This week’s deals come from last year’s summer NABC in Toronto. Our hero was Marc Cohen, playing with his wife Stasha in the Freeman Mixed BAM Teams. To make his contract, Marc managed to make the most of his club spots; yes, that 5-3 of clubs had a part to play.

Marc reached four spades, and after the diamond-six lead to the jack and king, Marc cashed the spade ace-king to get the first bad news, then led the diamond two to get more bad news as West showed out.

But there was some good news when West pitched an odd-even heart nine to encourage the suit, a card that he could not afford. Cohen ducked the diamond in dummy, and East won to return a diamond. Yes, a club would have been better, but the obvious power of the 5-3 was evident to all.

After West ruffed the third diamond, he shifted to the club 10. Marc won the club ace, crossed to dummy with a trump, took his diamond winner, discarding his club, and then led the club five from dummy. When East followed lazily with the club four, declarer pitched a heart and took the rest after West won the trick and was endplayed to lead hearts.

Cohen would have ruffed to lead the heart queen. With West obliged to cover, the blockage in hearts would have led to South being endplayed upon winning the heart 10 at the next trick.

When South opened one club, West had a routine one-diamond overcall. At several tables, it was West who won the contract at two diamonds, against which North led a low trump and South won to shift to a low spade.

If West believes North’s failure to lead a club suggests he has the club ace, then he should rise with the spade king rather than letting the lead run to his jack in dummy. With the club ace and spade ace plus, apparently, the diamond king, North would have bid more, and South would not have an opening bid.

After the spade king wins, declarer can unblock hearts and lead a spade from hand. The defense will now have to be just a little careful even to hold declarer to eight tricks. However, if declarer doesn’t play the spade king at trick two, the defenders can beat two diamonds on the spade ruff.

But now let’s change direction: what if South ends up in three clubs on the auction shown? West cannot defeat three clubs on a diamond lead, but say he leads the heart king followed by the heart queen. The defenders should prevail by overtaking the heart queen and taking the ruff, then exiting passively in a minor. But let’s say East carelessly does not overtake the second heart; what does West do next at trick three?

A spade shift would let declarer guess spades for 10 tricks, while a diamond concedes 110; but a trump shift ties up declarer’s entries and still defeats the part-score.

Today’s deal from the North American Bridge Championship in Toronto last summer is more about the auction, and less about the play of the hand. North and South were a mixed pair, with a handful of world titles between them, but they goofed here.

With nobody vulnerable, as South you open one diamond in fourth seat, and partner responds one heart. Do you bid one spade or one no-trump now? I don’t feel strongly, but my choice would be one no-trump or pass rather than one spade; to each his own.

At the table, South bid one spade, which was passed around to RHO, who bid one no-trump. You pass (hoping your partner can double), but North balances with two diamonds. It has taken a long time to get to the two-level; what are your thoughts now?

You know a lot about partner’s hand. He clearly doesn’t have four spades (he would compete again to two spades) or four diamonds (he would have bid two diamonds at his previous turn), and he surely doesn’t have a club stopper, or he would have rebid one no-trump over one spade.

So your partner holds something like 3=5=3=2 or 3=4=3=3, and it is therefore clear to correct two diamonds to two hearts now. If you play in the 4-3 heart fit, you can see that you will be taking ruffs in the short hand — and hearts scores more than diamonds.

Partner had exactly what you’d expect: a 3=5=3=2 pattern with 7 HCP. Two hearts is cold on careful play; two diamonds will lose an additional trump trick even if you locate the queen.

Although South has only a minimum take-out double, the five-heart call asks him to bid slam with a club control. Holding the ace, he can hardly reject the invitation. With another high card, he might even make a grand slam try rather than re-raising hearts.

The defenders lead the diamond 10 to the ace. With both club and diamond ruffs threatening for the defense, it looks logical enough to draw all the trumps.

When East follows to the heart ace and king, declarer can place him with seven clubs, two hearts and at least one diamond. But what is the rest of his pattern?

The next move is to cash the diamond king. When East shows out, he surely began with precisely 3=2=1=7 shape. Careful! Do not cash the third top diamond! Instead, play the spade ace-king and ruff a spade, then cash the club ace and duck a club. East has no choice but to win and lead away from the club king. You will let a low club run to dummy’s queen, or ruff the king and use the diamond queen as the entry to the club queen.

If East had followed to the second diamond, you would cash the spade ace-king next, to get the complete count of his hand. If you find that East began with a singleton spade and three diamonds, you play off the diamond queen and proceed as above, without ruffing a spade loser in dummy, planning to use the spade ruff as the last entry to dummy. You would play in the same way if East had a 2=2=2=7 shape.

Without West’s weak two-spade opening bid, it would have been natural to take two spade finesses in six no-trump. But West’s opener puts a different complexion on the deal, and although West might have opened with a spade suit of king-sixth or queen-sixth, that eventuality is rather unlikely at the vulnerability. Why rely on that, when you can achieve almost complete certainty?

When West leads the club 10 against six no-trump, the sensible way forward is to win in dummy, then cash four rounds of diamonds. West has to find three discards, and he can comfortably release his three small spades. Declarer now needs to find out more about West’s shape. He cashes the club king, all following, then the ace and king of hearts. When the heart jack puts in an appearance from West, South should suspect that West was dealt a 6=2=1=4 shape – kudos to West if he has dropped the jack from an original four-card suit!

A heart to the queen confirms the suspicion. Of course, if West had followed suit, there would have been 12 top tricks. But what should West pitch? He must discard a club in order to keep his spade holding intact. So now we can cross to the club queen to lead a spade to the 10. When West wins the trick, he is endplayed to lead from his remaining honor into South’s tenace, and the slam comes home.

Today’s deal from a recent U.S. Nationals was accompanied by the line: “I’ll give you something to cry about.” The two bridge players who met in the bar wanted to exchange hard-luck stories; it turned out that they were from the same deal. Both were declaring the deal, one as South in the diagram and one as North, the former in four spades on the auction shown.

South led the club ace and another club, ruffed by North, who shifted to a low diamond. How would you play it? At trick three, declarer quite reasonably won the diamond ace and played the spade ace and a spade to the jack, certain that the spade king or heart king was to his left. That led to his going one down!

“You think that’s bad?” said the second sad sack. “We had a different auction, though, and stopped safely low. Our dealer also opened the bidding, but with a call of one club. I overcalled one heart and, after a negative double from my left, we came to rest in three hearts. The defense led the singleton club, and my right-hand opponent deviously won the club ace to play back the club jack (suit preference for spades) for the ruff. My left-hand opponent ruffed and obediently returned the spade eight!”

Put yourself in North’s seat; wouldn’t you sympathize with him for winning the spade ace at trick three to take the heart finesse? Now it went heart king, spade king, spade ruff, club ruff — and he was down 200. Who do you think was more unlucky?

When South opens one heart, North is too weak to respond at the two-level. His one-no-trump response merely shows that he is strong enough to keep the bidding open. South rebids two hearts, and North has to leave him there, rather than search for a better spot.

The defense leads spades, and when East wins his ace, he might shift to a club, but continuing spades is hardly absurd. Perhaps West might now shift to clubs himself, but he plays a diamond to East’s ace, and now comes the club shift. This is the defenders’ last chance: To set the contract, West must follow with the king, not the jack – but that is far from obvious.

If he does not, declarer wins the ace, takes the spade jack, pitching his diamond honor, then cashes the diamond queen to discard a club, and ruffs a diamond with the seven. When he exits with his losing club, West must win and help reduce South’s trumps by returning his last spade.

At this point, South is down to four trumps. He must lose a trick to the king, but does not want to lose an additional trick to the 10. His best chance is to lead the queen, and, when that holds, to lead the jack. West must take the jack and return a trump, whereupon South scores his ace and nine, to take the last two tricks.

Note that if South had taken the heart ace before leading the heart queen, West would let the queen hold. He would then be in position to win the last two tricks with the king and 10.

When South opens a 15-17 no-trump, North has a simple raise to game. Yes, he could invite game, but so often the more information you give away, the easier the defense becomes.

When West leads a spade, declarer must put the queen up from dummy, since if he plays low and East plays anything but the ace, the defenders will be able to run the spades as soon as they regain the lead. When the spade queen holds, declarer must try to develop diamonds while keeping East off lead, in case spades are 5-3 rather than 4-4.

So South leads a diamond toward his hand. When East plays low, declarer puts in the eight and West wins; his best move now is to shift to a top heart. Declarer ducks the queen as East encourages the lead, then takes West’s heart jack with his ace. He unblocks the diamond ace, then cashes the club ace, leads the club nine to the king and tries to runs the diamonds, pitching a small heart from hand on the last.

When diamonds break, South can cash 10 tricks. If they had failed to split, with West having the length, declarer would still have been able to bring home his game. He would run the clubs, ending in dummy, and after 10 tricks (one spade, two hearts, three diamonds and four clubs) he would exit with the fourth diamond, knowing West would win the trick and be endplayed to lead away from his spade ace. West would be unable to escape the endplay except by unblocking in diamonds, which would obviously lead to a worse fate.

When West leads the club four against four hearts, South should count his losers. There is some danger of losing one trick in each suit; however, South may be able to avoid the loss of a diamond by means of a successful finesse. If the club finesse should lose, the club jack would be good for an additional trick in the suit.

At trick one, declarer finesses dummy’s club queen. East wins with the king and shifts to the heart jack, which South wins with the ace. South plans to ruff his losing spades in the dummy, so he leaves trumps alone. Let’s make this our apothegm: if you want to take ruffs, don’t draw trumps.

Instead, declarer leads a club to dummy’s ace and comes back to his hand with the spade ace to try the losing diamond finesse of the queen. When East returns the heart 10, South wins with the king. Declarer leaves the master trump outstanding, since he needs to trump both of his losing spades in dummy.

Instead, South cashes the club jack, discarding a losing spade from the dummy. South can now cash the spade king and ruff a low spade in dummy. He then plays dummy’s diamond ace and ruffs a diamond to get back to his own hand.

As it happens, West over-ruffs, but whatever he does next, declarer has the rest of the tricks. If West had not over-ruffed, South would be in position to ruff his last spade with dummy’s last trump.