deal cost the Chinese dearly.

In one room the Chinese East came in over a no-trump opening to show the minors and bought an exceptionally poor dummy in three clubs doubled. Though he was allowed to escape for down two, minus 300 was not a great score.

In the room shown, declarer, Zhuang Zejun, received a diamond lead and ducked it to the queen. Back came a club won in dummy. Declarer led with a low trump to the queen and ace, then played a heart to the nine and East’s king. When a second club came back, declarer won in hand and played a third club, planning to pitch a diamond and crossruff. However, West ruffed in, leaving declarer with an inevitable trump and diamond loser.

Had declarer run the heart eight, covered by West, before playing the club, he would have been much better placed. He leads out the spade jack, then the 10, which West must duck, or declarer can draw trump, cash the club winner, then take the heart finesse.

When both trumps are ducked, declarer changes tack and plays the diamond ace, ruffs a heart to hand, and leads the club queen to pitch dummy’s diamond, leaving West with just his master trump.

In today's deal from last year's Yeh Brothers Cup, the point was made that one should not pull a takeout double from fear alone. Particularly if both sides are vulnerable, the benefit of going plus may almost equal the cost of letting a doubled partscore make. If a few doubled contracts do not make, you probably are not doubling enough.

That said, the pain when you double the opponents into game and don’t defend accurately may be the critical factor that suggests caution in this area. And the following deal exhibits that theme nicely.

After Huub Bertens’ double of three clubs, Jack Zhao judged well not to run to three hearts. At this vulnerability he must have figured that he had every chance of a decent penalty. Right he was … in a sense.

The defenders cashed two spades and two diamonds, leaving West on play. At this point West was tempted to lead a high diamond to let East discard, but that turned out to be fatal. Either major suit would work to disrupt declarer’s entries and to prevent declarer from shortening himself.

On West’s top diamond play, East threw a spade, and declarer, Frankie Karwur, ruffed in hand, overtook a heart to run the club jack and 10 as East ducked. Then he ruffed another diamond to hand and went back to a top heart. With the lead in dummy he could score his club ace and queen, whatever the defense did.