Today’s deal looks too easy to be worthy of being a problem in this column. You play four spades after your partner has produced a second negative then suggested only tepid support for either major, persuading you that slam cannot be a favorite to make.

You receive the lead of the club jack, overtaken by East’s queen. When the club ace comes next, you ruff, and should pause before making your next play. The danger is that trumps are 4-1. If they are, then you will run out of trumps before you can establish your 10th trick from the hearts. The secret is to find the play that works when spades are no worse than 4-1 and hearts no worse than 4-2.

The solution is both charming and unusual. Declarer must attack both major suits in idiosyncratic fashion — by leading the jack or the 10 before any of the aces and kings. Suppose you lead the spade jack to trick three. West does best to win and force declarer with another club, ruffed in hand.

Now declarer plays the heart jack, to leave the defenders without recourse. The point is that the next round of clubs can be ruffed in dummy, and declarer can come to hand with a diamond to draw trump

If declarer plays either the spade or heart ace prematurely he fails. Either the defenders can set up a force (if you go after trumps) or take a heart ruff, if you let East in on the second or third round of hearts while West still has a trump left.

Arnold Palmer, who died last year, was a keen bridge player. His go-for-broke style was applied not only on the golf-course, but also in business, and equally, he also tended to go all out at the bridge table.

Here, when Palmer’s partner jumped to four hearts, he used Blackwood, then went all the way to seven no-trump. In that contract either a diamond or heart finesse would be necessary, but the heart finesse on its own would not suffice. However, after the seven no-trump call, West had hitched, which helped Palmer decide to play him for the missing high-cards. So rather than take the diamond finesse – in abstract the best chance — Palmer played to squeeze West.

After a club lead, he took the clubs and the diamond ace then ran the spades. On the last spade, West was toast. If he discarded a heart, Palmer would pitch the diamond from dummy and run the hearts with the aid of the finesse. If West discarded the diamond king, Palmer could let go a heart from dummy and finesse in hearts.

One of my readers, Peter Peng, a golfer and bridge player who has returned to the game after a 20-year layoff, had Palmer autograph the bridge book by my old boss Ira Corn, in which this play was first described. Corn, you will recall was responsible for assembling the Aces bridge team. At the end of 2016 the St. Petersburg Bridge Club auctioned the book, with the proceeds going to a children’s home.

On today’s hand, North had enough values together with a source of tricks to assume slam must have decent play. With a balanced hand, there didn’t seem a particularly easy way to offer a choice of slams, so he simply bid six no-trump. However, one possibility might have been to transfer to diamonds then jump to five no-trump, offering a choice of slams.

You could forgive West for feeling that the chance of a diamond lead costing a trick was negligible. You can tell the fates are aligned against you when you are dealt a four-card sequence and find when you lead it that it costs you a trick – in a vulnerable slam to boot!

The lead certainly simplified declarer’s task; when he put up the ace, the bad break came to light. His projected 13 tricks had turned into 11, but South began by running the clubs. West had to find three discards, and two of them were easy when he let go hearts. Then he bared the spade jack, but two rounds of spades put him back under the gun.

Both West and dummy had reduced to two hearts and four diamonds. On the last spade winner West let go a heart, as did dummy. Declarer led a diamond to the eight and king, crossed to hand with the heart ace and led another diamond. West had to split his honors, and declarer ducked the nine, leaving West to lead away from the 10-6 of diamonds into dummy’s Q-7. Contract made!

When South opens a strong no-trump, North has enough to raise to game. His strong six-card suit makes this worth much more than a typical nine-count.

From a bare suit headed by the J-10 it would be reasonable for West to lead a low spade, but the presence of the nine make the lead of the honor correct here.

South should win in hand (preserving a possible re-entry to the diamonds) and should lead the diamond jack, on which East has a problem. But when dummy comes down, East should be immediately aware that there is no apparent entry to dummy outside the diamond suit. Do not waste your time while declarer plans the play; think now!

East should be able to work out that if South has only two diamonds, he can prevent the diamond suit coming into play, by DUCKING the first diamond. South will probably repeat the diamond finesse, and you can spoil his day by winning your carefully concealed diamond king.

Be careful! The hand is not over yet. If you make the mistake of playing back a heart now, declarer can recover by running your lead to his 10, and all of a sudden dummy comes back to life. Instead, shift to the club eight, (showing no interest in the suit) and when your partner wins the trick he should revert to spades, leading back the spade 10. Even if declarer works out to duck your partner’s 10, you still beat the contract by winning the next spade and reverting to clubs.

Most of us are familiar with the idea that unnecessary jumps in an uncontested auction can be used for splinter bids. The definition of a splinter – devised by Dave Cliff and Dorothy Hayden Truscott in the 1960’s – is a forcing raise for partner’s suit, showing a singleton or void in the named suit.

The logic of the application of a splinter extends to the contested auction. On the sequence presented in today’s auction, where South was playing four-card majors, West promised both minors, and the jump to four clubs was a splinter raise, showing game-going values, with short clubs. It also set up a forcing pass if the opponents had bid on.

After West’s revealing lead of the spade two against four hearts, South saw that he surely had two losers in that suit. To set up an endplay, South won his ace, took the club ace and ruffed a club, crossed to hand with a top trump to ruff a club, then drew the last trump and led a diamond toward the king.

Whether West flew up with the ace or ducked, declarer could no longer be defeated. Say West ducks; declarer wins the king and plays a second diamond. East can win, but if he does he will be endplayed to broach spades, and that will still be 10 tricks for declarer. If West instead wins the second diamond and cashes the third, then he will have to give a ruff-sluff, and one of the spade losers goes away.

Some people play that South’s response of two no-trump would be invitational, so that with no major and 13 to 15 points, plus balanced distribution and stoppers in the unbid suits, he must bid three no-trump. Others play that two no-trump would be a minimum game force and a jump to three no-trump would be a strong no-trump.

All roads lead to the no-trump game, though, and after West leads the spade nine, South can see that he needs to set up clubs to make his contract. This will be easy enough if East has the heart ace. But South must try to develop a club trick without relying on a favorable lie of the cards, if he can.

Specifically, while trying to set up clubs, South must keep East out of the lead. If he does not do so, and lets East in, that player would be delighted to shift to a top heart and set up four tricks for the defenders in that suit.

South wins the spade lead in hand and goes after clubs. When West plays low, South puts up the king, comes to hand with a spade and leads another club. When West follows with the queen, South lets him win the trick. The clubs are now established, and South will be able to unblock the suit, and cross to hand to run the clubs.

If declarer had played clubs from the top, West could unblock his queen at his first opportunity. Now East would come on lead with the club jack, and sink the contract with a heart shift.

How should you play four spades when West leads the diamond two? It looks natural to win the diamond lead and draw one round of trumps with the ace, but if you do the game can no longer be made!

If you continue with the trump king, the 4-1 trump break will doom you. If instead you play a heart after cashing one round of trump, East will win and deliver a diamond ruff. The club king switch will then set up a fourth trick for the defenders, to go with West’s trump queen.

Since the contract will be easy if trumps break 3-2, you should assume a 4-1 trump break and lead a low trump to trick two. If West wins with the queen and crosses to partner’s hand with a heart to receive a diamond ruff, you will be able to draw trump when you regain the lead.

If West ducks the first round of trumps, you win the jack and return the favor by ducking the next round of spades. West has to win but can do nothing to harm you. Whether he plays a club, or two rounds of hearts to force dummy to ruff, you will be able to draw trump and run the diamonds.

It is important to remember that when you can afford to lose a trump trick, lose it at a moment when the defenders can do you no damage. Here it would be dangerous to lose a late trump trick, because dummy would then be out of trumps to protect you in hearts.

Occasionally your feeling of satisfaction as dummy comes down can give way to a rude awakening when you run into a foul break. You may now need to apply the little grey cells, as Hercule Poirot would say, to try to find a lie of the cards that will let you recover.

In today’s deal West led the spade queen against six hearts, reached after some insouciant bidding from North. Declarer won and confidently led his low heart to the jack.

When East showed out, South looked unhappily at his trump nine, realizing that had this card been in dummy, the play for 12 tricks would have been relatively simple. There again, if East had held the four trumps, the nine would have been in the right place.

Needing an endplay, South realized that West would have to hold at least three diamonds, so correctly played on that suit first. When West proved to have four cards in that suit, he ruffed his last diamond in dummy.

Now came the critical guess; West was known to have started with eight cards in the red suits, so declarer now had to decide in which black suit he would have three cards. Using the clue of the opening lead, South took the spade king and ruffed a spade.

Next came both top clubs and a third club. West did his best by ruffing in with the eight, but South underruffed in dummy, leaving West to lead from the K-10 of trumps at trick 12, while dummy held the guarded ace and South the queen; contract made!