In today’s slam, if diamonds are 4-3, you can establish the suit and set up a discard. You win the diamond ace at trick one, draw trumps, cash the club ace and ruff a club. When you ruff a diamond to hand, East’s 10 warns you that perhaps the diamonds are not going to break. Indeed, when you cross to the heart eight and lead another diamond, East discards a club. How will you continue?

Since you can no longer establish a diamond winner, you must instead focus on a spade-diamond squeeze against West. One idea would be to reduce West to the doubleton spade king and a master diamond, and throw him in with a diamond. However, because South has the long trumps, there is no entry to dummy to achieve the throw-in. You must aim for a simple squeeze, and that requires you to duck a trick to tighten the screws on West.

If you think about it, you will realize that the only convenient moment to rectify the count is now! Discard a spade on the third round of diamonds, and West will win the trick. He can exit safely with a top diamond, which you ruff, but he will have no answer when you run the trumps.

His last three cards will be the spade K-J and the diamond jack sitting under dummy’s doubleton spade ace and diamond nine. He must discard the spade jack to ensure that dummy’s diamond isn’t high. You will then let go of the diamond nine from dummy and score the last two tricks with the spade ace and queen.

Some players derive more pleasure from making their contract by a swindle than by executing a textbook play. It’s even more gratifying to achieve the coup against opponents who could use a remedial class at charm school.

In today’s deal, South opened two clubs, and after neither player held back, the final contract was seven hearts. West led his lone trump, and though only 12 top tricks were in view, South was not going to give up lightly. He won and played six more trumps, discarding two spades and a diamond from the table.

In the six-card ending, both defenders had kept all their clubs; West had also kept the guarded spade king as East pitched four diamonds, then the spade nine. Perhaps East-West’s signaling methods were not the most accurate, but when declarer took the diamond ace, West bared his spade king to keep the clubs, and the defense was over.

Declarer unblocked spades, came to the club ace and took the last three tricks with his spades. Then, having scored up the board, he could sit back and enjoy the East-West allocation of blame.

Where would you put the responsibility, and how can the defenders do better? Once they see declarer’s seven hearts, each defender can count his 12 top tricks. Both should see that when neither discards a club, their partner has four. So East must keep clubs, and his partner must pitch them to protect spades. Maybe at trick eight, West can work out what to do, but it isn’t easy.

In today’s deal, South opens one spade, and West overcalls two clubs. North can double to show values and the unbid suits. South now wants to get to a game, but does not know which. He cannot bid no-trump without a club stopper. Spades seems a likely prospect, but there may be a 5-3 heart fit, or his partner may have a club stopper.

South’s three-club cue-bid asks North for more information about his hand. When North shows his diamonds, South repeats his spades, and North raises to game to end the auction.

South ruffs the third club and must then look for the safest way to make his contract. If South simply lays down his three top trumps, he will be left with just the trump 10 while West has the jack. South will then have to start on the diamonds, and if East gives count, West will wait until the third round of diamonds to ruff in. West will exit safely with a club, and South will have to surrender a heart trick for down one.

The solution is to give up the trump trick at a time when the opponents are unable to return a club. In other words, there must still be a high trump left in dummy when the trump is given up.

So, South crosses to a top diamond at trick two and leads a spade to the 10! West can take the trump jack, but if he returns a club, dummy’s spade eight will protect declarer against the force. If West returns a diamond or heart, South can win, draw trumps and take the rest.

When West leads the spade king against four hearts, South can see the danger of losing two spades and two clubs. There are only nine top winners, but diamonds offer an additional source of tricks.

South wins the spade ace at trick one and draws trumps, pitching spades from dummy. Then he leads his diamond queen to dummy’s ace and returns the diamond jack for a ruffing finesse. Beware! If South trumps in when East plays the king, West may be able to get in and run spades, since declarer will be out of trumps. Instead, South pitches a spade and will now make it home if either spades are 6-1 or East has the club ace.

If West had held the diamond king, South would have run the diamond jack, pitching a spade, and would have lost the trick to him. However, the contract would still have had play at that point. West could have taken the diamond king but would retain only one additional spade to cash. Declarer would still come home when the club ace was offside, since East could not prevent him from reaching dummy eventually to cash out the diamonds.

As the cards lie, the diamond king is in a favorable position, and when East is allowed to win the trick with that card, he can play a spade. West can take one trick there, but declarer will eventually force an entry in clubs to dummy’s winners.

Note: Had declarer taken a straightforward losing diamond finesse, he would go down when the club ace was onside, or when spades were 5-2. West would have an entry to cash out enough spade winners to set the game.

Against four spades, West leads the diamond four. South can see that he has no losers in the black suits, but he must plan to take care of three losing hearts and two losing diamonds.

A logical plan is to try to trump two of these cards in dummy. An alternative is to set up dummy’s long club suit to provide a home for his losers. Either plan would be sensible, but setting up the long suit may offer the better odds.

South takes East’s diamond jack with his ace, then lays down the spade king. When West discards a high heart, it looks right for South to shift to clubs, hoping the suit breaks 3-2. He leads the club king and plays a second club to the ace. East ruffs in and finds the best defense by leading a heart to the queen and king, then he wins the diamond king to play the spade jack.

Declarer must win this in dummy to continue ruffing out the clubs. But beware! South must simultaneously unblock a high spade from hand under the jack to ensure that dummy’s spade eight remains an entry. So declarer contributes the nine, wins the trump ace and ruffs a club with the 10. Now he can ruff a heart low in dummy, ruff the fourth club with the queen and draw East’s last trump by leading his six to the eight.

For the record, if East had returned a red suit after winning his diamond king, declarer would be able to take the rest by scoring his seven trumps separately. In the two-card ending, East’s spade jack would be caught in a trump coup.

When South plays six no-trump, West leads the heart queen. East discards a spade, and you win with the king. You have 11 top tricks and will need either 3-3 spades or some form of pressure; you need either a squeeze in hearts and a second suit against West or, more likely, a spade-diamond squeeze against East.

First, cash the clubs, discarding a diamond from the board. When both defenders follow to three clubs, West has revealed 10 cards in hearts and clubs, so no squeeze will be possible on him. You must therefore hope that East holds the sole guard in both spades and diamonds. You need to maximize the amount of pressure you can bring to bear on East. How may this be done?

The answer is to play the spade ace and king, West pitching a heart, then lead the heart seven and duck West’s eight. By surrendering a trick now, you will extract one more card from the East hand.

West can do no better than return a heart, but this has the effect of squeezing East, since after nine tricks have been played in hearts, clubs and spades, dummy is down to two diamonds and the doubleton spade queen, while you have three diamonds and a spade in hand. East can see he must keep spades, so he will pitch a diamond, and you can take the spade queen then cash all three of your diamonds for 12 tricks.

By surrendering the trick you have to lose, you extract a spare card from the defenders, which makes it much easier to execute a possible squeeze.

After North drives to game in spades, and South shows extras and no shortage, then looks for a grand slam before settling in six. Slam is made more difficult by the fact that the side-suits are perfectly mirrored in the two hands. Switch the diamond four in North’s hand to the club four, and the grand slam would hinge on a finesse. As it is, though, declarer appears to be poorly placed. What can you do about the fact that you have an inevitable heart loser and a likely diamond loser?

The club jack opening lead goes to the ace. Declarer draws trumps with the ace and king, then cashes the club king and both top hearts before exiting with a third heart. Whichever defender wins this trick, they must lead diamonds. If the diamond finesse is right, then West must win the trick, since a low diamond lead from East around to the queen would clearly be hopeless for the defense.

However, no matter which defender has the diamond 10, the contract is still cold, since declarer puts in a low diamond from dummy when West shifts to a diamond. East can put up his king or withhold it, but declarer can play diamonds for no loser.

This line simply needs the diamond king to be well-placed.

Note that if declarer leads a diamond to the jack before exiting in hearts, that line would result in defeat. West would be able to win the third heart and shift to diamonds, and the defenders would collect a trick in diamonds.

Against three no-trump, West hits on the one lead that will create a problem for South, the spade eight. This looks very much like top of nothing, so South plays low from dummy to preserve his queen. After all, if West has the king, the queen will make a trick later.

South must develop clubs to make his contract, but he must also try to keep West out of the lead. Accordingly, declarer leads the club nine, intending to let it ride around to East. If West ducks, he knows South will let it run, so West covers, and declarer must go up with one of dummy’s top clubs, consistent with his plan of keeping West off play. When East unblocks his club jack — since he doesn’t want the lead — South is in trouble.

He returns to his hand in diamonds and leads the club two, again intending to let this card ride around to East. West covers this card for the same reason as before — his best play is the eight. Once again, declarer wins in dummy, and East follows with the seven.

When declarer cashes the third top club and East shows out, pitching a diamond, declarer plays the diamond ace and king, as East pitches a spade. Before playing on spades, South falls back on one further slim chance, namely playing three rounds of hearts. Bingo! East must win and lead away from the spade king to concede the ninth trick.

Had West won the third heart, declarer would still have come home if the spade king was onside.

When South opens one spade, North’s call of two no-trump is an unlimited game-forcing trump raise. South’s jump to game denies both shortage and extra values, and North must pass since he has no undisclosed extras.

When dummy comes down, South sees that the contract may be in jeopardy if the diamond ace is offside. What is the right line after drawing trumps? South would lose out if he led diamonds first from the dummy. Specifically, if South put up the diamond king, West would take the ace and later capture the diamond jack with the queen. That would end any chance of winning a diamond trick.

The correct play is to lead a diamond toward dummy’s jack at trick three. This maneuver will force West to put up the queen if he has it. Later on, the jack can be used to knock out the ace. That means a heart can subsequently be discarded on the diamond king.

If East has the diamond queen, dummy’s jack will lose to it, but declarer will still be able to enter dummy with a heart and lead toward his diamond king. If East has the diamond ace, the king will provide the critical discard.

This play would not work if South needed the first or second trick in diamonds (or if West had led a heart at trick one). Since that is not the case, South increases his odds by leading first toward dummy’s jack and falling back on leading to the king, turning a 50 percent line into 75 percent.