At the table, I may not be good at extending sympathy to my partner, but at least I avoid open criticism. Had I been North here, I doubt I would have been able to offer condolences convincingly.

That player took only a slightly optimistic approach when he drove to the grand slam, reasonably confident that either diamonds or spades would run for declarer.

When West led the club 10, declarer could see 12 certain winners and had three suits where a 13th might materialize. Before you look at how play developed, think about how you would approach it.

At trick two, South tested the spades. It was only when East followed to the third round that declarer realized that he did not have a good discard from hand. Since diamonds looked more promising than hearts (because of the chance the jack might fall in two rounds), he let a heart go from hand. When the bad news in spades was combined with the fact that it was West who had diamond length, declarer was out of chances.

What should South have done differently? The key is to play the heart ace-king, cash the remaining clubs (pitching a heart from dummy), then take the heart queen, discarding a spade.

At this point, you can claim when hearts break. But if they had not split, you can decide whether to make the normal play of running spades from the top, or to play diamonds first, depending on what has happened in the other two suits.

In today’s deal, you have two chances to bring home your game. One of them is obvious and easy to quantify; the other is less easy to spot. See if you can take full advantage of your opportunities.

Against three no-trump, West leads the heart 10, and you take the first trick in hand. Your first and best chance is in diamonds. You cash the diamond ace and king, hoping the queen will drop, in which case life will be very straightforward. But there is no good news today, as West discards a heart. Can you see how you might find a second chance to bring home the game?

Your only realistic chance is to find spades 3-3 with the king onside. But beware! If you cross to the club ace and finesse in spades, then play two further rounds of that suit, East might see he should win and shift to clubs; the defense would then prevail.

So the first play in spades must be low from hand. East’s best play is to win and shift to the club jack. You duck in hand and take the trick with dummy’s ace. Then you lead a spade to the queen, cash the spade ace and run spades. Eventually, you exit with the heart king.

At this point, the defenders have four top tricks, but when West wins his heart ace, he can do no better than exit in hearts and force you to concede the last two tricks twice over. Before that happens, you will have nine tricks in the bank.

In today’s deal, North forced South to respond to his take-out double, then jumped to game at once, hoping his partner did not have a complete bust. He was disappointed in that regard, but the game still had decent play.

West would have done best to cash two diamonds and exit passively in spades. Declarer would then have had to read the position very precisely to come home. But it was tempting for West to lead a third diamond, hoping to shorten declarer or dummy. When he did that, South ruffed in hand and immediately took the club finesse.

Once the finesse succeeded, declarer’s only problem was how to draw trumps safely.

It would have been fatal to draw trumps by leading the ace and king, followed by the jack. West would have won the third round, and at that point, South would be out of trumps. West would then have led another diamond to force out dummy’s last trump, and declarer would lose control of the hand.

But South smelled a rat from the earlier defense, and instead simply drew one round of trumps with the ace, then gave up a trump trick. If West had ducked, dummy would have cashed the heart king and run his winners in spades and clubs, leaving West with one trump trick.

But when West took the heart queen, and led a fourth diamond, South still had a trump to ruff the diamond in hand. He could then lead a club to dummy, draw the trumps and claim.

The idea of underleading an ace against a slam is one that appeals to the true gambler. The possibility that you might lose the ace if you don’t take it is dangerous enough that, even when the opportunity arises, few players will take advantage of the chance.

However, in Opatija, Croatia, three years ago in the European Championships, Tommy Garvey seized his chance for an underlead during Ireland’s match against Russia in the Open Series.

South had shown a limited hand with clubs and spades and no extra values, then admitted to one key-card in response to Blackwood. The auction had made it clear that North held a diamond control, which in the light of Garvey’s hand was likely to be the king rather than shortage.

If dummy held the king plus the queen, or no secondary honor, underleading the ace could prove very costly, especially if South held a singleton diamond. Also, declarer might subsequently discard a diamond loser on dummy’s hearts. None of this was especially unlikely, since declarer had at least nine cards in the black suits. But if dummy held both the king and jack, the gamble might succeed.

Garvey went for the gusto and led the diamond four to trick one. Although he might have suspected something was afoot, declarer had no reason not to put in the jack. John Carroll produced the queen and returned a diamond to set the slam with the first two tricks. That resulted in a slam swing to Ireland.

Too many competent players boast that they have never read a bridge book in their lives. As someone who works as a writer, I am always surprised at how many basic positions are missed by players who might have encountered that very position in a book. A little learning may be a dangerous thing, but zero learning tends to work even worse.

In today’s deal, South offered a choice of games at the four-level, and North’s return to four spades ended the auction. West led the diamond jack, and South tried to make East’s task as hard as he could when he put up the king.

East won and shifted to a club, hoping somewhat optimistically that his side could take two club tricks, and that West would turn up with a winner in one of the major suits as well.

West won with his ace and returned a club, but it was to no avail. Dummy’s queen was covered by the king and ruffed. When West got in with his spade king, there was no hope for the defense — declarer was in complete control.

East should have reasoned that West was likely to hold four trumps. Instead of leading back the club six, he might have tried broaching clubs by leading the king. Then the defenders would have been in business. Declarer is immediately shortened in trumps on the second round of clubs (which he has to ruff). When West gets in with the spade king, West can force him again by leading the club ace, to ensure a second trump trick for his side.

In “Keys to Winning Bridge,” Frank Stewart debunks several of the game’s longstanding myths. One of the principles of defense in Whist, as espoused in the eighteenth century, was: When in doubt, win the trick. But as Stewart comments, though Edmond Hoyle’s axiom may have seemed valid 250 years ago, we have moved on from there.

Let’s take a look at three no-trump here. West leads the spade two, and dummy’s jack wins. Declarer continues with dummy’s diamond to East’s eight and his own king. If West takes his ace and leads, say, the spade queen, declarer wins and ducks a diamond. He takes the next trick and runs the diamonds, winning three diamonds, three spades, two clubs and a heart.

West should refuse to take the diamond ace, ducking as smoothly as he can. Declarer may lead another diamond and play low from dummy, hoping East held the doubleton ace-eight, but even if he reads the position correctly, he will never get more than two diamond tricks in any case, thanks to the absence of entries to dummy.

Let’s contrast the position if the king and jack of clubs were switched, so that West could be reasonably confident that dummy had an entry on the side. Now if you duck the diamond, you turn two sure tricks into one, so in matchpoints it may be right to win the trick. It would be even more difficult to plan the defense if dummy’s club jack were the queen. Now you can’t be sure whether dummy has an entry or not; but fortunately that isn’t our problem today.

In today’s deal, a straightforward strong no-trump auction leads you to three no-trump. North would need the diamond queen instead of the two to start contemplating higher contracts.

West leads the top of his heart sequence against the no-trump game, and it would be easy to relax and to fail to focus on what might go wrong. You will have plenty of tricks if diamonds behave and the suit breaks 3-2. Similarly, if West has diamond length, you should be able to negotiate the position easily enough. But what if East has long diamonds? You cannot do much about a 5-0 break, and some 4-1 breaks will prove too challenging. But if West has the bare queen, or if he has a singleton nine or 10, you can take steps to neutralize the defenders’ holdings.

Win the heart king at trick one to preserve dummy’s entries, then lead to the diamond ace and observe the fall of West’s nine. You can now guarantee your contract by leading a low diamond from dummy and covering East’s card. If East plays the 10 or queen, you can set up the suit easily. If he plays low, you put on the eight, knowing that if West wins the trick, the suit will break 3-2. And if West shows out, as here, you cash the king, go to the club ace and play a fourth diamond. You still have a heart entry to the board to cash the fifth diamond.

Of course, if West turns up with four diamonds, go up with the king and play a third diamond.

Part of Goldilocks’ rent payment, apart from an extended duty cleaning dishes, is listening to the convoluted stories that the Three Bears bring back from the bridge club.

When this deal was played at their club, all three were sitting East, so they had the chance to compare results over the next morning’s porridge.

Papa Bear had seen nothing of interest in the deal at all. “I was a little surprised to score below average here. My partner found his only decent lead of the night — a small club. I won my jack and continued the suit, then took the spade jack with my queen and continued the attack on clubs, but declarer won and eventually drove out my spade ace. Since there was no way to reach my partner’s hand, South came to nine tricks easily enough.”

Mama Bear told her story next. “If I had been lucky enough to win the first club, I would have known to shift to hearts to try to kill dummy’s entry, or even shift to diamonds. My declarer took the first trick and ducked the next club, and now it was too late for the defense.”

“Not at my table!” interrupted Baby Bear. “My partner also led a club. Declarer won the trick and led a spade to the jack, which I ducked. He crossed to hand in hearts and led a spade up, which I won and reverted to clubs. Declarer could set up a long heart, but still had only eight tricks, since he did not have the entries to establish spades.”