Today’s deal from the Yeh Bros. tournament last year is out of character for this column: While the play is easy, the bidding is unusual. But the auction shows how good players think, even in a relatively unfamiliar partnership.

When the Poles were eliminated from the main event, they swapped partnerships for the consolation event. Michal Klukowski and Piotr-Pavel Zakorski won it, having found their way to a grand slam with the splendid auction shown here.

The one-club opener didn’t promise a good hand, but it could have had short clubs. After North’s natural and non-forcing two-club response, Klukowski (South) set clubs as trump with his rebid, then bypassed his heart ace to cue-bid his spade ace, knowing that if North did anything but bid five clubs, he would have a heart control. Then Klukowski would bid the grand slam.

When North denied a heart control, Klukowski’s five-heart call showed the ace and promised interest in a grand slam. That would let his partner bid the grand slam, sign off with no extras, bid five spades with second-round control (which would be bad news) or do anything else appropriate. North’s five no-trump call was intended — and interpreted — as extra club length or an extra diamond control.

Klukowski now knew his partner had at least two spades and two hearts, so relatively short diamonds were guaranteed. If his partner had seven clubs, he would be almost able to claim the grand slam; as the cards lay, there were indeed 13 top tricks.

Today’s deal comes from the Swiss Qualifier at the Yeh Bros. tournament in China last year. The tournament is the biggest cash prize event on the regular calendar; it consists of a Swiss qualifying tournament followed by a knockout.

Today’s deal presents a defensive problem. Put yourself in the West seat and see what you would do. You start by leading the heart 10 against three no-trump; partner’s seven is discouraging as declarer wins the queen. South now plays a diamond to the ace, and partner’s diamond four is part of a style where echoing in diamonds would have been a further discouragement in hearts.

Declarer now passes the spade jack to you, partner’s four suggesting an even number. Can you think of a good reason not to win this — and what will you do next?

At the table, West took his queen and decided the play so far was consistent with declarer holding A-Q-J of hearts. So, he decided to go for the gold with a shift to the club king. I’m not sure what he intended to do if declarer had ducked — as he surely would have if this shift had been the best defense. But as you can see, this line of defense did not test declarer.

In the other room, Ivan Nanev for Bulgaria, sitting East, did not give his partner, Julian Stefanov, that problem. He followed with the heart jack to his partner’s lead of the 10 at trick one. There were no further complications in the defense now. When you think about it, how can that be wrong?

In today’s deal from the Yeh Bros. tournament last July, one South opened and rebid clubs, and played in two clubs. The other followed the sequence shown; readers can decide whose method of handling the South cards they prefer. But certainly, reaching four hearts while concealing the major elements of the strong hand has something to recommend it.

For Chinese Taipei, Sidney Yang led a top club, and David Yang (East) won the first heart to play back a club. Declarer Keyzad Anklesaria put in the 10, forcing the jack, and ruffed in dummy, then led a spade to the king and ace, and ruffed the next spade high. Now he lead a heart to the nine and got the good and bad news.

Next he played a low diamond from dummy; had East ducked, declarer would have put in the jack and led clubs to neutralize West’s trump holding, with a diamond re-entry to hand if West ruffed the first club. East actually took his diamond ace and played back a second diamond, but declarer could simply win in hand and run clubs through West for the trump coup.

Nicely played by declarer, but where the New Zealand team was defending four hearts on a similar auction, also on a top club lead, Matthew Brown as East won the heart king at trick two and shifted to a low diamond. To make four hearts now, declarer would have had to put in the jack — a tough but not impossible play. When he played low, he found himself stuck in dummy and could do nothing but led a spade to West’s ace, after which a diamond return for the ruff settled declarer’s hash.

Different partnerships play inverted raises (a system in which the direct raise of a minor in an uncompetitive auction is strong, while a jump raise is weak) in different ways.

South had agreed that the simple raise was forcing as far as three of a minor. Thus, his two-no-trump call was forcing, suggesting 12-14 or 18-plus. When he bid on over three no-trump, he showed the extra values, and North had such weak trumps that he had no reason to choose to play in the suit contract, especially because South could have moved on with a call of four clubs over three no-trump if he had wanted to set clubs as trump. That was a good idea today!

West put the spade jack on the table, and declarer won in hand and led a heart to dummy to advance a low club from that side. When East showed out, declarer saw that his only chance now would be to strip West of all his plain cards and force him to lead clubs at trick 12.

So he cashed his three remaining heart winners, West pitching his fifth club, after which three rounds of diamonds forced a spade out of West. South had a complete count of the West hand now, but when he took his last spade winner, he was locked in dummy, forced to lead a club and concede two of the last three tricks.

Too late, South realized that to make his slam he had needed to win trick one in dummy. Then, in the same three-card ending, he would have been able to lead a low club from hand, and West would have been forced to concede the last two tricks.

When East upgraded his 14-count into a strong no-trump, South came in to show the majors. He ended up in two spades when North wisely opted to find his partner’s better major and not to invite game. That was sensible enough, since these deals are so much more often about contesting the part-score than about reaching game in the teeth of a strong opening bid.

When West led a diamond against two spades, South flew up with the ace and ruffed a diamond to hand with a high trump (necessary as the cards lay, to preserve a possible entry to dummy) before leading a heart toward the queen. West took his king and shifted to a low club to the jack and ace. Now came a second heart to the nine and 10. Seeing dummy’s weak trump holding, East won and continued with the ace and another heart. That let West score his spade nine, but declarer was able to discard a club from dummy and eventually ruff a club loser on the board for his contract.

It would not have done East any good to continue clubs when in with the second heart, assuming declarer guessed correctly which club to play from hand (not so easy to do).

In fact, though, the only way to beat the game by force is to lead a trump to the first trick. This is often sensible when declarer has shown a two-suiter and you either have a strength in declarer’s second suit or can infer that your partner does, as is the case when he has opened one no-trump.

No one could be more enthusiastic than I about the merits of reading bridge hands in books and especially newspapers (a fact that may not entirely surprise you). However, when you do so, you will often be consciously or subconsciously aware that there is a critical play or kill-point in the deal. At the table, of course, the players may not hear the bell ring to tell them to focus their attention. By the time the bell does ring, it may be for their own funeral.

Consider the contract of four spades here. When West leads the heart king, East gives count by starting an echo, so West continues by leading out his high hearts. Would this seem like a critical moment in the deal to you? It should, since if declarer ruffs the third heart with dummy’s solitary trump, East will over-ruff, and a diamond return means that declarer cannot escape a diamond loser.

As declarer can afford to lose three tricks, it is sensible to retain dummy’s lone trump as an entry to the South hand to allow him to draw trumps. The discard of a minor-suit card from dummy at trick three solves the problem. A further heart lead by West can be ruffed in hand. Trumps will be drawn, and South’s losing diamond vanishes on a club.

Similarly, of course, the defenders cannot profit by shifting to a minor at trick four. After winning the trick in dummy, declarer can draw trumps, following which, once again, the losing diamond can be disposed of on a club.

After South opens one spade, North should want to drive his side to game. However, a jump to four spades sounds purely pre-emptive (a similar hand with less in diamonds, maybe). Depending on his methods, North might be able to show a side-suit singleton with less than game values, if using a jump to three no-trump as 9-12 with trump support and an as yet undisclosed shortage in a side suit. Or, he could use a call of three no-trump to show a constructive raise to four spades.

Either way, though, South should end up in six spades, and on a diamond lead, the timing of the crossruff may prove to be more than a little inconvenient.

My preferred line is to finesse the diamond queen and ruff away East’s king. Then the club ace and a club ruff followed by the diamond ace will allow South to re-enter hand with the heart ace for a second club ruff. A heart to hand for a third club ruff high lets declarer ruff a diamond high in hand, and a heart in dummy with North’s last top spade.

After 10 tricks (three diamonds, four clubs and three hearts), the lead is in dummy, which has three diamonds left, while declarer still has the A-8-7 of spades. Declarer leads a diamond and ruffs with the spade seven, not caring that West may be able to over-ruff. Even if he can, he will be forced to lead a card back into declarer’s spade tenace, and South will have his 12 tricks.

The modern defender has to have a number of weapons in his armory. These include a method of leading (top of honor sequences, fourth-highest from length, occasionally second-highest from four or five small against no-trump). Then he needs a system of signaling — high cards for an even number or encouragement — plus the judicious use of suit-preference signals. When attitude and count are irrelevant or already known, high cards suggest the higher suit, low cards the lower.

A hot potato when it comes to signaling at no trump is the Smith Echo. After the opening lead, each defensive hand can use this tool to reinforce whether they like that suit as soon as possible. Following to declarer’s first lead, when not giving count, a defender’s high spot card encourages the suit of the opening lead, while a low spot card denies extras in that suit. This signal can produce tempo problems – and sometimes the message can be conveyed in other ways, as in today’s deal.

Against three no-trump, West’s heart four went to the 10 and king. South played on clubs, West winning the second round as East echoed, to say he liked hearts. West now decided that South might be left with the bare heart queen, so he cashed the ace, which was fatal since it blocked the suit.

Note: If East had broken the bridge rules by playing the heart jack to trick one, then West knows that a low heart at his next turn is right, whether East has the queen or not, since South surely has the 10! West can subsequently overtake the queen to run the suit and defeat the game.

As bidding methods develop, it has become customary for new-suit responses to a two-club opener to promise good suits, so the response of two diamonds becomes a mark-time action. Players tend to avoid bidding two no-trump with a balanced hand, or they reserve the call for a different hand type altogether.

Today, though, South hogged the no-trump, and when he was unable to raise clubs directly, his partner closed his eyes and jumped to a contract he hoped South could make. This seems premature to me, since if South had held the doubleton club queen, there easily could have been 13 tricks on top. It would have cost nothing to bid four clubs, giving South the chance to cue-bid a second-round control.

When West led the spade 10 against the no-trump slam, South instinctively ducked in dummy, realizing too late that not only were the hearts now blocked, but the spades were too! He tried to recover by cashing his heart and spade winners then playing three rounds of clubs. However, when East was able to win and shift to diamonds, declarer had to play for his only chance of putting up the queen, so he finished an ignominious two down.

Had declarer paused for thought when it was necessary, he would have put up dummy’s ace at trick one, then unblocked his heart winners. Now come the clubs, and when they break 3-2, declarer can clear the suit.

The spade king represents the entry to the two heart winners, with the diamond ace still in place to reach the long clubs.