Today’s deal is not especially challenging, but it does require a little care and attention. Against four spades the club king is led and ruffed. Declarer appears to be in decent shape so long as diamonds behave, but when declarer cashes the spade ace, and discovers the 4-0 trump break, he needs to be a little careful.

If he plays diamonds from hand by leading ace and another diamond, and finds West with a singleton, he might lose three diamonds and a heart. So he does much better to cross to the spade jack at trick three and finesse in diamonds, which is the best safety play against a 4-1 diamond break.

The diamond finesse loses, so declarer ruffs the next club and plays the diamond ace and another diamond. West wins and can play a third club if he wants, but declarer counters by discarding the heart four from hand. Now dummy’s spade six can take care of the next club, and declarer can cross to hand in hearts and draw trump to score his long diamond at trick 13.

Note that if declarer draws trumps at once, he runs out of trumps. Incidentally, had spades broken three-one, declarer would have cashed a second trump from hand and played the diamond ace, then crossed to dummy with the spade jack to lead a diamond towards his queen. This protects against all the four-one diamond breaks except those where West began with K-J-10-x, in which case there is nothing to be done anyway (without the sight of all four hands).

Do not worry about how to bid the South cards. The chances are that you’ll get a hand of this strength about once every 10 years (so long as you play two sessions of bridge a day, every day of the week).

South receives negative responses from North at his first three turns, as well he might. He then has to decide whether to risk the five-level in search of a slam. When he does, North has – in context – a pretty good hand with a guaranteed working honor and three trumps, enough to bid on.

To make his slam, South must try to avoid the loss of two spade tricks, which is simple enough if each opponent has three spades. If spades break four-two, however, South must play with some care. The key is to draw only one round of trumps before conceding a spade. At that point the defenders rate to exit in a minor, and now declarer draws a second round of trump and tests spades.

South must hope that the player with four spades also has three or more trumps. Then South will be able to ruff his last spade in dummy without being over-ruffed.

The traps are to draw two rounds of trumps before giving up a spade, when East would return a third trump to kill the spade ruff in dummy. But also note that if South does not draw two rounds of trump, instead cashing one or two top spades before giving up a spade, then East can lead another spade and allow West to ruff. Either way, South would go down.

It is almost always right to reopen the bidding when dealer opens and the auction dies on the first round. If the opponents belonged in game, they would surely not have stopped at the one level. The hand almost surely belongs to you, or the limit of the deal is a partscore for the opponents.

In any event, South has plenty in hand for his reopening action today. When North shows a high card raise of spades, South bids game. He may not make it, but he might as well bid it and find out the hard way.

After leading a top heart, West shifts to the club queen. Now South is threatened with the loss of a heart, a club, and two diamonds. What can be done to avoid that?

Declarer must try to establish one of dummy’s hearts as the 10th trick; but it will need a little defensive assistance. Declarer ducks the club queen, and now to set the game East must overtake and shift to diamonds. When, instead, he encourages on the queen, South wins the next club and ruffs a club. Then he draws trump ending in dummy, and leads the heart 10, throwing away a sure loser in diamonds.

West can win, but is endplayed. He does best to lead a low heart, forcing declarer to guess whether to put up the nine. South should do so: not only might East have acted with as few as four or five points, he would surely have covered the heart 10 on the second round, to set the game.

When South hears his partner cuebid two spades, initially a game try, he temporizes with three diamonds. After one more cuebid from South, North takes control with Blackwood, then bids five no-trump to indicate possession of all the key cards and trump queen, and eventually settles for the small slam.

After the lead of the spade king to the ace, declarer draws trump with the heart king and ace. Now before testing diamonds, he takes the club ace and king, and ruffs a club in hand. On this trick West discards a spade, suggesting he rates to hold at least three diamonds. So declarer cashes the diamond king, and leads a diamond to the 10. When East discards, South exits with a spade. West can win, but is faced with a choice of ways to surrender the 12th trick, either in the form of a ruff-and-discard or a diamond lead into the tenace.

If declarer had played the hand in more simple fashion, just exiting in spades after eliminating the trumps and clubs (as many people would), then he would have survived if West had taken the second spade. Then, if West led a diamond from the queen, the diamond loser would vanish, while if he gave a ruffand-discard, South could ditch one diamond and still be on the diamond guess.

However, the defense would prevail if East could win the spade exit and lead a diamond. West can simply cover declarer’s card and collect a diamond winner at the end, whatever declarer does.

Should West double one heart, facing a passed partner? At a different vulnerability, he might feel braver, and get his side to four spades. Today, when West passes, you get to play four hearts on a spade lead, and are threatened with four losers if the club ace is wrong.

To set up an endplay, ruff a spade trick two and lead a trump hoping for a friendly shift. West does well to win his heart ace and passively return a trump. You win in hand, ruff the last spade, cash the diamond ace, and lead to the diamond 10. West gets his queen, but must now lead a club or concede a ruff and discard.

In addition to the endplay chances that hold on the actual deal, this line produces a discard for your club loser if West has three cards and either the diamond honors are split, or West has both honors. It also works if either player has a doubleton or singleton honor, as well as if either hand began with QJ doubleton. And if not, South can always fall back on the club finesse.

Note that if you do not ruff a spade at trick two, you cannot strip off the spades. For example if you play trumps immediately, West eventually has a safe spade exit or you run out of trumps. Equally, if East gains the lead in diamonds, he will play a club through you, to set the contract.

Finally, if you play on clubs before diamonds, the defense cash their clubs and exit with a third club, leaving you with a diamond loser.

The contract of six spades is reached along straightforward lines when South shows a balanced 22-24, and North transfers into spades to show five, then offers a choice of slams with his call of five no-trump. South selects spades, hoping he can arrange a club ruff in his hand.

Six spades ought to be straightforward enough, but the duplication of values in the club suit means that not only is declarer reliant on the hearts behaving in moderately friendly fashion, he also has entry problems in ensuring he can play hearts to best effect.

The opening lead is the club four to declarer’s ace. Now comes the spade king, and declarer can afford to overtake his king with the ace when West follows suit. At this point declarer plays a heart to the jack and queen. (If West ducks this he may lead declarer astray, I suppose, but few would find that play – and declarer can still survive.)

South wins the next club, to lead the spade 10 from hand. When West follows to the trick, he overtakes it in dummy to take a second heart finesse. The 4-1 trump break does not inconvenience declarer, thanks to the multiple unblocks. When the second heart finesse works, South can finesse the spade eight and run the spades, to draw the rest of the trump, discarding diamonds from hand. Finally, a third heart finesse brings home the bacon.

Declarer finishes up taking five spades, three hearts, and two tricks in each of the minors.

Whatever action East takes here, South should compete as far as three hearts. The defense leads three rounds of diamonds, trying to kill declarer’s discard. The third diamond will get ruffed and over-ruffed, and now South needs to try to hold the black suit losers to two. Since East is likely to have the club ace, it seems right to lead a low club from dummy to the queen. Then he draws trumps, leading high hearts from hand, before advancing his second club. Declarer covers West’s card with his nine, and East takes his 10 and gets out with a top spade. Win or duck? Pause for reflection before committing yourself.

You have two chances for the contract, but simplest is to try to ruff out the club ace, which works if East has only three clubs.

What if he does not? Then East would have begun with six diamonds, and four clubs. Given that he is also known to hold two hearts, East can’t have more than one spade in that scenario, can he? Therefore you should let the spade king hold the trick. What can East do? If he gives you a ruff-sluff, it lets you pitch one of your spade losers. Meanwhile, if he plays a club, be it high or low, it will let you use the club king as a discard for your spade loser.

Had you won the spade ace, then whether you led a high or low club from dummy, or a spade, you would not be able to avoid two further spade losers.

In today’s deal, West has a full range opening bid with a chunky five-card major. When East raises one heart to two, South must come in now. This is a safe spot to overcall. With something close to an opening bid, plus a six-card suit, you have a little in hand for acting, especially when the opponents have found a fit.

North must now support spades. A few wild optimists might raise to game; but the cue-bid raise is a slightly more prudent action. It asks South if he has any extras; if not, as here, South can sign off in three spades. At this point North should trust his partner and pass. Will he be justified in his caution? Watch this space.

Against three spades, West will lead the heart king and follow up with the ace. But what should he do next? If he plays a spade, diamond or heart, declarer wraps up nine tricks. And a club… holds declarer to eight tricks. What is more, if West trusts East, he should know to play a club. Why? Because of the heart spots East follows with on the first two tricks, the second of which should be significant.

Specifically, East’s heart at trick two should be suit preference. If West thinks about his partner’s small hearts, he will read the first one as attitude, but at trick two the size of the ‘irrelevant’ small heart should be suit preference. When West sees his partner follow with the smallest heart, he should shift to clubs, and defeat the contract.

In today’s deal you have nine top tricks in four hearts after a top spade lead. Where should you go to you find another – and would your strategy vary if you were playing pairs as opposed to teams?

It seems logical to try to develop the diamonds. So after taking your spade ace, you might be tempted to cross to a heart in dummy and finesse in diamonds. If that succeeds, you might ruff out the diamonds and come home with 12 tricks. At pairs that would be a perfectly reasonable line if you suspected the field would be playing four hearts.

At teams you can do better, by cashing the ace of trumps at trick two. Were hearts 4-0, you might revert to taking the diamond finesse. But when both hands follow to the first trump, cash the diamond ace and then continue with the queen. The defense will take their spade winners and shift to clubs. You can win in dummy, ruff a diamond high, then cross to dummy with a trump to ruff another diamond high, and play a trump to dummy. At this point all the opponents’ trumps have been drawn and you are in dummy to cash the long diamond for a club discard.

This plan is better than taking the diamond finesse, since it succeeds unless diamonds break 5-1 or worse – and that will happen less than one time in six. By contrast, using a trump entry to take the diamond finesse will fail almost a third of the time, when diamonds are 4-2 with the finesse failing.