This week’s themed deals are based on mandatory falsecards in defense. When it cannot deceive partner, or if doing so will not matter, it may pay to try to lead declarer astray.

South somewhat prematurely committed to six spades instead of six diamonds here; then he had to make it. Having taken the heart lead in dummy, he focused on bringing the trumps in for one loser. There would be no problem on a 3-2 break, so declarer turned his mind to the possibility of a 4-1 split.

The percentage play here is simply to finesse the jack, gaining against the four cases of queenfourth onside compared with the one instance of a bare queen offside. This is what declarer would have done if West had followed lazily with the two. But West tried the effect of contributing the 10 at his first turn, offering declarer an alternative.

Seeing that he could now protect a singleton 10 to his left, declarer rose with the ace and returned the jack — and was mightily discomfited when East showed out.

South was just a little naive here. When the spade 10 or nine appeared, rising with the spade ace was playing against the odds. And note that South had an extra chance even if he finessed into East’s four-card suit. After a club return, declarer would win in hand, cross to the trump ace and diamond king to ruff hearts, then try to run the diamonds. If East had been forced to follow to three diamond leads, declarer would have finished in dummy at trick 12 for a trump coup.

In a high-level teams game, both tables reached four hearts on the lead of the club three. Both declarers played low from dummy, and East inserted the club 10. Each declarer won the first trick in hand and guessed well to lead a low trump. After winning the ace, both Wests continued clubs to dummy’s jack and East’s king. The defenders continued the accurate play by cashing the spade ace, then forcing dummy with a club.

At the first table, declarer ruffed low, then drew trumps with the jack, king and ace. After cashing the spade king-queen, declarer took a diamond finesse; when that held, he called for the diamond ace. When East discarded a spade, declarer had to concede the setting trick to the diamond king.

The second declarer, warned by the premature appearance of the trump ace, ruffed the third round of clubs with the heart nine and continued with the trump jack. He realized that the contract would depend on West holding the diamond king, and that entries to hand were at a premium, so when East followed with a low trump, declarer overtook dummy’s jack with his queen. Now he was in the right hand to take the diamond finesse. Once that succeeded, declarer led dummy’s trump four to his eight.

After drawing the last trump, declarer cashed his spade winners, then led a diamond to the 10 and jack. The diamond ace was his 10th trick: he had made two spades, three trumps, three diamonds, a club and a club ruff.

After West’s weak jump overcall, North’s cue-bid of three spades promised a game-going hand with at least three hearts. Despite South’s discouraging signoff in game, North continued rather optimistically to what proved to be the delicate slam.

West led the spade king to dummy’s ace, and declarer paused to form a plan. Declarer saw that even if trumps were 3-2, he would only have 11 top tricks. He rejected the idea of ruffing a spade low in dummy as hopeless, and saw that a squeeze on West between spades and a minor suit was impractical because of his need to find trumps breaking.

With known spade length to his left, declarer realized that pressure on East was possible but the key would come from scoring all his small trumps in hand. So he continued by cashing the two top hearts in his hand, followed by the club aceking. After ruffing a club, declarer returned to dummy with the diamond queen to ruff the fourth round of clubs. Declarer next cashed the diamond aceking, then led the fourth diamond from table. When East followed suit, declarer ruffed with his last trump.

At this point, declarer had taken one spade, two trumps, three ruffs and the five minor-suit winners, with the master trump still in dummy.

This line needed West to have either one or two trumps and East to have at least four cards in each minor. If that was not so, East could ruff a minor-suit card and leave declarer with a spade loser.

Eric Greco won player of the year for the ACBL by virtue of a series of outstanding finishes in the major events in 2018. I first registered Eric’s talent when he played for the U.S. Juniors over 20 years ago; here he is at work from the finals of the 1997 World Junior Team Championships. It was somewhat ironic that he found one of the best plays of the tournament here, to hold his losses on the deal to 5 IMPs.

In four spades on the opening lead of the heart 10, Greco rose with the king and ran the diamond 10. He won the heart return in dummy, and then passed the diamond nine after a lot of thought.

His plan was to set up the diamonds without letting East in. That would work if hearts were 5-2, but if hearts broke 4-3, there might easily be a trump promotion on the 13th heart.

All was well, since Greco had read the cards correctly, and West had no heart to lead when he took the second diamond. West exited with a club, and declarer ruffed, cashed the top spades and led the fourth diamond to pitch the heart loser to make the hand. Alas for USA, four spades doubled was let through in the other room when the first three tricks started the same way, but declarer then came to hand with a top spade to lead the diamond ace. West forgot to unblock his other top diamond on this trick, so East could not get in to cash the hearts, and the play transposed back to Greco’s line.

After some aggressive bidding from almost everybody at the table, West led a top spade against five clubs and shifted to a heart. When East won and returned the suit, South saw that it would be suicidal to try for a heart ruff in dummy, since West was all but certain to ruff in ahead of dummy. So declarer banged down the club ace-king and breathed a sigh of relief when the suit split.

Since his heart seven was surely going to be a menace against East, declarer could see that both opponents were going to be squeezed dry on the run of the trumps. West was in sole possession of the spade guard, so who would be able to hold onto the diamond guard?

On the last club, everyone came down to three cards. West had to keep the spade ace and reduced himself to two diamonds. When dummy let go of the spade queen from the board, East came under the gun. He had to allow declarer his game-going trick by unguarding one of the red suits.

Hard as it may seem, West could have attacked the entry to the double menace by shifting to diamonds at trick two, or East could have broken up the timing for the squeeze by ducking the first heart.

I suppose East might have figured out that even if South had four hearts, the heart losers were going nowhere. And if declarer held the diamond ace-queen, they would have to be doubleton. So, ducking the first heart must be right, hard as that might seem.

This hand came along at the 2017 Vanderbilt Trophy in the North American Spring Nationals; at the wheel was Jan Jansma of the Netherlands.

West opened the bidding light, then compounded his felony with a support double to show three hearts. This didn’t keep North-South from reaching the spade game, though, after North made an unassuming cue-bid. South suggested no-trump initially, then despite his partner’s retreat to three spades, he awarded himself a fourth spade.

It is difficult to consider any lead other than a top diamond from West’s hand, and it was the king that was tabled. West switched to his singleton trump at trick two, but it came too late. Jansma won with dummy’s ace, finessed the heart queen successfully, cashed the heart ace and ruffed a third heart low in dummy.

Then, planning to ruff his last heart in dummy, declarer played a low club toward his queen. Divining declarer’s intentions, East rose with the ace and played another trump. This served to give declarer a 10th trick, but it was not immediately clear how South could make use of it, given the club blockage and the lack of a side-suit entry to dummy. However, South drew the rest of East’s trumps and cashed his own club queen. He then exited with his last heart. East won with the king, but with no diamonds remaining, he was forced to resurrect dummy’s club king for the game-going trick. East had been used as a stepping-stone to reach dummy’s stranded winner.

In today’s deal, West’s weak jump overcall only served to help declarer place the cards. Having found out his side had all the keycards, North asked for the trump queen. South knew his partner was interested in a grand slam, so with the queen and a source of tricks, South needed no further encouragement to go for the big prize.

West, unwilling to risk a pointed-suit attack, led a safe trump, ducked in dummy. When East showed out, South could count only 11 tricks. One line might have been to ruff clubs in dummy. However, the combination of West’s overcall plus his known trump length marked him with a minimum of 10 red cards, and therefore no more than three in the black suits.

Still, the corollary to West having these red-suit cards meant that East had an equivalent number of black-suit cards, which might render him ripe for a squeeze. South saw that he could generate one extra trick from a dummy reversal. He won the trump lead with the ace, cashed the heart queen and led a spade to the ace (West following suit, to declarer’s relief), then trumped a spade with the jack. A diamond to the ace was followed by another spade, this time ruffed with the 10. Declarer next led his last trump, the seven, and overtook it with the eight.

The heart king pulled West’s last trump, and East was squeezed. That player could not retain four clubs and two spades. Rather than watch East squirm, South showed him his hand, and East conceded defeat.

In olden days, South would bid a forcing two-no-trump call in response to one heart. These days, this call tends to be reserved for forcing heart raises; South should instead introduce his diamonds.

North then has a rebid problem. I wouldn’t want to bid two no-trump with three small clubs, and I prefer to raise diamonds only with four trumps or some extras, though a three-card raise in an unbalanced hand is possible. Here, repeating the hearts looks best.

Against three no-trump, West leads the spade jack, and declarer sees he has just six top winners. His extra tricks will be from a red suit, and diamonds seem like the most promising direction. While the hand is likely to present no special problem, South must still keep his eye on the ball.

South wins the first spade in his hand, but he must not advance the diamond queen. Instead, at trick two, South leads a low diamond toward dummy’s ace, then plays a diamond to his queen. If the suit breaks 3-2, his problems are over. When West shows out, declarer must go back to dummy to make another diamond play. He cannot afford to take the heart finesse; if it lost, a spade back might doom him.

Instead, he leads a low heart from his hand to dummy’s ace and plays a third diamond. East returns the spade queen to dummy’s king, and declarer will cash out his nine tricks. Note that the 4-1 diamond break means declarer will go down if he leads the diamond queen at trick two.