There are advantages to being a pack rat (though it is possible my wife would not agree). Going back through my copious records, I discovered a deal from a national tournament of the 1970s.

The deal arose in the Spingold Trophy, where both tables declared four hearts. After the lead of the club jack to the king, East cashed the club ace and erred by playing a third club. That gave declarer a chance by allowing him to try to shorten his trumps and cope with a bad break. A diamond shift would have left declarer no chance as the cards lay.

Robert Lebi, then of Montreal, earned a 12-IMP swing for his team by ruffing and playing a heart to the ace. Believing East’s king was a true card (who would find the false card here?), he cashed the spade ace, ruffed a spade and took the diamond ace and king, before ruffing a diamond to dummy. After ruffing a spade to hand, declarer was down to the heart Q-10 and the diamond jack, while West had been forced to follow suit throughout and held J-9-3 of hearts. The diamond jack completed the coup: West ruffed and had to lead into the trump tenace.

The Lebi team won their knockout match by 11 IMPs when the other declarer was given the same chance at trick three but did not ruff a spade when in dummy with the heart ace!

For the record, in almost every variation, a diamond shift at trick two from East is either essential or at least as good as a club.

When a partnership has the Jacoby two no-trump available for slam-interested raises of partner’s major, the initial splinter jump tends to need partner to have real extras — or a perfect fit — to consider slam. In this case, when North jumps to four hearts (a splinter bid for this pair, not a natural jump), South has a highly suitable heart holding but a dead minimum, so he signs off in game.

On the lead of the heart queen, South should try to develop dummy’s clubs, but he can still fall back on a successful finesse in diamonds. So, he wins the first trick with the heart ace and draws trumps, ending in dummy.

South begins the clubs by leading toward the king, on which East alertly unblocks his jack. South takes his king, then leads a low club toward dummy. Since one club trick must be lost no matter what happens, declarer hopes to duck this trick to East. But whether he wins or ducks the second club, West will get in with his clubs and must then lead the diamond queen. He needs to hope his partner has the A-J-10, or that declarer will be unable to guess what to do with the cards lying as they do today.

If South ducks the queen (playing West for the Q-J-9), he is done for. But he should not do that, since West would probably have led a diamond at trick one with that holding. If South covers the queen, East should take his ace and return a low diamond. I don’t envy declarer his decision now!

When is a finesse not a 50-50 chance? When you take a finesse, your odds of success can vary enormously, depending on what you know about the rest of the deal, but you can tilt the odds in your favor sometimes by making the opponents lead the suit in which you need to take the finesse.

Today’s deal shows a hand that appears to depend on the diamond finesse, but you can sway the odds in your favor — and in some cases, avoid the diamond finesse altogether. In other cases, you can turn a 50 percent chance into something much better.

Against six hearts (reached after an insouciant but practical jump to slam), you capture the spade king with your ace and draw trumps, ruffing dummy’s spades in hand en route. The best sequence of plays may be to take two rounds of trumps, then the club ace-king, followed by a spade ruff, a third trump to dummy and a second spade ruff.

Now you lead the club nine from hand and concede the trick that has to be lost, hoping the defenders will give you something in return. If East wins the club, you are safe against any return. If West wins, he must lead a diamond, and you simply cover his card.

The slam will come home if West has either the queen or both the 10 and nine, since you will be able to take two finesses against those cards. In other words, careful play has improved your chances in the slam from one in two to something closer to two in three.

Gone are the days when South would buy the hand in two spades here. West’s shape outweighs his minimum values when it comes to protecting; if the opponents stop in two spades, he must balance and try to push them up or find a making part-score for his side. Similarly, North’s fourth trump persuades him take the push to three spades; then it is up to South to justify his partner’s confidence in him.

Declarer ducks the opening club lead, wins the next club in dummy with the ace and takes the trump ace and king, then ruffs a club to dummy and leads a heart to hand.

Since West has short spades, South assumes he must have a three-suited hand with no other shortage. Equally, though, he cannot have both missing top diamonds, or he would have doubled one spade.

South must hope East does not have the diamond queen. With no other information to go on, declarer might have led a diamond to the 10, but not today, since West surely cannot hold precisely a doubleton diamond queen. Instead, South leads the diamond jack from his hand. West must cover, or declarer will be out of the woods. Declarer puts up the king, and East takes his ace, then cashes his master trump and plays on hearts. South ruffs the third round and must now bring in all the remaining diamonds to make his game.

Since West has diamond length, it must be right now to lead a diamond to the eight, finessing against the nine. When the finesse succeeds, declarer is home.

Today’s deal sees North with enough values to drive to game facing a one-heart opening bid. Since he has a full opener and primary heart support, he starts by responding two diamonds, then jumps to four hearts to suggest a minimum game force and no slam interest.

Digressing for a moment, these aren’t my preferred methods. I’d like a jump to four hearts to be concentrated in the red suits with no controls in the black suits — but that isn’t a majority style.

Anyway, all routes lead to four hearts, and declarer should probably duck the initial spade lead, hoping to cut the defenders’ communications in spades if the suit is originally 5-2. He wins the next spade and plays a diamond to the king. When West gives count in diamonds East ducks the first round of that suit. Declarer now draws trumps in three rounds, then leads a second diamond. Regardless of which diamond declarer plays from dummy, East wins cheaply and returns a club. That lets declarer win in hand and play a third diamond. Now, since East has no spades left to lead, he must concede the rest after winning his second diamond trick.

If declarer makes the mistake of winning the first trick, the defenders will come to four tricks sooner or later. While there are lies of the cards where winning the first trick is necessary, they are few and far between: An original 5-2 spade break with the diamond honors misplaced is far more likely than that.

When North raises his partner’s spades, South does not want to commit the hand to four spades without contemplating three no-trump first. He bids three clubs in the hope that his partner can bid three no-trump, then raises himself to four spades when North signs off. It would be too hard to land on the head of a pin and pass three spades.

The defenders have no reason to do anything but lead three rounds of diamonds. Cover up the East-West cards and decide how you would play the hand as South.

It certainly looks as if you can play on clubs via a finesse or perhaps try to duck a club to West, and force a favorable lead from him. However, even if the club king is offside, which you expect from the fact that West made a simple overcall rather than a weak jump, you have excellent chances for 10 tricks, as long as you are careful.

You ruff the third diamond and play the ace and king of trumps, planning to eliminate hearts and throw West in with the fourth diamond if trumps break. When they do not, you ruff out the heart and play the spade queen. If West comes down to just one diamond and three clubs, you endplay him with the fourth diamond, pitching a club from hand. If he keeps two diamonds and two clubs, you play the ace and another club, and your hand is high.

The defense can prevail, but only if East ruffs the second round of diamonds to play clubs — and who would do that?

At the U.S. National tournament in Philadelphia last March, Sunday’s A/X Swiss Teams saw a match between the Sonsini and van Overbeeke squads. This resulted in an all-Dutch cast at one of the two tables. East-West were Bauke Muller and Simon De Wijs, while North-South were Maarten Schollaardt and Tom van Overbeeke.

In today’s deal, no game looks very promising, but in four spades declarer was lucky to find clubs blocked. On opening lead, De Wijs cashed the club ace-king, then played a diamond. (A trump is no better.) Now declarer pitched his club on dummy’s top hearts, ruffed a heart low in hand, then ruffed a diamond in dummy and ruffed a club high in hand as West pitched a diamond.

Now came a second diamond ruff and a second club ruff high (West underruffing), to reduce to a three-card ending where declarer had the Q-10 of trumps and the diamond queen left. Van Overbeeke led the diamond queen, forcing West to ruff and lead a trump into his tenace to concede the contract.

Perhaps West should have underruffed twice and unblocked the diamond king (in the hope that his partner had the diamond queen), but as the cards lay, the defenders could not get out of their own way. Give East the diamond king, and the double underruff would set the game.

Since three no-trump went down three in the other room, that was a huge swing to the van Overbeeke team.

At the Spring National tournament a year ago in Philadelphia, players came from all around the world to compete in the major events. The Vanderbilt Teams Trophy these days is roughly equivalent to a world championship, and the last eight teams could probably hold their own against most national teams.

This was a very nicely played deal by Tarek Sadek, a long-time regular on the Egyptian team, who had done well to reach the only playable slam on the North-South cards.

West accurately led a club; the lead of the six went to the king and ace. How would you have defended as East now? At the table, East returned the club jack. When given a chance to make his slam, Sadek made no mistake. The critical play was to pitch the spade jack from his hand at trick two, then ruff a small spade in hand. He could go back to the heart ace to ruff a second spade in his hand, then draw trumps and go to the diamond ace to run spades.

In fact, the defenders had two chances to beat the slam after the club lead. East could have removed a critical entry to dummy by playing either red suit, after which declarer would no longer be able to ruff out the spades. After a diamond shift (the best play, to remove the side entry to dummy), declarer could either play to ruff a diamond in dummy or for a spade finesse, allied to some additional squeeze chances. However, today, every line would fail.

When this deal originally appeared at the U.S. National tournament held in Philadelphia last year, it was called “Campanologist’s Delight.”

The author indicated that readers of bridge columns are always either advantaged or handicapped — depending on how you look at it — by the bell going off. When faced with a problem, the reader is always led to the critical decision and thus imperceptibly biased in his thought process. He is unable to play as he would have played if he had not been warned he was at the crossroads.

With that in mind, let us look at this deal from the second final session of the Rockwell Mixed Pairs. You sit East, and against three no-trump your partner leads a fourth-highest club five. You are allowed to win the queen and can see nothing better than to return the suit. Your partner wins the ace and returns the seven to clear the suit. Declarer wins the club jack and advances the diamond queen. Do you win or duck — and if you win, what do you return?

Answer: It doesn’t matter, because you can no longer beat three no-trump! If you failed to play the club 10 at trick one, you won’t beat the game. Your partner either has jack-sixth of clubs, in which case your play doesn’t matter at all, or his actual holding. If the latter, you want to persuade declarer to take his jack at the first trick, after which clubs will be ready to run.

Declarer can survive by not winning the club jack, but will he? I think not!