When West pre-empts to three diamonds over the strong no-trump, it may inspire North to contemplate exploring for slam. But his four-diamond cue-bid in support of hearts leaves South cold, and North wisely subsides in game — which may yet prove uncomfortably high if South does not take the proper precautions.

After the lead of the club eight, South plays low from dummy and takes East’s 10 with his king. He plays back the diamond queen for West to capture and return a second club, won by dummy’s ace.

Now the only real danger to the contract is losing two trump tricks; to guard against that, South leads the heart jack from dummy, covered all around, then goes to the spade ace and finesses in trump by running the seven if East plays low. If the finesse should lose to the nine or 10 in West’s hand, then trumps will have broken 3-2, and declarer will be able to get back in soon enough to draw the last trump. Should East split his intermediates on the second round of trumps, declarer has complete control. He can simply give up a club trick and play on trumps, to knock out East’s winner and eventually to draw his last trump.

If the defenders lead and continue diamonds at every turn, conceding a ruff-sluff in the process, declarer should be able to take six tricks in the plain suits and maneuver to take three trump tricks in one hand and a ruff in the other. Again, though, declarer must start trumps by leading the jack initially.

The common theme that runs through the deals this week is how to tackle a trump suit where you are missing the king but not the queen or jack. The simplistic answer would be to say, “Finesse against it!” But sometimes you must look beyond the major honors to find the winning line, as in today’s example.

Your contract of four spades looks sound enough; but when West leads the heart nine and East wins his king to return the suit, your chances appear to have come down to the trump finesse. Is that the full story, or is there more to it?

While you clearly need the trump finesse, you should carefully consider whether you also need the trump break, and if so, whether you can protect against any or all 4-1 breaks. Your lack of trump intermediates produces a stark conclusion: If East has four trumps to the king, you are doomed no matter what they are. Therefore, you should ignore that possibility and instead focus on the one 4-1 break that you can actually cope with. Lead a low trump toward the A-10, planning to cross back to the diamond king and to repeat the trump finesse if the first finesse holds.

That may seem straightforward enough, but consider that if the seven and six of spades were switched, now you might be able to handle West having either the bare eight or nine in that suit — assuming you’ve husbanded your resources carefully. We will be discussing that very theme later this week.

Setting a trump suit after using Stayman over 1NT may not be complex, but it does require discussion. The key is that using Stayman and jumping to four no-trump after hearing a response in a major is best used as quantitative without a fit, because you really have no other way to show that hand. Conversely, to set partner’s major as trump after you find a fit, bid the other major at the three-level. Since you can’t be looking for a fit there with a five-card suit (or you’d have begun with a transfer), this simply sets trump and shows interest in slam.

In today’s deal, North-South use this identical structure over a two no-trump opener; as South, you drive to six spades after your partner shows extras. When West leads the heart ten, you determine that you will need one black suit or the other to behave well. How can you maximize your chances?

Although you can come home easily when the trump king is doubleton onside, as here, you should also be able to succeed when East has three trumps instead of two, as long as you are careful. Win the heart lead in dummy and finesse the spade jack, then cash the ace. When the king drops, draw the last trump. If it doesn’t, play three rounds of hearts, then start running the diamonds. Unless East has two or fewer hearts, he will have no exit card when he ruffs in, and he will be forced to lead a club for you. If he discards on the winning diamonds, throw him in with the third trump, and the result will be the same.

To mark the first full week of the New Year, I’m going to try an experiment. In all the deals this week, declarer will be faced with an eight-card trump fit missing the king. But the individual facts and circumstances will produce different conclusions as to the best play for declarer.

Beginners are taught that the way to play a suit in which you have the ace, queen and jack is to finesse. So when you look at the North and South hands in today’s deal, you might assume that you are supposed to finesse against the king by leading the queen. But that would be a grave mistake!

With no side-suit losers in your slam, your goal is to hold your trump losers to one; the absence of the 10 and nine from your hand and dummy’s means that no matter who has the king, at least one loser is inevitable. You must therefore find the safest line to avoid losing two trump tricks.

If trumps are 3-2, your task is easy. But what if they are 4-1? You will see that no matter which four trumps East has, if they include the king, the contract is hopeless. But what if it is West with length? Running the queen or jack will not be a success.

Instead, cash the ace, then lead up to the queen-jack. If trumps break, you are home, and if trumps break 4-1 onside, then come back to hand in spades and lead a heart toward dummy’s remaining honor. The defense will be helpless.

When North jumped to four diamonds, systematically showing a balanced slam try in support of hearts, South rejected the try. But after he showed only one key-card, his partner next made a slightly optimistic grand slam try, promising all the key-cards. With all the kings and a little extra shape, South decided he had enough to go for the brass ring.

West had a suitably passive lead against seven hearts in the form of the diamond 10. Declarer needed to decide which would be the master hand, and in which hand he would take ruffs. Sensibly, he decided to take ruffs in dummy, so he wib the diamond ace and carefully drew two rounds of trumps with dummy’s high hearts.

When the heart ace-jack revealed the bad break, South understood that it might be difficult to take the one ruff he needed in dummy. But he found the best line when he cashed the club ace-queen. He then crossed back to hand by leading a spade to the king, pitched dummy’s remaining diamond on the club king, and ruffed a diamond in dummy. He could next lead a heart to his hand, draw the last trump, and claim the rest.

Players tend to assume that any line that needs two favorable breaks will generally require more luck than a line that needs just one. But here declarer played a line that needed very little from both minor suits (East having at least three clubs and two diamonds) as opposed to that player having three or more diamonds. South’s chance of losing to a ruff on his chosen line was relatively small by comparison to the risk of encountering a 5-2 diamond break.

Opinions vary as to whether South should bid diamonds or spades here in response to one club. With less than an invitation, you might prefer to respond one spade; the problem with auctions where you bid diamonds is that opener must then either bid a major if he has one (which makes it hard to get to clubs with confidence) or rebid one no-trump if balanced. In the latter scenario, you might miss a 4-4 major-suit fit.

Here, in a teams game, South reached three no-trump on the lead of the spade seven to the king and ace. East figured the auction had marked declarer with both missing spade honors, so he found the threatening shift to the heart 10. What would you have done as South after West contributed the jack to this trick?

Declarer could see that ducking might leave him behind in the race to five tricks, after a club shift by West. So, he took the trick and ducked a diamond, with West winning his jack to return a heart.

Declarer now resisted the temptation to win and play on diamonds — in case one defender had four diamonds and four hearts. Ducking the heart would at worst cost the overtrick, but today it left West unable to continue the suit. West shifted to a club, which declarer won in dummy, remaining vigilant. He led a second diamond from dummy, and even though East tempted him by following with the queen, he ducked again. Now he had three tricks in diamonds and two in each of the other suits.

The British home international open series is the Camrose Trophy. From the English Camrose pretrials a few years ago, John Froztega played this hand very nicely; but it was Marc Smith, the injured party in the East seat, who generously reported it. Given perfect defense, it is hard to believe that any of the four or more top tricks that East-West have against four hearts could get away!

Peter Czerniewski as West had done well for his side, up to a point, by not sacrificing in four spades, which would probably have gone at least two down. Instead, he passed out four hearts and led a low spade, and dummy’s nine held. A heart to the jack exposed the 4-0 break, and there seem to be at least two inevitable losers in each red suit.

Still, Froztega did not give up hope; he set about playing a cross-ruff in the black suits. He cashed the club king and ace and ruffed a club, then took the spade ace and ruffed another club. When he then ruffed a spade, he had reached a five-card ending with three diamonds and two hearts in each hand.

Now came a diamond exit to the king and ace. Czerniewski could cash one more diamond to let Smith discard his club, but then had to lead either a spade or a diamond, which Smith was forced to ruff at trick 11. That in turn required him to lead away from the heart king into dummy’s trump tenace, to concede 10 tricks. Remarkably, the defense’s sure trump winners had completely vanished.

Today’s deal shows a type of problem that is often encountered in real life. It is necessary to plan the play right from the start in order to visualize the ending.

As South, when you take advantage of the vulnerability to open one spade, you hear West overcall in hearts. North drives to game showing short hearts, and you wrap up the bidding in game.

When dummy comes down, you can see that you are certainly high enough. West kicks off with the heart king and shifts to the spade jack. You must now plan how to reach 10 tricks. The obvious line to follow is a cross-ruff, but be careful! The key is that you must win the trump shift in hand to ensure that your cross-ruff will not be interrupted by an over-ruff.

Your plan will be to ruff one heart low and two hearts high in dummy, while crossing back to hand with two club ruffs. Specifically, you win the spade ace and ruff a heart low, then cash the club ace and cross-ruff the next four tricks.

After taking seven tricks in a row, declarer can cash the diamond ace and exit from hand with a diamond. In theory, either defender can win the diamond, but in today’s three-card ending, declarer will be able to score both his 10 and eight of trumps in hand for his 10 tricks, no matter what the defenders do.

Note that if West had an original 2-6-2-3 shape with the spade nine and diamond king, he would win the trick with his king, but would only be able to lead hearts or a trump, so declarer would still be safe.

North’s jump to two no-trump is the Jacoby convention, showing game-forcing values with a real spade fit. In essence, North promises an opening bid and four or more trumps, although with an unbalanced hand including a singleton and trump support, he might jump directly to the four-level in his shortage, a splinter bid. South has minimum values and no shortage, so he shows this by bidding game at once. While other methods may be more effective, this has the virtue of simplicity, if nothing else.

After the initial club lead, declarer ducks (hoping the defenders will not shift to diamonds and put him on the spot). As hoped, the defense continue clubs, and South wins the ace at the second trick.

Next, he draws two rounds of trumps, ending in hand, and leads a heart to the queen and king. Back comes a heart; declarer wins the ace and ruffs a heart. Finally, declarer ruffs a club to dummy and a heart to hand, leaving himself with the diamond guess for his contract. Is it a blind guess, or can South tilt the odds in his favor?

All he has to do is to count the hand: The way the plays in clubs have worked out so far, he can reasonably assume East has the heart king and the king-queen of clubs. But he passed in first seat, so he cannot hold the diamond ace or he would have opened the bidding.

Thus, the correct play is to lead a diamond toward the king, intending to put up that card if West plays low.