At his second turn, North correctly judged his hand to be worth a double raise of spades. After some cue-bids and the application of Roman Key-card Blackwood, South invited a grand slam with five no-trump, but when North could not do more than respond at the six-level, South ended in six spades.

West led his club singleton. Declarer saw that there would be 12 easy tricks if trumps were 3-2: He could draw trumps, concede a club to East and then take a ruff in a red suit for his 12th trick (he would make nine tricks in the black suits and the three additional red-suit winners).

So, declarer turned his mind to what could be done if West had four trumps. After realizing that it would be best to ruff a heart in hand if that were so, declarer began by carefully calling for the club eight from dummy at trick one.

After winning the club ace and drawing two rounds of trumps with the ace and jack, discovering that West did indeed have four trumps, declarer cashed the heart king and ace before leading a low club toward dummy. West discarded a diamond; declarer won with the club king and continued with the club nine to East’s queen. East exited with the heart jack, but declarer could ruff this with the trump queen.

Next, he led a low trump and covered West’s eight with dummy’s nine. After drawing West’s last trump, declarer led dummy’s carefully preserved club six to his seven to cash the club five. The diamond ace was declarer’s 12th trick.

After South’s strong opening and North’s nebulous response, East’s two-spade intervention was meek at best. With so much offense, East should have aimed to take up space with a jump to three spades. As it was, South was able to name his suit at the three-level. When North raised to game, promising nothing, South took a punt at slam. Might North have considered temporizing with three spades? If so, I’m not sure whether South could have done more than bid four hearts.

Against the slam, West led the spade eight. On the sight of dummy, declarer could count only 11 tricks. Fortunately, dummy’s major-suit spots gave declarer a slim chance of maneuvering into an additional trick.

The opening lead was headed by the nine and king (East’s best attempt at a false card). Declarer won the club return in hand, cashed the heart ace and reached dummy with the heart eight to take the first of his ruffing spade finesses, leading the spade nine to try to pin the seven-doubleton or -tripleton in West’s hand.

Declarer ruffed East’s spade ace high, delighted to see the seven fall, returned to the heart 10 and called for another spade, ruffing out East’s queen. All that remained was to reach dummy with the diamond queen, to park the losing club on dummy’s established spade six.

Yes, South needed help on lead as well as some luck in the spot-cards, but he took advantage of his best chance to make the slam.

South’s inelegant (if practical) two no-trump opening saw North show four spades and longer hearts, but South insisted on no-trump, which led to a challenging declarer-play problem for him.

Declarer won the club lead in dummy with the 10 and called for dummy’s spade king. When East let it hold, declarer started on diamonds, and the 5-1 break came as a huge blow.

Declarer now needed a third trick from the majors. He led the heart king from hand, but East was wide awake and, after winning the heart ace, returned the heart jack to kill the dummy. He won the next spade, cashed the heart 10, West throwing a spade, and exited in diamonds. West let go of his last spade, and the defense had to come to two more tricks.

Once West had showed out on the second diamond, South should have dislodged the spade ace before touching hearts. East would win the second spade and would probably return a diamond, but declarer would be in the driver’s seat. He would win and lay down the heart king, which East would have to duck, in order to prevent South from accessing dummy’s winning spade.

However, declarer could now counter by cashing the club aceking (East pitching a spade) and throwing East on lead with a diamond. After taking his diamond winners, East would have to lead around to a major-suit winner at trick 13. Note that in this line declarer would have to guess whether to pitch a spade winner or unguard hearts on the last diamond!

West led a diamond against today’s heart slam from Britain’s Gold Cup, and East won his diamond king as declarer followed low.

Declarer was planning to squeeze West in the black suits after running all the diamond and heart winners plus the club ace. Alas for him, East smartly switched to the spade queen at trick two, attacking declarer’s entries. This maneuver could hardly lose, as declarer would not have played small from dummy if he were missing the club ace and could run the spades.

This defense cut declarer off from the diamond ace. If he wanted to cash it to tighten the end position, he would have to unblock the diamond queen and use up his final spade entry to dummy, killing the squeeze. Declarer tossed and turned, but could not find a way to counter this fine defense.

At trick one south might have unblocked the diamond queen under the king. He could then finesse the diamond 10 and cash the ace while the spade entry was intact. Now West would come under the desired pressure.

But if declarer had simply won the spade shift and run all six of his trumps, West would have had to bare his diamond jack in the six-card ending to keep the black suits guarded. That lets declarer overtake the diamond queen and cash the .

He reduces to a top spade and club queen-doubleton in dummy opposite the club ace and two spades in hand. West would be unable to keep two clubs and two spades, and declarer would come home if he read the position.

Even without a sixth diamond, South’s two-level overcall seems normal on today’s deal. North contented himself with a simple raise to five diamonds after West bid pre-emptively to four hearts. If four no-trump had been available to show a slam try in diamonds, he might have considered that.

When West led a heart, declarer saw that East and West had just 16 points between them, but he failed to follow through with this thought. He ruffed the opening lead in dummy, then crossed to hand with a trump to ruff his second heart. Declarer then continued with a low club from dummy, expecting East to hold the ace.

However, West captured the king with his ace and unkindly sent back a second club. East covered dummy’s 10 with the jack, and South won his queen. Declarer knew that East held the spade king for his opening bid but still desperately tried the finesse. As expected, it lost, and the club nine was the setting trick.

South played the black suits in the wrong order. For East to have an opening bid, he needed to hold at least one of the spade king or the club ace. After eliminating hearts and drawing trumps, declarer does best to lead a low spade from dummy. If East rises with the king, declarer has three spade tricks as home for two of his losing clubs.

If East plays low, South has no spade losers and can afford to concede two clubs. If West takes the spade jack with the king, then the club ace must be onside with East.

Today’s hand comes from the finals of the 1999 U.S. trials and shows Peter Weichsel in action, making a thoughtful assumption in the trump suit.

The final contract at both tables was two hearts by South, East and West having passed throughout.

At the first table, West led the club 10. East took the king and ace and played a third club, won in dummy with the queen. Declarer then led a heart to the jack, which looks to be the normal play. However, West won with the ace, cashed the spade ace, then played a fourth round of clubs, which East ruffed with the queen. This promoted an extra trump for the defense; they could now take three trump tricks in addition to their three black-suit winners, which spelled one down for declarer.

At the second table, the defenders cashed all three of their black-suit winners before playing a third club. On winning in dummy, Weichsel came to the conclusion that, after East had produced 7 points in clubs, he would not have both the heart ace and queen as well, because then he might have entered the auction. Weichsel realized how the fourth round of clubs could lead to the demise of his contract, so he continued on the assumption that East held the heart nine or 10 (or both).

Declarer called for the heart eight from dummy, and when East played low, he let it ride. West won with the 10, but now a club return could no longer lead to a trump promotion. Contract made.

The mathematical odds when missing four cards to the queen are to play for the drop, but the percentages are close enough that almost anything could influence the play.

In today’s deal, declarer opened a strong no-trump and was raised immediately to game since North had no reason to explore for any other contract. Life would have been easy on any lead but a spade, but when West led a fourth-highest spade two, declarer realized he needed to guess diamonds to have any realistic chance to make his game.

He started by leading the diamond nine and put up dummy’s king, then crossed to the club ace and led a diamond toward dummy. When West followed small, South paused to reassess the evidence.

West had led his long suit against three no-trump, and the spade two suggested he had only four cards in the suit. Was it likely that he had a doubleton or three hearts? South decided that if East had five spades and West four, with no longer suit on the side, West was more likely to have started with three diamonds than two. So declarer took the diamond finesse and came home with ten tricks.

It is hard to argue with success, so I won’t! I will say that, as declarer, you should not automatically assume that the opening leader is short in a critical suit just because he made the opening lead. After all, he has to have a long suit somewhere! If he is known to have five or six cards in the long suit, that is a horse of a different color.

When West led the spade 10 against three no-trump, it was ducked all around. Declarer won the spade continuation and dove into clubs. He could not afford to lose the lead to East, so one option was to cross to dummy and lead a club to the eight. That would keep East off play if he had precisely the doubleton king, but it would require him to hold a small club, not the jack or the 10. Worse, this line would provide only two tricks if West had kingthird, leaving declarer in a tight spot.

Declarer sensibly decided to play West for the club king, but when he cashed the club ace, West dropped the king! From then on, East could not be kept out of the lead, and declarer suffered a one-trick set.

South should have led a low club from hand, paying off to an unlikely singleton king on his right. It would do West no good to swoop in with the king, but if he played small, declarer would put up the queen. On the next round, East would have to contribute the jack — not the 10. South would then have to guess whether to win the ace, playing West for the three-card club holding, or duck, gaining on the actual layout. Knowing the spade position, declarer easily might have gone wrong.

Note that if South had held up the spade ace a second time, West would have been able to defeat the contract by force, by discarding the club king on the next spade (a far easier play to find with open cards than at the table).

Faced with settling for partscore via Stayman or inviting game with a transfer followed by two spades, North chose the latter. South closed his eyes and drove to four hearts.

East won the low diamond lead with the ace and shifted to the club queen, wisely ducked by South to cut the defenders’ communications. South won the club jack continuation, pitched a club on the diamond king and advanced the heart nine to the queen and ace (better than low to the 10, which would lose to East’s singleton honor).

When declarer called for a small heart from the board and East followed small, South had a tough decision. He did not believe West would have covered with the queen from queen-doubleton, since it might solve declarer’s guess.

Accordingly, South had to choose between West’s holding K-Q-8 and a singleton. Deciding that West might not cover with the former — as it might spare declarer a guess or crash East’s singleton jack — declarer inserted the heart six.

When West discarded, that was one hurdle crossed, but South still had to negotiate the spades. South knocked out the heart king, won East’s trump return in dummy and crossed to hand with a spade to ruff a club. After confirming the 4-3 split, declarer played a spade back to the king and advanced the spade three.

Since the opening lead appeared to have been from four, East had started with three clubs and four cards in each red suit, thus only two spades. So declarer finessed the spade 10 and made his game.