In today’s deal, you appear to have nine tricks ready to run once clubs have been established. So what is the danger? Clearly, the defenders might be able to run the spades. If you win the spade king, then arrange to finesse in clubs, West may get in with the club king and lead a spade through dummy’s remaining 10-third of spades. Now East-West can cash out for down one.

So your target is to hold up or protect your spade stopper. You can accomplish this by the somewhat unnatural move of ducking the spade at trick one.

The defense will almost certainly clear spades. If East does not play a third and fourth round of the suit, you will have tricks to burn. But if he does, then after taking his spade trick, declarer should take the club finesse, confident that West will be out of spades when he gains the lead in clubs.

The holdup is correct because you know that it is only West (the safe hand) who can gain the lead in clubs. If the clubs honors were reversed, with the ace in dummy, winning the spade king at once would be correct, since East couldn’t play spades without setting up dummy’s 10. And if you are missing the club ace instead of the king, it is a blind guess as to whether to win or duck the first trick.

Strangely, if North declares three no-trump on a low spade lead, the winning play of ducking at trick one becomes even harder to find, doesn’t it?

At the NABC in Toronto last July, John Rengstorff was partnering Geoff Brod in the finals of the Von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs.

Against four hearts, Rengstorff led a third-and-fifth diamond seven to the jack, queen and three. (Yes, the lead of the two would have avoided all subsequent problems, but that was not this partnership’s leading method).

Brod now played the club king, ducked by declarer, then continued with the club queen instead of reverting to diamonds, though in retrospect the diamond play might have made declarer’s life more awkward. Declarer won the club ace and led a third club; Rengstorff ruffed with the six and made the key play of the diamond nine. Declarer finessed the diamond 10, playing the eight from his hand, then ran trumps to come down to a three-card ending as he led his last trump, with the diamond five and a losing club in hand. Dummy had the spade king and two diamonds, West also had two diamonds, and East had the spade ace and a master club.

On the last trump, Rengstorff and dummy each pitched their last spade. Rengstorff refrained from covering when declarer played the diamond five, so declarer had to concede the last trick to one defender or the other.

Declarer made not one but two slips at trick one. He might have played low from the board, but more to the point, he needed to unblock the diamond five! Then he would have had a diamond finesse at trick 12.

On this board from the NABC Life Master Pairs in Toronto last summer, Glenn Eisenstein was able to bring about a very attractive ending in his contract of three spades.

Having received the club queen lead, Eisenstein made the natural play of winning the ace rather than putting up the king (since he was planning to develop clubs against a normal trump break). As the cards lay, that made the later play more complex, though.

He led a trump to the ace, getting the bad news, then played a heart to East’s king. Back came a diamond to the king and ace, followed by a top club to dummy’s king, ruffed by East, who exited with a diamond. Eisenstein won the diamond queen and played the heart queen from hand to East’s ace, observing the fall of West’s 10. That was his fourth loser, but he could ruff the third round of diamonds in dummy and reach a five-card ending with four trumps and a losing club in hand, while dummy had the 9-8 of hearts, two losing clubs and the spade king.

Eisenstein now ruffed a heart, under which the jack fell, crossed to the spade king, cashed the heart nine to discard his club loser, then led a club to score both his remaining trumps in hand, no matter what East did, to bring home nine tricks.

This is a genuine trump coup, in which declarer can effectively take a trump finesse despite one hand (in this case dummy) being out of trumps altogether.

All the deals this week comes from last year’s summer NABC in Toronto. This one cropped up in the Wernher Open Pairs.

You’d expect three no-trump by South to be the normal spot here, and on a heart lead, the defenders have no real prospect of more than four tricks when both red suits behave. Note, however, that on the first round of diamonds declarer should lead a small card to his eight or 10, not his king.

But a curious ending arose after a club lead. Declarer ducked, then won the second club. He now crossed to a spade to lead a low diamond to the 10, losing to the queen. He won the next club, pitching a heart from dummy, crossed to the spade king and advanced the diamond two, to the jack, king and ace. When West cashed a club, declarer had to be careful with his next discard from dummy, which now held two spades, two hearts and two diamonds.

In order to maintain flexibility, South must discard a diamond from dummy — but it must specifically be the nine; otherwise, a heart to the king and ace cuts declarer’s communications. However, if you unblock dummy’s diamond nine, you can always arrange to test spades before falling back on the heart finesse.

Note also that the defenders should have ducked the second diamond. Now if declarer plays a third diamond rather than testing spades, West can cash the club winner. South will then have to pitch a spade or a top heart from dummy before he knows which major is behaving.

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.