Sometimes the cards allow for a slight inaccuracy, sometimes they are in unforgiving mood. Here they showed mercy to declarer.

In the qualifying rounds of the 1996 World Olympiad South Africa appeared to be heading for a big win until this deal came along.

In the closed room West opened two spades and the South African North bid three diamonds. South converted to three no-trump and West led two rounds of spades then accurately shifted to hearts; when declarer lost the diamond finesse, that meant two down.

On vugraph Krzysztof Martens as North doubled two spades, and that led to a contract of five clubs. Again an initial heart lead is best — but few of us could resist leading a spade with the West hand. Marek Szymanowski won this and had to find the best way forward – on the reasonable assumption that trumps might split badly but that diamonds would not, since West had not led a singleton.

At the table, Szymanowski finessed in diamonds at trick two. Now if trumps had been 4-1 a trump return would have left him without the communications to get 11 tricks. Unlikely as it might seem, you are much better placed to take a spade ruff at trick two and then lead a low diamond from dummy. If East wins and forces you again, then ruff and play two rounds of trump overtaking in hand. Even if trumps are 4-1 you can still come home by playing four rounds of trumps to East, pitching dummy’s hearts.

How much respect should you give your opponents? Sometimes a false-card is sufficiently clearcut that your suspicions should be set to high alert. At other times you have to decide if it is a play you would have considered yourself. If it isn’t, maybe you should pay off to a brilliancy. If they have found a play you wouldn’t have, maybe they deserve to defeat you!

This deal came up in the women’s qualifying event at the Rhodes Olympiad from the Great Britain and Sweden match. The Swedes bid the hand nicely. After a 22-23 2 NT and Stayman by North, the latter could agree hearts. Now Blackwood by South found all the key cards and the diamond king, and she could count 13 tricks if trumps behaved.

Against seven hearts Nicola Smith led the spade jack and declarer won in hand and laid down the heart king, on which Smith smoothly played the nine.

As you can see, this is the only card to give declarer a losing option, since without that play declarer would have had no choice but to follow up with the heart queen, since she could not pick up a four-card heart suit in East.

South was aware of the possibility that Smith had made the technical play. But she eventually played a trump to the ace, and down went the slam. The final score in this match was a big win for Britain. But since they had missed the grand slam in the other room, they would have lost the match had the grand slam come home.

Today’s deal saw you show a strong balanced hand, after which North impulsively leaps to slam, deciding he would be facing a very strong hand relatively short in hearts.

After the lead of the spade nine, where are your 12 winners? If trumps are 2-1, you have 11 top tricks, in the form of eight trump tricks (draw two rounds and take the remaining six trumps separately) and three red suit winners. Normally in these positions you can generate an extra trick by discarding on the opening lead and building a trick for the spade king; not this time, as you will see. Whatever you pitch from dummy, there is no sure route to 12 tricks.

Curiously, though, as long as trumps behave, you do not even need East to have the seven spades he promised to be able to guarantee your contract. Ruff the spade, come to hand with a trump and ruff a second spade, then come back to hand in trumps again, and ruff a third spade.

Now you lead a heart from dummy, intending to finesse the eight if East plays low, or to cover the nine or 10 with the jack. West will be able to win cheaply but can only lead into one of the red tenaces. That extra trick allows you to make the remainder in the form of top tricks, plus taking your trumps separately.

If the opponents had not bid, your first heart play would be low to the jack. You would ruff the spade return, cash hearts from the top and fall back on the diamond finesse, if necessary.

In tales of the Three Little Pigs we normally see two failures for every success, but every pig (or is it dog?) has its day. So in today’s deal we shall see one of the less rational lines rewarded.

Each of the three little pigs declared three no-trump on a low spade lead. The first little pig gave up a diamond at trick two, won the next spade and then tried to run the diamonds. This would have worked if diamonds broke three-two; when they did not, he needed a miracle in hearts, which did not happen.

The second little pig went to dummy with a high diamond and tried a heart finesse. When it worked, South could cross again to dummy with a high diamond to repeat the finesse. That generated two extra tricks for South. But even if the finesse had lost, South would still have come home had hearts been 3-3

By my calculations, the first little pig’s play is slightly better. However, when the cautious and calculating member of the trio emerged, it transpired that he had found an even better line. He won the first spade to give up a diamond, ducked the next spade, and won the third. When he cashed off the top diamonds, East was squeezed on the last winner. Whether he came down to three hearts or three clubs, declarer could discard from the other suit, then take a heart finesse, and set up an extra winner for himself in the appropriate suit.

A satisfying way to bring home the bacon.

North-South certainly had the values for slam in today’s deal, but the two flat hands and duplication of values in diamonds made the contract touch and go. When declarer played on his suits in the wrong order, he could not recover.

The bidding was over quickly. South opened with one no-trump and North used Stayman to investigate for a heart fit (though one could make the case for not looking for a fit, because of the balanced nature of his hand) then jumped to six no-trumps when he did not find one.

Let’s revert to the play of the slam. West led the diamond nine, and South won in hand, and tried a heart to the jack. When this lost, he now needed both major suits to break 3-3. Hearts did not behave, so down went the slam.

Declarer’s mistake was to play on hearts rather than spades. If you test spades and they don’t break 3-3, then hearts will need to supply four tricks, with the queen onside. There is the slight extra chance of a club-heart squeeze, so declarer ducks a spade and takes a heart finesse, then runs his winners and hopes for the best.

But if spades behave, then you only need three heart tricks, and you can afford a safety play in the suit. Instead of finessing, take the king and ace of hearts to pick up the doubleton queen offside. If no queen appears, a heart towards the jack brings the slam home if West started with the guarded queen, or the suit breaks 3-3.

One of the lessons we are all taught at our mother’s knee is to retain control of the trump suit. But there are some deals where we go out of our way to surrender trump control. Although these hands may be few and far between, they possess an unmistakable elegance. Let me show you one of them in today’s deal.

In today’s exhibit it might have worked better for South to double three hearts for take-out, when North would have passed it out and led a trump, holding West to seven tricks. But naturally South bid spades and North guessed to raise to game.

Against four spades West led the heart king and shifted to the diamond five. With both diamonds and spades lying so unfavorably you might think declarer would now have his work cut out.

Curiously, though, declarer has a roadmap of the lie of the hearts and can come to 10 tricks without a finesse. He wins the diamond ace, takes a heart ruff, then cashes the spade queen and leads a spade to the ace to take a second heart ruff. Now East is out of hearts, while South is out of trumps. Unperturbed, Declarer crosses to a top club and takes dummy’s remaining top spade, then presses on with clubs.

East might as well ruff in, after which he does best to lead away from his diamond queen. South wins his jack and reverts to clubs to establish his 10th trick one way or another.

When partner opens a strong no-trump, North should drive to game in hearts. Many partnerships use Texas Transfers, so that they can transfer at the four level to play, or to use Blackwood, or even in some case to show voids by bidding a new suit. Meanwhile, the two-level transfer lets you subsequently jump to game as a mild slam try, with a jump to four no-trump in this sequence being natural and quantitative.

Against four hearts a spade lead would give the defenders the upper hand, but West has no reason not to lead a diamond. South still has his work cut out for him though, even after this start. Take a minute to form a plan.

It looks natural to dispose of dummy’s losing spade, but declarer still has to make sure he holds his club losers to three. If he leads clubs, the opponents will return trumps at every turn. This will prevent South from ruffing a club in dummy, and he will lose all four clubs.

The solution is to set up dummy’s spades, since this can be done in such a way as to shut West out. So at trick four, declarer runs the spade jack to East, pitching a club from dummy. He wins the heart return in hand, and advances the spade 10 to pitch another club. When it holds, he tries the spade nine, and West covers. So South ruffs high in dummy, and now draws trump ending in hand to discard another club on the spade eight. He can then lead to the club king to try for the overtrick.

North has a hand slightly too strong for a direct raise of one heart. If not playing two over one, it looks better to bid diamonds, then raise hearts to invite game. If you play two over one, you can use the forcing no-trump planning to jump to three hearts next. Either way, you should reach four hearts, though North might briefly consider making a slam try en route to game. If a call of four diamonds shows a source of tricks, he is certainly worth it – consider that South might have the same hand with the diamond queen instead of the heart jack.

In four hearts on a spade lead South can see the danger of four top losers (three in clubs and one in spades). One possibility would be to take a diamond finesse — not a success as the cards lie, and not the right play in theory either. The correct line requires careful manipulation of the entries.

Best is to win the spade lead and play one top trump from hand. Then play the diamond ace and king, and ruff a diamond high. Lead a heart to the eight for another diamond ruff, then cross back to dummy to draw the last trump. Now the last diamond allows you to throw away a loser and you can take the club finesse for the overtrick. I hope you are pleased when it loses — that means that if you had mishandled the play, you would be down.