This deal comes from a pairs event at a national tournament, and it features two experts in a high-level game of chicken. It was Roger Bates and Chris Willenken who crossed swords here — and Bates prevailed in the end.

After a simple auction to three no-trump, Bates received the heart jack lead and immediately passed the diamond eight. Willenken ducked it, thereby doing his best to get his name in the papers. Now if declarer repeats the diamond finesse, he will go down.

But Bates knew his defenders were capable of the ducking play from any holding that included the jack. The opening lead made it relatively unlikely that West had four diamonds to the jack, and who would want to fall victim to such a play? You’d never hear the end of it!

So he rejected the second finesse, playing diamonds from the top and emerging with 10 tricks. Nicely defended, but it was Bates whose name was recorded in the “highly commended” column.

For the record, if East wins the diamond jack at his first turn, it makes it easy for declarer to establish the suit. The defenders can subsequently duck the diamond ace for as long as they like, but dummy still has an entry in the form of the heart ace, which will grant access to the rest of the diamonds. Ducking in a suit where the defenders have two stops (normally the ace-king or ace-queen) is often effective when dummy has just one entry to a long suit.

Today’s hand posed a challenge in both the bidding and the play. Three no-trump is not a bad contract — it needs the opponent’s spades to split 4-4, or for the diamond finesse to win. Of the seven-card fits, four hearts may be an easier game to play, but five diamonds certainly has plenty of chances. At the table, though, the winning play was far from obvious, and declarer missed it completely.

Against the diamond game, West led the spade queen, and declarer felt that his best chance lay in ruffing spades on the table. He won, trumped a spade, came to hand with the heart ace and trumped another spade. Now, stuck in dummy, he cashed the club ace and ruffed a club. He followed with the diamond ace, king and jack, but when West took his queen, he was able to cash the spade jack and lead another spade. That forced declarer and allowed West to score his small trump to defeat the game.

It would not have not helped South to ruff only one spade before starting on trumps; then he would lose two spades and a diamond. But declarer can succeed by the unusual expedient of ducking the opening spade lead, a play cynics would say crops up more often in books than at the table.

Say that West switches to a heart; South wins the ace, ruffs a spade and plays a trump. He has retained complete control and loses only one trick in each of the minors. He emerges with four diamonds, four hearts and two black aces, plus a single spade ruff.

Against four hearts, West led the club king, and on seeing dummy’s singleton, switched to the spade jack. South won with the queen and could now see 10 tricks, as long as trumps broke 3-2. The heart ace was followed by another heart to the king. South now decided he had to guess the diamonds correctly in order to make his game. As the cards lay, his line was going to generate either nine tricks or 11.

Based on his knowledge of the heart layout, Declarer continued with the diamond king, then led low to the 10. Upon winning with the queen, East returned a spade, which was won by the ace. A club was ruffed in dummy, and the trump queen was cashed, but when declarer followed up with a diamond, East ruffed in and played a spade for the setting trick.

There are two better lines here. One is to draw trumps with the king and ace. Now you can lead a diamond to the 10 with the communications in diamonds still in place. But a far better line is to draw three rounds of trumps, then take the diamond ace. Next lead a low diamond from dummy. If East can trump in, he would just be ruffing a loser. If East follows (or discards), take the king and play a third diamond. Either defender may be able to win and return a spade. However, you simply take your ace and play the established diamond jack, discarding dummy’s losing spade. East may ruff, but that will be the last trick for the defense.

This deal dates from a time when North was able to bid clubs naturally at his second turn. These days some would play a three-club call as showing a second negative, with two no-trump natural.

The double of the Blackwood response doesn’t affect South’s plans. In Key-card Blackwood, the first step that isn’t a signoff asks for the trump queen. When North denies it, South settles for the small slam.

South wins the opening diamond lead and plans to cash the spade ace and king, then pitch the diamond loser on the hearts. When the first round of trumps draws the jack from West, this does not have to be a true card (West might have one, two or even three trumps), but in almost all eventualities, the spades can probably wait. Declarer takes two top hearts to pitch dummy’s diamond loser, and East ruffs in.

He plays back a diamond, which declarer ruffs in dummy, then pitches his last diamond on the club ace. When he leads the spade 10 from dummy, East follows low, and declarer is faced with a guess in trump. Should he play for West to have begun with the bare spade jack or the doubleton queen-jack?

Since West appears to have three or four diamonds and five hearts, while East has five or six cards in those two suits, it feels right to me to finesse. And the percentages indicate that too (reinforced by the Principle of Restricted Choice, which I’ll discuss later this month.)

After finessing in spades, declarer can draw trumps and claim the rest.

In today’s deal, you are faced with the once-in-a-lifetime problem of how to deal with a balanced 29-count. Opposite the wrong hand, even four no-trump might struggle, but you can hardly do less than advance to that level. North has extras beyond the Yarborough he has promised so far, so he drives to slam. The balanced natures of the two hands and lack of entries to the dummy pose a real problem if spades do not break. After the lead of the diamond jack to your king, how should you move forward?

The best move, after taking the appropriate time to get a proper read on the table action before winning the first trick, is to advance the club queen next. If this is taken, you have 12 tricks. So let’s suppose it holds; unless you are playing against seasoned campaigners, you should be able to form an impression as to who has ducked the king.

If, as is the case today, you get no perceptible reaction from East, you may decide that West has the king. Either way, you cash the hearts and watch the discards. West will probably pitch a club and a diamond, so now you cash the diamond king.

Finally, you play the three top spades from your hand, overtaking the third with the ace. If the suit breaks, you have 12 tricks; if it doesn’t, you have reduced to a three-card ending in which your best bet must be to try to throw West in with a spade to lead away from his club king.

West leads the trump seven against your club slam. What is the best way to bring home your contract?

If you take six heart tricks, you should find a route to 12 tricks; but if you have only five heart tricks and one spade, you need to take two ruffs in one hand or the other.

The best plan is to win the trump in hand with the ace, then cash the spade ace and ruff a spade. Next, cross back to dummy with a low trump to the 10. When trumps reveal themselves to be 3-2, you can take some measures to protect against hearts being 4-1. Suppose the full deal is something like the one shown in the diagram.

Your next move should be to ruff dummy’s last spade with the trump queen. Then lead the heart king and overtake it with the ace to draw the opponents’ last trump with the king.

All that remains now is to force out the heart queen by leading dummy’s hearts from the top. East can win the heart queen now or later, but you will ruff his return and run the remaining hearts from the top. You make a spade, two spade ruffs, five hearts and four trumps for a total of 12 tricks.

If trumps turn out to be 4-1, you need West to hold the heart queen with no more than three cards. So when in dummy with the trump 10, draw the outstanding trump with the king and jack, then play on hearts and hope for the best.

In today’s slam, if diamonds are 4-3, you can establish the suit and set up a discard. You win the diamond ace at trick one, draw trumps, cash the club ace and ruff a club. When you ruff a diamond to hand, East’s 10 warns you that perhaps the diamonds are not going to break. Indeed, when you cross to the heart eight and lead another diamond, East discards a club. How will you continue?

Since you can no longer establish a diamond winner, you must instead focus on a spade-diamond squeeze against West. One idea would be to reduce West to the doubleton spade king and a master diamond, and throw him in with a diamond. However, because South has the long trumps, there is no entry to dummy to achieve the throw-in. You must aim for a simple squeeze, and that requires you to duck a trick to tighten the screws on West.

If you think about it, you will realize that the only convenient moment to rectify the count is now! Discard a spade on the third round of diamonds, and West will win the trick. He can exit safely with a top diamond, which you ruff, but he will have no answer when you run the trumps.

His last three cards will be the spade K-J and the diamond jack sitting under dummy’s doubleton spade ace and diamond nine. He must discard the spade jack to ensure that dummy’s diamond isn’t high. You will then let go of the diamond nine from dummy and score the last two tricks with the spade ace and queen.

Some players derive more pleasure from making their contract by a swindle than by executing a textbook play. It’s even more gratifying to achieve the coup against opponents who could use a remedial class at charm school.

In today’s deal, South opened two clubs, and after neither player held back, the final contract was seven hearts. West led his lone trump, and though only 12 top tricks were in view, South was not going to give up lightly. He won and played six more trumps, discarding two spades and a diamond from the table.

In the six-card ending, both defenders had kept all their clubs; West had also kept the guarded spade king as East pitched four diamonds, then the spade nine. Perhaps East-West’s signaling methods were not the most accurate, but when declarer took the diamond ace, West bared his spade king to keep the clubs, and the defense was over.

Declarer unblocked spades, came to the club ace and took the last three tricks with his spades. Then, having scored up the board, he could sit back and enjoy the East-West allocation of blame.

Where would you put the responsibility, and how can the defenders do better? Once they see declarer’s seven hearts, each defender can count his 12 top tricks. Both should see that when neither discards a club, their partner has four. So East must keep clubs, and his partner must pitch them to protect spades. Maybe at trick eight, West can work out what to do, but it isn’t easy.

In today’s deal, South opens one spade, and West overcalls two clubs. North can double to show values and the unbid suits. South now wants to get to a game, but does not know which. He cannot bid no-trump without a club stopper. Spades seems a likely prospect, but there may be a 5-3 heart fit, or his partner may have a club stopper.

South’s three-club cue-bid asks North for more information about his hand. When North shows his diamonds, South repeats his spades, and North raises to game to end the auction.

South ruffs the third club and must then look for the safest way to make his contract. If South simply lays down his three top trumps, he will be left with just the trump 10 while West has the jack. South will then have to start on the diamonds, and if East gives count, West will wait until the third round of diamonds to ruff in. West will exit safely with a club, and South will have to surrender a heart trick for down one.

The solution is to give up the trump trick at a time when the opponents are unable to return a club. In other words, there must still be a high trump left in dummy when the trump is given up.

So, South crosses to a top diamond at trick two and leads a spade to the 10! West can take the trump jack, but if he returns a club, dummy’s spade eight will protect declarer against the force. If West returns a diamond or heart, South can win, draw trumps and take the rest.