In today’s deal, South’s response of two no-trump to an opening minor was forcing, so North simply raised to three no-trump.

West led a low spade to East’s king, and South carefully counted his winners before choosing his card. He had four tricks in the majors, and there would be either four or five diamonds, depending on the finesse in that suit. Additionally, there would be one or two club tricks, also depending on whether or not that finesse were successful.

That looks like at least nine tricks, but say South had taken the first spade trick and lost a finesse to the diamond king, East would have been able to return a spade. Now the defenders would take four spades and the diamond king, defeating the contract. So South had to duck the first spade trick, playing low from both hands. The idea of the holdup was to exhaust East of his spades. If East won the diamond king, South hoped he would be unable to return a spade.

When East continued with a low spade at trick two, South put in the jack and let West win his queen. Declarer took his ace on the third round of spades and discarded a low club from dummy. He next led the diamond jack and let it ride. As expected, when East won the diamond king, he had no spade to lead.

When East returned a club at trick five, South rejected the finesse, rising with the ace and running nine tricks without taking any unnecessary risk, a wise precaution today.

Today’s hand is from the 2014 Brighton Swiss Teams, and it features a squeeze that is hard to imagine when dummy comes down at trick one, but inasmuch as any squeeze can be said to play itself, this one develops along very straightforward lines.

A few partnerships did find their way to the small heart slam, which rolls home on any lead except a trump, since you can arrange to ruff two spades in dummy.

But it is a completely different story on a trump lead, plus a trump continuation when the defense regains the lead in spades. There will now be just one trump left in dummy to deal with declarer’s two spade losers.

After winning the trump lead, play the ace and another spade. Back comes another heart, but don’t give up. Simply ruff your third spade with dummy’s last trump. Then play the ace and king of clubs, followed by a club ruff.

Now you have two threats, one in each of the black suits, and you know clubs are guarded on your left. So you next run your trumps, keeping close count of the clubs.

When the last heart is played, everyone will be reduced to two cards. West needs to keep his club, therefore must reduce to just one diamond. Having done its duty, the club nine can now be jettisoned from dummy.

Over to East, who cannot part with the spade queen, so he also releases a diamond. Dummy’s diamond nine will win trick 13, and you will have executed a perfect double squeeze!

North’s first response here promises a good suit, so that once he raises spades, the route to slam should be easy enough. After West leads the club queen, you must plan the play.

You could rely on dropping the trump queen in two rounds, but that is only a trifle better than an even-money shot. A better chance is to play on hearts, hoping to set up a long card, while using dummy’s trumps for entries.

After winning the club queen with the ace, cash the heart ace and king, then ruff a heart with the trump king. Next continue with a low trump from hand! West does best to play low, and you win in dummy and continue by ruffing a second heart with the trump ace, because you like the spectacular.

A second low trump from hand sees West win the trump queen and probably exit with a club. After winning this trick with the club king, you draw West’s remaining trump by leading a third low spade to dummy. Since the heart seven has been established, you use it to dispose of your club loser. You make five trumps, three hearts and the ace-king of both minors.

While no line will bring you home if West has four trumps, this approach can succeed when East has four trumps — provided hearts are 3-3. In the latter case, East will have to use one of his trumps to ruff a heart winner; then you will be able to over-ruff and draw his last trump, ending in dummy to cash the remaining heart winner.

Today’s deal comes from the Common Game, but I have changed a spot card to focus the point of the hand. It is from a pairs game played all over the U.S.

The auction was highly unusual, with North lying in the bushes at his second turn, apparently prepared to play three clubs facing a weak hand, then driving to slam in no-trump when South showed four spades and a maximum pass.

West did well to lead a diamond, and declarer won in hand to lead a heart to the king. When it held, he cashed the club ace and king; and when West showed out, South decided that West was very unlikely to be short in spades. He made the excellent decision to cross to hand with the spade queen and lead a second heart. This time, West won the heart ace and continued the accurate defense by returning a diamond. That meant declarer was reduced to just one reentry to hand, and thus had to commit himself in spades right now. All declarer knew was that West had six hearts and one club and had led high then low in diamonds. But since the spots in diamonds had suggested that West had a doubleton and East had five, declarer took his life in his own hands and advanced the spade nine, running it when West played low.

Had West covered the spade nine, declarer would have been able to cross to the club jack and take the marked finesse in spades to bring home the slam without any guesswork.

Today is my final deal from Kit Woolsey’s excellent book, “The Language of Bridge.” This is certainly a very hard problem — and it involves a carding convention that may not be used by all my readers: third and lowest leads. Bear that caveat in mind while reading the deal.

You sit East, defending against four hearts, after South has jumped to game at his second turn. When your partner leads the spade queen, dummy plays low and you contribute the 10. Your partner now continues with the two, and when dummy plays low again, you take the nine as declarer follows suit.

It seems natural to shift to a diamond. But partner carefully chose his lowest spade at trick two. Not only must partner own the club ace for this play, but he also cannot have the diamond king or ace, or he would need a diamond shift.

So what is going on? Answer: West needs to know the right time to take his club ace. If declarer advances a club from his hand, partner won’t have the count in the suit, so he won’t know what to do. So you must give him the count yourself by leading the club two (playing third and lowest spot-card leads). Your partner would expect you to lead a small club with an odd number and a high club with an even number.

West will win his ace at once if you lead the club two; but if you lead the club nine, he will duck, playing declarer to have the hand shown, but with two small clubs and only six hearts.

Today’s deal is the second proposed to me by Jacques Guertin, and is almost identical to yesterday’s problem for East against three no-trump.

West again leads the spade six against three no-trump. Declarer wins with dummy’s queen and plays the club king. East ducks and sees West follow with the nine, then wins the next club as West follows with the two. What should East do next, and why?

Unlike yesterday’s deal, both West and East know holding up the club ace will not keep declarer from running the clubs, even if he has to expend an entry to dummy to do so. The real issue is what East should shift to after winning the club ace. Since both East and West know that, West’s card at trick two should specifically relate to that issue.

The Smith Echo is a signal designed to address that question, but be aware it can be played in many ways, and is very tempo-sensitive. Partnerships using it must try to follow in tempo in critical positions, and should be careful to plan their defense at trick one.

If you decide to play it, I suggest you use it as originally written. At no-trump when a count signal is not relevant, an immediate echo by West — in the suit declarer plays on first — asks for a shift. But East’s echo shows extras in the suit his partner led.

So West’s echo in clubs here shows no interest in a spade continuation, and East must win the club ace and play on diamonds. Had West not echoed, East would have led back a spade.

A regular reader of this column is Jacques Guertin, formerly of Canada, but now a resident of California. He asked me how to solve a specific defensive problem, but to properly address it for my readers, I will have to run two deals that appear very similar at first glance.

Let’s look at the possibly simpler of the two examples and postulate that West leads the spade six against three no-trump. Declarer wins the queen as East follows with his lowest spade, discouraging and specifically denying possession of the jack (as well as the ace and king, of course). Now declarer plays the club king, West giving count with the two. When dummy has no entries, West must let East know how many clubs he has, so that East will hold his ace until the right moment.

When, as here, West gives count at his first turn, he must use his second card as suit preference. So when he follows with the club nine (clearly the higher of his remaining clubs) on the second round of clubs, East knows to continue with spades to try to run that suit on defense rather than shifting to diamonds.

Having raised the issue of signaling on defense, it seems like a good moment to discuss the Smith Echo, a defensive signal against no-trump. As we shall see tomorrow, the defenders may be able to signal like or dislike about the opening lead by how they follow to declarer’s lead. Specifically, the opening leader can suggest a shift, and third hand can encourage the opening lead. More on this tomorrow.

Has it ever occurred to you that the act of setting bridge problems has something in common with Schrodinger’s Cat? I thought not. Maybe that is too eggheaded a comparison, but there is something to be said for the idea that solving a problem written down on paper is not the same as doing so at the table, because by giving someone a problem and making them aware that there is a catch, it ceases to be as much of a problem.

Enough of such nonsense: let us look at today’s deal, where I suspect if you were to encounter the hand at the table in four spades, a sizeable percentage of the population would ruff the opening lead and draw trumps, expecting to be able to claim 10 winners. But in problem-land, as opposed to real life, wouldn’t you expect something to be rotten in the state of Denmark?

If trumps are 4-1 with West having the length, you appear to be in deep trouble. What happens if it is East who has the long trump, with diamonds also breaking in unfriendly fashion? To solve the problem of transportation between your two hands, ruff the club king, then cash the spade ace, unblocking dummy’s spade nine. Take the spade king, unblocking the spade 10 from the board, and lead a diamond to the queen. You can next finesse the spade eight, draw the last trump and claim.