Today’s deal from last year’s spring nationals at Reno sees South toiling in two spades on a diamond lead from West. When East covers West’s diamond with the 10 to preserve the defenders’ communications, South must win the diamond king. What next?

At the table South decided to take his side winners before the rats got at them, and took the club queen and ace, then played a second diamond. East cashed his two diamonds, West discarding the heart five.

Now instead of exiting in trump (perhaps indicated, since declarer had not gone after spades himself) East played a heart, ducked to West’s king. West got out with a top club, and East ruffed in with the spade eight. South could over-ruff and lead the spade six, which West won to play the fourth club. When declarer ruffed again, he had taken five of the first nine tricks, and now had to guess West’s original shape to make his contract.

If West had begun with 4=3=2=4 shape, it would have been correct to lead ace and a second heart. West would have had to ruff his partner’s winner and lead into South’s tenace in trumps. But if East is down to two cards in each major, you must play the spade ace and another spade now. West will have to win and break hearts for you. Which is the better line?

Play for the latter position. West would have exited in hearts rather than lead the fourth club, if he had begun with a doubleton heart. That play would have assured him an additional trump trick.

The deals this week come from last year’s spring nationals at Reno. Bart Bramley reported this deal to the Daily Bulletin, where his opponent in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams round-of-16 match had made a very thoughtful play.

Both tables had played in three diamonds, but in one room (where East had simply raised to two hearts) declarer misguessed the location of the club queen and went one down.

On the auction shown, Lew Stansby as East had shown 10-11 points or so by his cuebid raise, and Bramley led the spade jack to the queen, king and ace. Declarer, Poon Hua, played a heart next, and Bramley took his ace to cash the spade 10, and continued with the spade nine ruffed by South.

Instead of playing for a miracle in diamonds, declarer elected to lead out ace and another diamond, putting West on play. Technically West should play his partner for the queen-nine of clubs by leading a club, but declarer’s line had suggested this would not work, and that leading a club would solve a guess for him. So Bramley exited with a heart instead.

Declarer won dummy’s king, pitching a club, then trumped a heart in hand, and guessed extremely well to play a club to the king and lead dummy’s last heart. East pitched his spade, so declarer ruffed and exited to East with his last trump.

In the two-card ending East had to lead a club round to dummy’s jack, for declarer’s ninth trick.

Once at national tournaments there was only one serious event taking place at any one time. These days, secondary events generally run opposite the main tournament. These may for example, be for Seniors, or those with a limited number of masterpoints.

In Reno last spring when the final round of the Swiss Teams for those with fewer than 10,000 masterpoints began, there were three teams in contention for first place. Jerry Stamatov’s team finished second, thanks to this deal. For the record, after the artificial start to the auction, an exchange of natural calls followed by cuebidding had seen South reach the top spot.

Stamatov won the lead of the diamond 10 in hand, drew two rounds of trump to find the bad but not fatal news, then needed to reduce his spade holding in hand to play for a trump coup.

He played ace, king and a third club, ruffed as East followed suit. A diamond to the ace, and a diamond ruff saw East pitch a heart. Now came the heart king and a heart to the ace, and when East followed suit declarer was home in the three-card ending.

On the lead of the diamond jack, if East ruffed, Stamatov would over-ruff, draw the last trump and claim. If East discarded, declarer would pitch his heart, then lead a plain card from dummy, and East’s apparent trump trick would vanish.

In the other room they played seven no-trump down three, for a huge swing to Stamatov’s team.

There is nothing I appreciate more than receiving a deal from friends and colleagues – especially one that shows the true experts falling from grace. And my readers should realize that if the top players can err, there is hope for everyone.

David Gurvich was watching a match in the Vanderbilt Knockout Teams match between Mahaffey and the Texan Aces last spring in Reno. At both tables, South declared four hearts on the lead of the diamond jack to dummy’s queen. East’s diamond five at trick one would be true count – but it is of course very hard to read.

Both declarers led ace and another heart, a line that would succeed unless hearts were 3-1 with no singleton honor to the right, and the club finesse was failing. But today was that unlucky day.

A far better approach is to lead a heart from dummy at trick two, covering East’s five. While there are some unlucky lies of the cards where this would fail, in practice West will win the heart 10, and return a diamond. When East follows suit, you can guarantee the contract by leading a heart to the ace.

When West discards, you simply ruff a diamond in dummy. It does East no good to over-ruff, because you have entries back to hand to pitch clubs on the two good diamonds. But if East does not over-ruff, play a third trump yourself. You can win the club return, and again discard both of dummy’s club losers on your good diamonds.

All the deals this week come from last year’s Spring Nationals tournament in Reno to mark the fact that this year’s event is currently taking place in Kansas City,

Today’s deal cropped up in the last set of an early Vanderbilt Knockout match. Three diamonds might not seem a healthy spot, but you are not displeased to see the heart queen hit the table. When you try a club to the queen to your surprise and pleasure, it holds the trick. Things are definitely looking up! What should you do after taking the heart ace to pitch a spade from dummy?

At the table, West covered declarer’s heart nine, to force declarer to ruff in dummy. South next exited with the spade queen. West won, led a heart for his partner to ruff and back came the diamond jack. Now the contract could no longer be made.

At trick four it was necessary to take the diamond finesse, and only now should you exit with the spade queen. The defenders do best to let West win and play a second trump, which you win, to duck a club.

When East wins, his best move is to play back a heart to the 10 and jack, ruffed in dummy. South cannot afford to ruff a club now, since West would be able to over-ruff and exit in spades. Instead, declarer leads another club, and discards a spade on it. East is endplayed, either to set up a club or a spade for declarer’s ninth trick.

Since the spring nationals are taking place this week in Kansas City, I shall be writing up some of the best hands from last year’s tournament in Reno.

In today’s deal, from the second qualifying session of the Kay Platinum Pairs, David Grainger demonstrated some neat declarer-play skills. He could overcall two hearts to show six hearts and a decent hand, after which North took a slightly pushy call to drive to game (a simple raise or cuebid raise might have been enough).

The defenders would have prevailed had they led and continued trumps, but West can hardly be criticized for kicking off with a top club. Grainger ruffed this, and read the clubs as being 6-2.

He decided that his best chance would be to find East with four cards in each major. So he ruffed the club, crossed to the spade king, then ruffed a second club and played the spade ace, spade queen and ruffed his fourth spade, over-ruffing West’s heart three with the nine.

Now Grainger ruffed a third club as East discarded a diamond (ruffing in with the jack or 10 would have let declarer pitch a diamond and take a trump finesse later). He next led a diamond to the ace and advanced a fourth club, to ensure he could take two more trump tricks, whatever East did.

That meant declarer could score four tricks in spades, the diamond ace, and five trumps in hand to come to 10 tricks.

In today’s deal South showed a strong hand plus a long minor when he jumped to three no-trump at his second turn. Playing Kokish relays, had he held a minimum balanced hand he would have rebid two no-trump. In this method, all other balanced game-forcing balanced hands start with an artificial two heart rebid at the second turn.

South had coped with the action perfectly but he relaxed prematurely after the club 10 lead traveled round to his king. He exited with the club queen, and West won and rather desperately shifted to a low spade to his partner’s ace for a spade back. West captured the queen with the king and now ingeniously exited with the diamond 10. Declarer could have run the diamonds but he saw this would squeeze dummy. Instead, he stripped off the diamonds and took his best shot in the hearts when he led up to the queen in dummy. East won this with the king, and returned a heart. Declarer put in the 10, losing to the jack, and that was down one.

The winning line for South is to cash three diamonds at once, then lead the club king. The defenders can take their club and spade winners as before, but West must then lead a heart for declarer. When South plays low from dummy, then even if East can put in the jack declarer can win and run all but one diamond to come down to two black winners in dummy and the bare heart queen. Then he exits in hearts, and take two of the last three tricks.

Not all nine counts are created equal. Facing a strong no-trump, North has a chunky five-card suit. He knows that his partnership is close to the game zone, and the long suit may well provide South with enough material for the nine-trick game to have play. So he should simply bid three no-trump instead of merely inviting it with a bid of two no-trump.

After a heart lead, not only does the heart finesse lose but the heart ace is knocked out of the dummy before South has had time to establish the clubs. Nonetheless it looks logical for South to go after the clubs, but look what happens when South leads out the club king and another club. West will duck both the first and the second club but will take the third club if South plays it. Similarly West will likewise refuse the king and diamond queen, but should take South’s low diamond at his first opportunity, to block the suit. Then he can clear the hearts, and South will end up making only two clubs and two diamonds. Coupled with two tricks in each major, that comes to just eight tricks for declarer.

By contrast, if South goes after diamonds early, he can make sure of reaching dummy for the third diamond trick, because he has a sure entry to the board in clubs. The defenders can take two hearts and two aces, but declarer can come to three diamonds and two tricks in each of the other suits, for nine tricks in total.

In today’s deal East was a relative novice, but one who had already indicated that he had a decent nose for the game. Against four hearts West had no reason to find the killing club lead. Instead he led the diamond two, and declarer played low from dummy. When East won his king, there followed a long pause. Eventually South asked East if he knew whose lead it was, but East was not to be goaded into coming to a premature decision. Eventually the club ace hit the deck, somewhat to West’s surprise. However, as the play advanced he realized that his partner had found the only defense to beat the contract.

To South’s credit, when he found that he had an inescapable loser in each major, he congratulated his RHO and asked how he had found the killing defense. As East explained, South was marked from the auction with at least 10 cards in the majors. That left room for just three minor suit cards.

When West led the diamond two, this could in theory have been from three or four cards to one honor but not to a holding including both the queen and jack. If the lead was from a three-card suit, then South would have been void in clubs, but could not have a diamond loser. Therefore even if the club ace was ruffed away, it could not matter.

However if South held a singleton club with either the doubleton diamond jack or queen, then declarer’s club loser could be disposed of on dummy’s diamond winner.