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.

This board occurred in a knockout match where North-South were behind and in need of a swing. Accordingly, after North cue-bid to show a high-card spade raise and South disclosed some extras with his jump to four spades, then admitted to a first-round heart control by bidding five hearts, North went for the grand slam.

Against seven spades, West went passive with the lead of the trump six; declarer took this with the jack and drew the remaining trump by leading to dummy’s ace. At this point, he could be confident neither minor suit was going to behave, but next he cashed the diamond ace followed by the club ace and king, throwing the queen and nine of hearts from hand. A club ruff confirmed that West had started with 1=5=5=2 shape.

So declarer next led the diamond queen from hand, hoping that East’s two-card diamond suit was anything but the doubleton king. To his relief, West covered the queen with the king, which cheered up South considerably.

Declarer ruffed the diamond in dummy, ruffed a club back to hand and led a confident diamond nine. West covered with the 10, and this was again ruffed in dummy.

After a second club ruff to get back to hand, declarer led the diamond eight. A disconsolate West covered this with the jack and, after the third ruff in dummy, declarer claimed his contract. He had eight trump tricks, four tricks in aces and kings, and the diamond seven for trick 13.

In today’s deal, South should know that his partner’s double followed by a three-no-trump rebid suggests something like a two no-trump opening. South’s hand would be worthless at no-trump, but he will make more tricks at hearts than North can make at no-trump. South therefore corrects three no-trump to four hearts, and North should be happy to trust his partner and pass.

When the dummy appears, South notes that he has four possible losers: a trump, a diamond and two clubs. Some way must be found to eliminate one of those losing tricks, but clubs appear to be 7-0 with the ace onside, so declarer ought to be able to lead up to the club king after drawing trumps.

Declarer begins by winning the spade king and starting to draw trumps, whereupon East takes the heart ace. Much to South’s irritation, East is able to shift to the club jack, which goes to his partner’s ace.

Don’t delude yourself that all is well: East surely has a singleton club and is hoping to ruff the second round of the suit. What can declarer do about that?

Once the problem has been diagnosed, the correct riposte may be found. South must withhold dummy’s club king on both the second and third round of the suit. He must play low from dummy each time and ruff the third club in his hand. He then finishes drawing trumps, and only now can the club king be taken in perfect safety, to allow South to dispose of his losing diamond.

When this deal came up at a pairs event, West showed the majors over one no-trump, leaving North with a problem as to how to compete. He decided to show his clubs with a call of two no-trump, the Lebensohl convention, planning to let his partner play a club part-score.

However, after the opponents bid confidently to game, he elected to disclose both minors, letting South play five clubs. Clearly, East-West would be able to take 10 (but not 11) tricks in hearts on best defense, but how do you like South’s chances in five clubs? At the table, West led a top heart, and dummy ruffed.

Declarer saw that he could afford to lose one spade, but not two. The plan, therefore, was to establish the diamonds by keeping East off lead. Playing smoothly but without undue haste, South led a trump to the ace and the club jack to the king, then let the diamond eight run to West’s jack. He ruffed the heart return, unblocked his diamonds and trumped a third heart to dummy to discard two of his spades on the diamonds, making five.

At the end of the deal, West asked his partner if he planned to live and die by the old saw “Second hand plays low.” East asked what he meant by that, and West pointed out that East had needed to cover the diamond eight with the 10. When declarer played his king, West would unblock the jack, and now East’s Q-7 of diamonds would be a sure entry to let him get in to play spades through declarer’s gizzard.

Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes; I’m sure I still have many new ones to find. In today’s deal, your task is to spot what error declarer made to floor his game.

After two passes, when East opened with four spades, South felt obliged to bid. I’d vote for a double (meaning it as cards, rather than penalty) or a call of four no-trump, but he chose to bid five diamonds, and West was delighted to double.

South won the spade lead and drew all the opponents’ trumps, ending in dummy, then ruffed a spade high before leading a heart to the 10. Now he ran the club nine to West, who took his jack and exited with the ace and another heart. Declarer could no longer avoid a further club loser — down one.

West’s double surely suggests that the missing high cards in hearts and clubs will be with West. So declarer should draw just two rounds of trumps, ending in hand, then lead a heart.

At this point, West might as well rise with the ace and exit in either red suit, but declarer can arrange to finish both red suits, ending in dummy. At that point, he can lead the club nine around to West. What can West do now? He must either return a club into South’s tenace or play a heart and concede a ruff-and-discard. In that case, declarer discards a club from dummy and ruffs in hand. He next cashes the club ace and leads the queen for a ruffing finesse against West’s king, while he still has a trump entry to hand.

In today’s deal, one declarer identified a line for his contract that required either a 3-3 split or one of two finesses to be successful — pretty good odds in abstract, though not a sure thing. His counterpart did better, though.

South’s jump to three spades showed a good suit, but did not guarantee a solid suit. After Key-card Blackwood revealed that the trump queen was missing, South settled for the small slam.

Declarer took the diamond lead in dummy and immediately finessed in spades. He won the diamond return in hand, then played the ace and king of hearts and ruffed a heart. As that suit failed to break 3-3, South was forced to use his last entry to dummy to take the ill-fated club finesse. He doubtless thought himself unlucky to have gone down.

In the other room, though, Christian Mari was at the helm. As befits a multiple world champion, he was not inclined to rely on chance.

He took the opening diamond lead in hand and cashed the top trumps, then continued with the heart ace and king and a heart ruff. Unperturbed by the 4-2 break, he simply drove out the trump queen and could win the diamond return in dummy with the ace. That let him ruff another heart to establish the suit, and finally a diamond to the queen allowed him to pitch his losing clubs on dummy’s hearts.

Even if East had held the spade queen and had been able to shift to a club, declarer would have risen with the ace and continued as described.

A basic knowledge of suit combinations will always be useful, and today’s deal has points of interest in both the bidding and the play.

Let’s look at the bidding first. At matchpoint pairs, South’s jump to six no-trump is unsubtle but understandable. But since a grand slam in clubs could be cold if North’s heart queen were the king (and as it is, six clubs is a better spot than six no-trump), South should have explored further by bidding four clubs over three no-trump, then using Blackwood.

In six no-trump, South wins the spade lead and can count 11 top tricks. The simplest play for the contract is the heart finesse; can South do better? Yes, he can. If he takes the finesse and it loses, he is almost out of chances unless there is a somewhat unlikely squeeze, with the same hand guarding the third round of hearts and diamonds.

A better play is to lead a heart to the nine; today, that forces the king, and declarer is home free. But if the nine loses to the 10 or jack, declarer then wins the return and cashes all his clubs, then spades. One defender may err by keeping spades and unguarding diamonds, but even if this doesn’t happen, you can reduce to a two-card ending with the diamond nine and a heart in hand and the ace-queen of hearts in dummy. Unless there are strong indications to the contrary, declarer will fall back on the heart finesse, but he will certainly have made his opponents’ task more difficult.