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.

This is the last of the week’s examples of manipulating a trump fit missing the king. Here, South’s three-no-trump call offers a choice of games. North is allowed to pass, though he would normally convert to four spades with four-card trump support, if not owning a completely square shape or terrible trumps. Today, though, North might see the possibility of a club ruff in his hand.

As declarer in four spades, you cover the lead of the club jack with the king, win the club continuation and lead a heart to dummy for the winning spade finesse. It looks best now to take the diamond ace and spade ace. If the king does not fall, eliminate your clubs and hearts, then play a second diamond, hoping West began with the doubleton diamond king and just two spades. If so, he will be forced to lead a club or heart and let you pitch your third-round diamond loser.

As it happens, the spade king falls, and declarer can draw trumps and claim 10 tricks. Should anything different have happened?

Maybe, though much may depend on the ability (actual and perceived) of South and West. When declarer leads a trump to the jack, West has an obligatory false-card of dropping the nine or 10; this costs nothing and may create a losing option for declarer. If South has not encountered this maneuver before, he may decide to play West for a singleton or the doubleton 10-9 of trumps, then cross to dummy to lead the spade queen in an attempt to pin the remaining intermediate.

Manipulating a trump suit that includes the ace, queen and jack (with or without the 10 and nine) has many possibilities. Sometimes even the eight and seven play a role in determining best practice. Take a look at today’s deal.

With no violently bad breaks in the side suits, a four-heart contract appears to hinge on either the spade finesse or trumps playing for no loser. After a top club lead from West, there is no reason for declarer to delay going after trumps. What is his best approach to play the suit for no loser, in case the spade finesse fails?

As we have already seen this week, there are positions in which you should lead low to the 10, guarding against the singleton king with East. But that is not the case here; declarer must worry about the three small singletons with West as opposed to the singleton king with East.

To guard against the more likely case, declarer must first run the trump queen or jack from dummy. When it holds, he must repeat the finesse by leading the other top honor from the board. Leading to the 10 on the second round of trumps would leave East with a sure trump trick today.

When East covers on the second round of trumps, declarer wins in hand, discovering the bad break, then knocks out the diamond ace and wins the club return to pitch a spade from dummy. He can take a third trump finesse and lead the spade queen from hand, losing to the king, but virtually ensuring he can take the rest of the tricks.

When West pre-empts to three diamonds over the strong no-trump, it may inspire North to contemplate exploring for slam. But his four-diamond cue-bid in support of hearts leaves South cold, and North wisely subsides in game — which may yet prove uncomfortably high if South does not take the proper precautions.

After the lead of the club eight, South plays low from dummy and takes East’s 10 with his king. He plays back the diamond queen for West to capture and return a second club, won by dummy’s ace.

Now the only real danger to the contract is losing two trump tricks; to guard against that, South leads the heart jack from dummy, covered all around, then goes to the spade ace and finesses in trump by running the seven if East plays low. If the finesse should lose to the nine or 10 in West’s hand, then trumps will have broken 3-2, and declarer will be able to get back in soon enough to draw the last trump. Should East split his intermediates on the second round of trumps, declarer has complete control. He can simply give up a club trick and play on trumps, to knock out East’s winner and eventually to draw his last trump.

If the defenders lead and continue diamonds at every turn, conceding a ruff-sluff in the process, declarer should be able to take six tricks in the plain suits and maneuver to take three trump tricks in one hand and a ruff in the other. Again, though, declarer must start trumps by leading the jack initially.

The common theme that runs through the deals this week is how to tackle a trump suit where you are missing the king but not the queen or jack. The simplistic answer would be to say, “Finesse against it!” But sometimes you must look beyond the major honors to find the winning line, as in today’s example.

Your contract of four spades looks sound enough; but when West leads the heart nine and East wins his king to return the suit, your chances appear to have come down to the trump finesse. Is that the full story, or is there more to it?

While you clearly need the trump finesse, you should carefully consider whether you also need the trump break, and if so, whether you can protect against any or all 4-1 breaks. Your lack of trump intermediates produces a stark conclusion: If East has four trumps to the king, you are doomed no matter what they are. Therefore, you should ignore that possibility and instead focus on the one 4-1 break that you can actually cope with. Lead a low trump toward the A-10, planning to cross back to the diamond king and to repeat the trump finesse if the first finesse holds.

That may seem straightforward enough, but consider that if the seven and six of spades were switched, now you might be able to handle West having either the bare eight or nine in that suit — assuming you’ve husbanded your resources carefully. We will be discussing that very theme later this week.

Setting a trump suit after using Stayman over 1NT may not be complex, but it does require discussion. The key is that using Stayman and jumping to four no-trump after hearing a response in a major is best used as quantitative without a fit, because you really have no other way to show that hand. Conversely, to set partner’s major as trump after you find a fit, bid the other major at the three-level. Since you can’t be looking for a fit there with a five-card suit (or you’d have begun with a transfer), this simply sets trump and shows interest in slam.

In today’s deal, North-South use this identical structure over a two no-trump opener; as South, you drive to six spades after your partner shows extras. When West leads the heart ten, you determine that you will need one black suit or the other to behave well. How can you maximize your chances?

Although you can come home easily when the trump king is doubleton onside, as here, you should also be able to succeed when East has three trumps instead of two, as long as you are careful. Win the heart lead in dummy and finesse the spade jack, then cash the ace. When the king drops, draw the last trump. If it doesn’t, play three rounds of hearts, then start running the diamonds. Unless East has two or fewer hearts, he will have no exit card when he ruffs in, and he will be forced to lead a club for you. If he discards on the winning diamonds, throw him in with the third trump, and the result will be the same.

To mark the first full week of the New Year, I’m going to try an experiment. In all the deals this week, declarer will be faced with an eight-card trump fit missing the king. But the individual facts and circumstances will produce different conclusions as to the best play for declarer.

Beginners are taught that the way to play a suit in which you have the ace, queen and jack is to finesse. So when you look at the North and South hands in today’s deal, you might assume that you are supposed to finesse against the king by leading the queen. But that would be a grave mistake!

With no side-suit losers in your slam, your goal is to hold your trump losers to one; the absence of the 10 and nine from your hand and dummy’s means that no matter who has the king, at least one loser is inevitable. You must therefore find the safest line to avoid losing two trump tricks.

If trumps are 3-2, your task is easy. But what if they are 4-1? You will see that no matter which four trumps East has, if they include the king, the contract is hopeless. But what if it is West with length? Running the queen or jack will not be a success.

Instead, cash the ace, then lead up to the queen-jack. If trumps break, you are home, and if trumps break 4-1 onside, then come back to hand in spades and lead a heart toward dummy’s remaining honor. The defense will be helpless.