It is easy to pay lip service to the idea that juniors are the future of the game, but over the last few decades we have rarely seen our organizations putting their money where their mouths are.

Getting bridge teachers into schools is one very important way to introduce children to the game. Getting them to learn the rules of bidding may take second place to allowing them to play cards and get a feel for the game. Once that starts to happen, who knows where it may take them?

I’m pleased to say that today’s deal, sent to me by Suleyman Kolata, comes from a junior event: a Swiss teams tournament at the 20th Iskenderun Bridge Festival in Hatay, Turkey. Sitting West was Tuana Altun, age 8, playing with her brother Toygar Tuncay Altun. Tuana heard the auction as shown, to six hearts. What would you have led?

Tuana found the killing club lead for an 11 IMP gain, since her teammates had played in game rather than slam. Consequently, this victory helped them win the under-16 teams. When her father asked Tuana about her lead and continuation of a club after winning the heart ace, Tuana said that the bidding had told her that the opponents held a big club fit. She felt confident that if her partner could not ruff at the first trick, her trump control would give her a second chance.

For the record, 23 out of 31 tables made the heart slam here.

Follow the play in today’s deal carefully — there will be a question at the end of the report. South first forced to game, then took control and used Blackwood to drive to six spades. When dummy came down, South saw that he had two possible losers; but the best plan to avoid a club loser would be to establish dummy’s long hearts.

So South won the club lead, led a heart to the king and ace, won the diamond return and drew one round of trumps with the ace.

Declarer now cashed dummy’s remaining top heart and ruffed a third heart with a high trump. When hearts split 4-2, declarer led his small trump to dummy’s 10, putting the lead in dummy to allow him to ruff hearts for a second time.

The second ruff established dummy’s last heart; only now could South could afford to draw West’s last trump. South now led a diamond to dummy’s ace and cashed dummy’s last heart, pitching his remaining club loser.

South had his 12 tricks; could he or the defense have done differently — or better? First, West had a blind lead, but a diamond would have worked out better in disrupting the entries to dummy. Second, and key to the defense, was that West needed to give count in hearts at trick two, letting East duck his ace. That has the effect of preventing the establishment of the hearts. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself!

The elegantly named steppingstone squeeze makes an appearance in today’s deal. South refused to stop short of six spades, and West led the diamond 10 against the slam.

Declarer won with the ace, drew trumps in four rounds and tested the clubs, West showing out on the second round. All would have been well had diamonds been 3-3, since declarer could have overtaken on the third round. But if West held four diamonds alongside the heart ace, South realized that he might come under pressure on the last trump.

If West threw a diamond, declarer would be able to overtake his jack with the queen, scoring his 12th trick with dummy’s fourth diamond.

If, instead, West threw the heart queen, declarer would cash his remaining top diamond and throw West on lead with a heart to the ace, to force him to lead to dummy’s diamond queen. West’s only other option would be to pitch the heart ace. This would beat the contract if East held the heart king, but as the cards lay it would allow South to score his heart king.

Oddly enough, if East had held four diamonds and four clubs, declarer could have caught him in the stepping-stone squeeze instead! The fifth round of trumps would have forced him to throw his last heart, retaining four diamonds and his club guard. South could then have cashed the diamond K-J and thrown East in with the fourth round of clubs to give dummy the diamond queen. Yes, in that instance, a simple minor-suit squeeze would work as well.

In the first session of the Yokohama Open Pairs last February, this deal presented an interesting problem for both declarer and the defenders.

West’s heart lead let the defenders cash out that suit; playing standard signals, East could encourage with the 10 under the ace to simultaneously unblock the suit. It would be much easier on a low heart lead, but I prefer the top heart.

Dummy had to find two discards and let go a diamond and a club, while East pitched a suit-preference spade two. East’s accurate shift to a low club went to the king and ace.

Declarer Dawei Chen now ran four rounds of spades, East discarding the club eight and the club five, and West the diamond seven. Chen diagnosed that the diamond queen had to be guarded and offside, and that East had reduced to a four-card ending where he had all three diamonds and the club jack left. Chen then crossed to his diamond ace and led a sneaky low club from hand.

To defeat the contract, West had to rise with the club queen (the right play whether South or East had the jack) to exit with a diamond and ensure a diamond trick for his partner. When West failed to imitate the crocodile and swallow up partner’s jack, East had to overtake his partner’s club 10 and was endplayed to concede the rest.

Incidentally, for all of us inclined to cast the first stone and blame West, notice that East could have discarded the club jack at his previous turn to help partner get it right.

Upon hearing East’s weak jump overcall in hearts and learning of North’s spade support, South drove to slam in spades after using Key-card Blackwood.

West led a third-highest heart two, confirming that hearts were indeed 3=6. After winning his ace, declarer drew four rounds of trumps, throwing a low heart from table. Meanwhile, East also discarded hearts. Next, declarer cashed the club king and queen, then led a club toward the table. West had to throw a heart, or else declarer would simply set up a long diamond for his 12th trick.

At this point, declarer could count West for an original 4=3=4=2 shape, with one heart and four diamonds remaining. So he ruffed a heart, then played a diamond to the king and a low diamond toward his hand, intending to cover East’s card cheaply. When East produced the nine, South inserted the jack. West took this with the queen but then had to lead from the diamond 10 into declarer’s ace-eight tenace.

Note that if West had followed to the first three clubs, with the jack not having put in an appearance, declarer would have risen with the ace. If East had produced the club jack, declarer would have cashed the 10, then taken the diamond finesse for the overtrick. If West turned up with jack-fourth of clubs, then his original distribution would have been 4=3=2=4. Now declarer would ensure three diamond tricks by cashing the ace and king before leading a low diamond toward his jack-eight.

In most suit contracts, declarer hastens to draw trumps, to keep his winners from being ruffed away. But there are many exceptions to the rule: a crossruff, for example. Today’s deal shows another reason for delaying play in the trump suit.

On this deal from the 1997 Venice Cup, Tobi Sokolow counted out her opponents’ hands by testing the plain suits in order to work out how to tackle trump correctly.

Sokolow ended up in four hearts after West had overcalled in diamonds. West led a top spade; Sokolow ducked, then won the continuation, noting East’s high-low to show encouragement in the suit. A diamond toward the king lost to the ace. Ruffing the spade return, declarer cashed the diamond queen and trumped her last diamond with the eight as East followed suit.

Returning to hand with the club king, she followed with a second club toward dummy’s ace, on which West showed out. Sokolow now decided that West held three spades rather than four, based on the play in the suit thus far. West was known to have a singleton club and was likely to have six diamonds rather than five; otherwise, her vulnerable overcall, missing the king and queen, would have been extremely sporting. East’s carding in diamonds had also suggested an odd number. Since West had three spades, six diamonds and one club, that strongly suggested three hearts in West’s hand.

So Sokolow cashed her heart ace, then successfully finessed West for the queen to bring home her contract.

Today’s deal is from a knockout match with very similar auctions in both rooms, both reaching a final contract of four spades by South on the lead of the diamond queen. At the first table, declarer took the lead in hand and went after trumps at once, leading to the spade king, followed by a second spade. When East showed out, South had no way to avoid losing a trick in each suit, for one down.

The second declarer noticed the possibility that he might survive the loss of a trump trick if he was careful, thanks to the strength of his heart spots. At this table, he also won the diamond lead in hand and cashed the trump ace. However, when both opponents followed with small cards, he continued with the heart ace then two. West followed small, and South carefully ducked, confident West did not have both top heart honors and playing for this precise position — if the suit is 3-3, the play is irrelevant, while if East has four cards, you cannot ruff out the suit in one round.

When East won with the queen and returned a club (a diamond would have been no better), declarer hopped up with the ace, then crossed to the spade king to lead the heart jack, on which he discarded his losing club.

On taking the heart king, West tried to cash a club. South ruffed, then crossed to dummy’s diamond ace. Declarer could now throw his remaining diamond loser on the heart 10 and lose just one trump trick and two hearts.

When North opens one spade and hears a two-heart response, he has three possible continuations. He could raise to three hearts or four hearts, or he could make a splinter raise to four diamonds. Does this last route show extras? The combination of North having a dead minimum and the “wrong” splinter — an ace or small card is much better than the king — persuades him to go low. South has no reason to continue over the four-heart call.

After West leads the club queen, it might seem that South has four quick black-suit losers. But declarer has a top diamond in hand to cope with the slow club losers. South wins the first trick with dummy’s club ace and unblocks dummy’s diamond king. He then gets back to his hand by way of the trump ace and cashes the diamond ace to discard one of dummy’s losing clubs.

The idea now is to make it possible for South to ruff his losing minor-suit cards in dummy. He trumps a diamond, then gives up a club, planning to ruff dummy’s remaining club with the heart king and draw trumps, conceding just two spade tricks.

If the defenders win the second club and play anything but a spade, that is precisely what declarer will do. If, instead, East wins the club king and plays a spade to his partner’s king, for a spade back to the ace and a third spade, declarer will ruff high, then draw trumps ending in dummy, with the spade queen as a home for his last club loser.