When West overcalled two clubs, North had a hand worth a drive to game, but he took it slowly in case there was slam in the offing. His three-club call showed a limit raise or better; over his partner’s discouraging three-heart call, he simply raised to game. South’s other options would have been to temporize with a three-diamond call — a “last-train” bid passing the buck to his partner, to jump to game or to make a slam try himself.

The defenders led three rounds of clubs, allowing declarer to ruff. Before he continued, South assessed the position and determined that unless trumps were incredibly hostile, he would have no further problems. He led a trump to the ace, expecting that if anyone were void in hearts, it would be West; that would leave him with a marked finesse in trumps. To South’s dismay, though, it was East who showed out. Can you identify declarer’s best plan from here on in?

He next eliminated diamonds by playing the king and ace and ruffing the third. When West followed suit to all three rounds, it was clear he could hold no more than two spades. So South cashed the ace and king of spades and exited with a trump.

In the two-card ending, West had only clubs left to lead. Declarer could ruff in one hand and throw the losing spade from the other.

Note that with this trump holding, it never costs to start with the ace; if West has the length, you can never pick it up, no matter what you do.

Today’s deal emphasizes the notion that rules are all well and good, but you have to know when to apply them. We are all accustomed to ducking our aces as declarer in a no-trump contract to try to sever the defenders’ communications. But there is a time and place for everything, and rules should not be applied unthinkingly.

When West led the diamond six against three no-trump, it might have seemed that ducking would help to sever the defense’s link in that suit. In fact, though, declarer must rise with dummy’s ace rather than duck — since this play blocks the run of the suit if West has led from five cards. East surely started with a doubleton honor; if West held KQJxx, wouldn’t he have led a top honor? Moreover, if the suit is 4-3, ducking won’t cut the defenders’ communications.

Declarer duly rose with the ace and continued with a small heart to the king, which was ducked, then led another heart, won by West. That player returned the diamond two to his partner’s queen, but East could now do no better than shift to the spade queen.

South won and needed just three club tricks for his contract. Again, playing safe, he cashed the club king, then finessed the 10, making sure that if he lost the lead, it would be to the safe hand, East.

His care was rewarded with an overtrick, but even if the 10 had lost to the queen, declarer would still have had three club tricks, three hearts, two spades and the diamond ace.

Today’s deal is the last thematic one of the week, all of which are concerned with negotiating a missing queen when you have the ace, king and jack.

Declaring three no-trump on the lead of the club jack to East’s king, you elect to win for fear of a heart shift. If that came, you would be forced to duck, after which a reversion to clubs might prove very awkward. Having taken the club ace, how do you plan to maximize your chances in spades and diamonds?

If you lead diamonds from hand, West will play low without concern, and East will win and continue with clubs. At this point, you will need to guess well to come home with nine tricks.

A better line is to pass the spade jack at once. When East wins, a heart might be best but if he returns a low club you duck — since West cannot lead hearts effectively. If West next plays either a heart or a club, you win and overtake the spade king to run the diamond jack. The defenders can win, but will have at most one trick to cash, as the card lie, before letting you back on lead. You can cross to the spade 10 and run the diamond 10, coming to two tricks in each black suit and five winners in the red suits.

Incidentally, if the spade jack holds, you are probably supposed to lead a spade to the ace and run the diamond jack. Then you can play for three diamond tricks to bring your total to nine. You will go down only when West has both diamond honors guarded and five clubs, in which case you are doomed no matter what you do.

Bridge writers occasionally introduce a deal as taking place in a local competition or in a knock-out match; this seems to be a way to add a touch of verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative. Be that as it may, today’s deal really did crop up in a knockout match, I swear on the bones of Saint Francis de Sales, the patron saint of journalism.

Both declarers missed the point of this deal — though one earned a consolation prize for envisioning the problem, even if he didn’t quite put the defenders under maximum pressure.

Each South reached slam after North had forced in diamonds then invited slam in four no-trump. In one room, South won the club lead in dummy and played a diamond to the jack, and now lost two diamonds and a spade.

In the other room, declarer won the heart lead and passed the spade jack. East thoughtfully ducked, confident declarer had four spades from his partner’s low spot-card on that trick.

Now declarer safety-played the diamonds by laying down the king, trying to protect against a 4-1 diamond break, and eventually lost a diamond and a spade. If East had taken his spade king, South might have guessed to start diamonds by playing the ace, after which he could have finessed against East’s remaining spots. (Without the diamond seven, leading low to the jack on the first round is the right play for no losers.)

But would East have ducked the first spade if declarer had first led low to the queen? I doubt it!

North’s heart intermediates in this deal persuaded him to transfer to hearts, then offer a choice of slams by his jump to five no-trump, after which South selected hearts, of course. North could simply have invited slam with a transfer, then a quantitative jump to four no-trump. Had he done so, South’s aces and trump support would have been just enough to let him jump to six hearts.

When West led the spade queen, declarer won in dummy and tested trumps by cashing the ace to guard against 4-0 breaks. Then he drew trumps, crossed to the spade king and found himself at a crossroads. A reasonable line might have been to lead a diamond to the jack, relying on the diamond finesse or the 3-3 break in that suit, with an unlikely minor-suit squeeze to fall back on.

Declarer spotted a slightly different way to make the defenders’ lives just a little harder. Instead of leading a diamond to the jack, he advanced a small diamond from hand and covered West’s card with the eight. When East won the trick, he was end-played, since a diamond return would let declarer claim the rest.

Hoping for the best, East led a low club to the queen and ace. Declarer next cashed the diamond ace and king; when the suit failed to behave, he fell back on his last chance, crossing to dummy with a trump and finessing the nine of clubs.

If East had instead exited with his club jack, declarer would have won in hand and eventually finessed West for the club queen, playing for split honors.

All this week’s deals have a thematic link in that they involve the negotiation of a suit in which you hold the ace, king and jack.

In today’s deal, South straight-forwardly reached the contract of three no-trump when he elected to treat his hand as worth an opening bid. The spade nine went to his queen, as East ducked to preserve communications in the suit. Declarer could count on two spade tricks, bringing his total on the hand to seven top tricks. What would you consider to be the right way forward?

The heart suit looks like the obvious one to go after, but South looked a little more deeply into the deal and realized that the best line in the heart suit might depend on the result of the break in clubs.

So, he cashed the three top clubs and found that he had four tricks in that suit. As a result, he needed only three heart tricks and could afford the safety play of winning the ace, then the king, then leading toward dummy’s jack. When the heart queen put in an appearance on the second round, declarer had his nine tricks without needing anything further.

Had clubs not broken, declarer simply would have cashed the heart king and finessed the jack in an attempt to bring home four tricks.

This deal is a fine example of circumstances altering cases; the best play in hearts is dependent on the number of tricks needed for the contract.

All of our deals have a common theme this week: how to play suit combinations that include the ace, king and jack.

This deal occurred in the final of a major national tournament, on Vugraph no less, so that declarer’s eventual embarrassment was evident to all when he missed the best play. Out of deference to the player (and perhaps partly out of concern about what might happen to my grandchildren if I mention his name) I shall preserve his anonymity.

North treated his hand as very strong and balanced, then tried to get out in diamonds, but South wasn’t in on the joke and eventually, much to his disgust, ended in a grand slam with only two trumps in hand.

Perhaps the auction influenced his line of play: He won the club lead in dummy, cashed the diamond ace, then came to hand in clubs to finesse the diamonds. The finesse won, but the 4-1 trump break was too much for him to cope with.

Of course, the percentage play with this trump suit is to take two finesses. Win the club lead and pass the diamond nine at once. When it holds, repeat the finesse and draw trumps, after which you have 13 tricks.

The reason this play is right is that if trumps are 4-1, with West having the length, it is four times as likely that the singleton is a small one rather than the queen. With any other lie of the diamonds, the question of whether you take the first- or second-round finesse is irrelevant.

All the deals this week have something in common. Each includes the theme that declarer has to tackle a suit in which he has the ace, king and jack. With holdings of this sort, there are multiple issues that might arise. You may need to keep one defender off lead (a concept generally summed up as “avoidance”). Alternatively, you may simply need to maximize your trick potential. Finally, as in today’s deal, you may be looking at a safety play, where you are prepared to invest a trick in order to ensure that you do not lose two.

When the opponents lead the diamond 10 against your club slam, you count three tricks in diamonds, bringing your total outside the trump suit to nine tricks. So you need only three club tricks to make your slam — in other words, the focus should be on avoiding two trump losers. (It’s true that if both clubs and spades fail to break, you might not have 12 top tricks, but a 4-1 trump break is far more likely than a combination of foul splits.)

The simplest route to making your slam is to win the diamond lead cheaply in hand and avoid the knee-jerk reaction of leading a club to the ace and a club back toward the king-jack. Instead, cash the club king and play toward the ace-nine, planning to put in the nine if West follows with a small card. If West plays the 10 or queen, you take the trick; but if he shows out, you win the ace and lead toward your jack. After that, it is smooth sailing.