Mark Horton has a regular feature in which he features anonymous hands where declarer has not made the most of his assets. He analyzed today’s deal, which came up at the end of a short match in a major team championship.

South reached three no-trump after a 14-16 no-trump and transfer. When West led the club two, the obvious place for declarer to look for a ninth trick was in the heart suit. South opted for simplicity, cashing the heart king and playing a heart to the jack. East won with the queen and returned the diamond queen. Declarer took that with dummy’s ace and cashed the heart ace, but when West discarded a spade, South’s time was up.

It is hard to criticize declarer for choosing the simplest line, but in fact, there was no rush to go after the hearts. Rather than playing on hearts directly, declarer should have cashed three more rounds of clubs, discarding a diamond and a spade from dummy.

On the last club, East must keep all his hearts and will therefore have to come down to one spade or just three diamonds. If he pitches a diamond, then declarer can play on hearts as before, but will now lose no more than two hearts and two diamonds. However, if East pitches a spade instead, his king will now be bare, and declarer can cross to the spade ace before touching hearts, switching horses to set up his ninth winner in spades. In other words, hearts can wait, but spades cannot.

At the European Championship last year, the England team bid boldly, then played even better to create a swing from nowhere against Israel.

When Andy Robson overcalled in diamonds, he dipped his toe into 800 territory, and Tony Forrester pushed the boat even farther out. But their opponents ignored them and settled for four spades rather than the superior four hearts they would surely have reached without the intervention.

Forrester accurately led a diamond, which Amir Levin ducked, giving Robson a choice of defenses. He decided to continue with a top diamond on the basis that if a shift were correct, declarer would not have ducked — good psychology.

Levin now found a splendid play; he led his low heart from hand. If Robson won and returned a top diamond, declarer could use the heart king as his re-entry to hand to draw trumps, conceding just one trump trick. But if Robson returned a heart, declarer could lead out trumps from the top, again losing just one trump. He would take three top trumps, cross to the club ace and play the heart jack to pitch his diamond. In fact, the first round of hearts went to Forrester’s three (giving count) and dummy’s jack, so Robson ducked!

Now declarer played a second heart. Robson won with his ace and shifted to a club to dummy’s jack. All declarer could do was lead dummy’s top heart, pitching a diamond. Forrester ruffed and led a club for his partner to ruff, for down one.

This week’s deals all come from last year’s European qualifying event in Ostend, Belgium, for the World Championship this coming September.

Today’s deal is from the match between two of the favorites, Monaco and Netherlands. One table went low, one high. Where the Dutch played in three diamonds, Geir Helgemo cashed the club ace, then switched to the heart queen. Declarer Tim Verbeek won and played the ace and another diamond. Helgemo took his king and returned a club to the queen and king, so Verbeek drew trump then led the heart 10 to his king, took a heart pitch on the club jack, and ruffed a heart. There was a heart to lose at the end, so he had a quiet plus 130.

Where the stakes were higher, at our featured table, Bauke Muller started with the heart queen against three no-trump. Declarer Krzysztof Martens won with the ace and played two rounds of diamonds, Muller winning the king.

East, Simon De Wijs, showed out on the second diamond, discarding a discouraging club 10. Having seen a discouraging heart card at trick one and now knowing that declarer had good clubs, Muller tried the only suit left to him, finding the killing play of the spade jack.

That left Martens with no winning option. After some thought, he called for the queen, losing to the king. De Wijs returned the spade 10, and the defense established two more winners in the suit. Martens could play off his red-suit winners but could no longer make his game.

Today’s deal comes from the 1979 U.S. Bermuda Bowl playoff. Five diamonds would have been cold and six diamonds playable for East-West, but that was hard for East to find. West began the defense with two top diamonds, East throwing the club 10 on the second round. How would you have played the hand?

You need to take three heart ruffs in dummy, but entries to the South hand are limited. My old partner, Dan Morse, ingeniously discarded the club queen instead of ruffing, to leave West on lead. Morse ruffed the next diamond and cross-ruffed in hearts and clubs to reduce to a four-card ending with the lead in dummy, where East had all trumps while declarer had the A-K-10 of spades and a heart left.

When declarer played a club from the board, East had to ruff high. Morse over-ruffed and exited in hearts, taking the last two tricks on a trump endplay.

What opportunities had the defenders miss? First, West could have played a club at trick two to allow East to play a trump. Far harder, East could have beaten the game by ruffing the second diamond! Suppose declarer over-ruffs to prevent East’s trump shift, plays the heart ace and ruffs a heart, then leads the diamond jack. East will ruff again, and declarer can over-ruff and take a second heart ruff, but must play a club from the board. East wins his ace and remove dummy’s last trump. The defense scores no trump tricks, but they pick up two heart tricks and the minor-suit aces.

Lawyer Chuck Burger is one of the least-known bridge stars of America. He played for 20 years in most major tournaments with Jimmy Cayne. But here, Burger was playing in the quarterfinals of the Grand National Teams with Allan Falk, who was conveniently placed to record the events at their table.

South reached four spades after showing a weak hand with six spades at his first turn, and Falk led a diamond to the four and Burger’s queen. Things looked bleak for the defense, with trumps behaving and clubs well-placed, but Burger found the unpleasant switch to a low heart at trick two, which went to the 10 and queen. So at least Burger had put himself in a position to get two more heart tricks if he could get his partner on lead. Declarer next played the spade king from dummy, and Burger began his campaign of deception when he unblocked the queen.

Now declarer crossed to hand by playing the diamond ace and ruffing a diamond. When he laid down the spade ace, Burger dropped the jack! Now declarer knew he needed trumps to be 3-3. He played for what he thought was his best chance, that of finding Burger with the spade 10, by playing a third trump. Falk took this with his 10 and played a second heart, for one down.

Of course, declarer could have succeeded in the ending by playing on clubs. But he naturally assumed that this was less likely than Burger’s ingenious defense. He will know better next time.

In today’s deal from the Common Game, I assumed the role of innocent bystander, watching as a defender while declarer missed the best line for his contract.

I sat West, and when my partner opened two hearts in third seat, I heard a double to my left; I raised to three hearts to try to make a nuisance of myself. East doubled, denying spades, and South jumped to four spades to end a competently bid auction.

I led a low heart to the ace, won the next heart with the king and exited with the spade eight. Declarer won in hand, looking unhappy, then crossed to the spade 10, played the club ace and called for the club jack. I ruffed and exited with a spade, and now my side was sure to take the 13th trick, for down one.

Let’s look at declarer’s options here. He could not afford to draw trumps before playing on clubs, since the defenders were threatening to run hearts once his trumps ran out. But if declarer played the club king from hand, followed by another club, I could have ruffed and exited in trump for a safe down one.

The winning line was not too far from what declarer actually did. After winning the spade ace at trick three, he should cross to the spade 10 and run the club jack from dummy. If West wins the queen and gives a ruff-sluff, declarer can trump in dummy and cross to hand in diamonds to draw trumps. But if dummy’s club jack holds, declarer can draw trumps and play for the overtrick.

When the opponents pre-empt, they put you on notice that the other suits may not be breaking.

In today’s auction, our declarer judged wisely to balance with a call of two no-trump, suggesting a fairly balanced hand with significant extra values. Sadly, he bid the hand much better than he played it. After a top diamond lead, it took him no time at all to go down in three no-trump because he had ignored the warning signs from the auction. He captured the opening lead and fired out the club ace, and now when clubs went pear-shaped on him, he could not recover. He did his best to set up clubs, but the defenders held him to two clubs, three hearts and two diamonds.

A far better line would have been to win the diamond lead and follow up with a low club from hand toward the nine. If clubs break 2-2 or 3-1, declarer has nine top tricks now. When they do not, East will win the first club and clear diamonds. Declarer can win, overtake the heart king to take one club finesse, then overtake the heart jack to repeat the process. You finish up with only two heart tricks and two diamond winners, but you also have five clubs, and that is enough for your contract.

You have invested one possible club winner and one possible heart trick, but the dividends are wholly worthwhile — even at matchpoints, you might still follow this line.

Against three spades, West leads the heart queen, and South counts the missing high cards. He realizes that East surely has the heart king and therefore West holds the rest of the deck. The trump king and diamond ace are surely working. Declarer can give up one heart trick and eventually trump his last heart with one of dummy’s small trumps, but he needs to avoid losing two club tricks.

South ducks the first trick, wins the next with the heart ace and immediately leads the diamond jack. The idea is to force out the diamond ace and thus establish dummy’s remaining diamonds as winners. When West takes the diamond ace, East follows with a high spot card, warning South of the possible 5-2 break. West continues with the club king. South ducks, and when East discourages, West reverts to diamonds. Now after putting up the diamond king, declarer turns his attention to trumps. The spade king takes the first trump, and West continues with another high diamond spot.

Playing safe, a necessary precaution today, declarer ducks in dummy and ruffs in hand, then draws trumps, ruffs a heart in dummy and finally pitches his club loser on dummy’s diamond queen.

Can you spot the untapped defensive resource, which is considerably easier to find in the postmortem, but maybe one that we should all add to our repertoires? At trick one, East needed to overtake the heart queen, to make sure he could lead clubs through early on in the deal.

In today’s deal, South’s jump to three spades is not forcing. North might pass with a really bad hand. If he does, South would be better off staying out of game. But as it happens, North has more than enough to bid on. Lacking any spade support, North might try for game at no-trump, in which case South would have no reason to overrule his decision. In this case, though, North is correct to raise spades, since a club lead by East gives the defenders five tricks before declarer obtains the lead.

In four spades, South must win the first diamond in his hand, leaving dummy’s ace as a later entry for a heart trick. He next draws one round of trumps, but must then attack hearts by leading to the 10. West signals count, letting East know he should duck the trick.

When dummy’s 10 holds, South can get back to his hand using dummy’s remaining trump. He then draws East’s last trump and runs a few more for good measure. This cannot hurt him and may embarrass the defenders.

Finally, South leads his second heart to dummy’s jack. This time, East wins and shifts to a club honor, letting the defenders take two club tricks. But declarer now has the rest.

If South had drawn all the trumps before leading hearts, he would have been unable to cross back to hand safely after dummy had won the first heart. He would have had to lead clubs. The defenders would take their two club tricks and knock out the diamond king before South had the chance to lead a second heart.