Goldilocks was well into spring-cleaning the bears’ cabin when she heard them return from their weekly foray to the bridge club. Today Papa Bear’s roaring could be heard as he came into the driveway. This was the board that upset him. His partner had declared three no-trump on a low spade lead.

“Can you believe the idiot put up the jack? He ducked the first and second spades

But West overtook, and cleared spades, with a sure diamond entry to shoot down the contract.”

Mama Bear felt she had done better. “I ducked the first spade in dummy, and when the 10 came up I played low from hand. I was hoping East had K-10 doubleton when the suit would be blocked. But as it was, West could overtake the queen when I ducked again, and now I was dead meat.”

Since Baby Bear was giving signs of being about to explode, Goldilocks decided to relieve the tension and ask him what had happened at his table.

“I played low from dummy and won with the ace,” he said. “This would block the suit whenever East has the doubleton king or queen of spades. I could then cross to the club king and play a diamond to the jack. Later I could use the heart ace entry for running the diamond eight. That would allow me to pick up any 4-1 diamond break.”

Since West might have overcalled with king-queen-fifth of spades and something in the red suits, this seemed best all round. And it worked.

In today’s deal, both tables in a team game reached three no-trump after West had preempted at unfavorable vulnerability. In one case South closed his eyes and jumped to three no-trump at his first turn, in the other case when North showed some values with a constructive call of three clubs, South converted to three no-trump. (Had North been weaker he could have used an extension of the Lebensohl convention by bidding two no-trump as a puppet to three clubs.)

The declarer who had followed the direct route in the auction won the first heart lead, unblocked clubs, then crossed to the diamond ace to try to run clubs. When that line failed, so did his contract.

In the other room South thoughtfully ducked the first two hearts as West led out the heart king, queen then jack, suggesting suit preference for spades. South pitched a spade from dummy on the third heart. Meanwhile, East did the best he could for his side by also discarding spades.

Declarer then advanced the club queen, followed by the club king. When West followed on the second round with the 10 declarer decided that since West had six hearts and East one, clubs were far more likely to be 4-2 initially than 3-3. Additionally the fall of the 10 was much more likely to be from a doubleton than J-10-7. So he overtook the club king with the ace and led out the nine, losing the trick to East, but setting up his ninth top winner in the process.

In today’s hand South’s hand is best described by an immediate jump to three no-trump, suggesting a balanced game-force with a balanced 13-15 points. When North moves on, he is suggesting a balanced 18-19 count. South would be prepared to offer clubs as a trump suit if he had four but not here, and his controls suggest moving directly to the no-trump slam.

The defenders make the natural, but helpful, heart lead. However, despite being gifted the solution to locating the heart queen, the contract is by no means cold. How should declarer play the hand to best advantage?

Good technique here is to win the opening lead in hand and lay down the club ace, just in case East has a singleton honor, then lead a club, planning to duck an honor from West or to cover a small card. By giving up your loser at once, it makes the rest of the hand much easier to play.

You can now win the heart return and cash off the third heart, then all the spades. You next test clubs and find out who began with the club length. In the process of delaying the diamond guess, you get a very full picture of the major suit distributions, since one defender or the other will show out in each suit.

Here, you will find West has five hearts, precisely two spades, and can be counted for four clubs. So cash the diamond ace and queen, and in the two-card ending, finesse against the jack with confidence.

In baseball a hitter is regarded as a huge success if he only fails seven times in 10. I occasionally have had to wonder if my own success rate hovers around the same average.

This hand comes from the Macallan tournament two decades ago. At one table Alfredo Versace declared an apparently awkward six heart slam here on the auction shown. After the lead of a top spade, Versace ruffed three diamonds in dummy, using a trump, club and spade ruff to reenter his hand. When he laid down the top trumps he ended up with all 13 tricks.

By contrast, I declared six clubs, which looks easier to make, but I had received an enterprising pre-emptive jump overcall in spades from Lars Blakset with the West hand.

After a top spade lead I set about the same cross-ruff, ruffing three diamonds in dummy, using a top heart and a spade ruff as reentries to hand. When the heart 10 fell I now thought I knew East, Jens Auken, had begun life with precisely 2=4=4=3 pattern. So I led dummy’s high trump and overtook it (setting up East’s 10) and played two more rounds of trump to leave East on lead.

If he had three hearts left, as did both dummy and declarer, he would be endplayed to lead a heart round to the jack, and I could finesse the heart nine on the way back, for a very elegant 12 tricks.

But Auken produced an impossible spade, down went the contract, and my chance of a brilliancy prize went up in smoke.

Today’s deal saw South compete to three spades at his first turn by virtue of his nice shape. When his partner doubled four hearts to show extra values it was relatively clear because of his lack of defense to remove to four spades.

At the table the defenders led the club king, and continued with the queen, then jack, overtaken by East for a trump shift. What happened at the table was that declarer won in hand and ran six rounds of trumps, on which West carefully discarded four hearts, baring his heart king, then finally a diamond, trying to simulate a man who was being forced to unguard diamonds. At this point declarer had to make a pitch from dummy with the ace-queen of hearts and ace-queen-third of diamonds left. He got it wrong when he discarded the heart queen, playing for the diamonds to run, and now had to go down.

Declarer would have done better with a slightly counter-intuitive strategy here. He should win the spade ace and does best first to cash the heart ace, then run all the trumps.

For this line to succeed, all declarer requires is for West to hold the heart king, and at least three diamonds to the king. By cashing the heart ace early, it saves you any guess as to which cards West has kept. If the heart king is not discarded, you will know to pitch the heart queen from dummy at trick 10, and hope that the diamonds will be running.

When South opens one heart, West does his best to disrupt his opponents by pre-empting to the three level. It now looks natural for East to sacrifice in four spades over four hearts, but had he passed, might it have ended the auction?

As it is, South seems to have enough to compete over four spades to the five level, and maybe even to look for slam. The five club call lets North show some suitability and a diamond control, with a return cuebid of five diamonds, and that should be just enough for South to bite the bullet and bid slam.

In six hearts, after a top spade lead, all you simply need to avoid losing a club, and must leave playing the suit as long as possible. Win the spade lead, draw trump by cashing the ace and leading the eight to the king, then play a diamond toward your queen. When East ducks, you win your queen and duck a diamond. East wins and returns a spade. You ruff high, lead the heart seven to the jack, and ruff a diamond high, as West follows suit again.

At this point you should count out West’s hand. He apparently started with seven spades, three or more diamonds, and two hearts, so he does not have room for more than one club.

So the winning play is clear: lead a club to the king, then follow up with a club to the nine. Next cross back to dummy with your trump three to the four, to lead a club to the jack.

Although defenders must not exchange information illicitly, they can legitimately try to use the size of the card they play to indicate their attitude to the suit led. Sometimes they can also pass on their count in the suit led (high for even low for odd).

Suit preference signals may also come into play, where the size of the card played indicates interest in the higher or lower of the other suits. Exactly the same principles exist when discarding rather than following suit.

Sooner or later, though, you will find that honesty is not always the best policy. Sometimes you may encourage your partner to continue leading his suit, for fear that he will shift to something worse. Equally, you might discourage your partner’s lead, when you can see that his obvious switch will be the right defense, even when you like the suit led.

In today’s deal you defend four spades after your partner opened two hearts. You should see that if you encourage West’s opening lead of the heart king by showing a doubleton, your partner will surely lead out three rounds of the suit, trying for an over-ruff. That lets the contract make, since declarer can ruff high, then discard a critical club loser on the diamonds – which maybe should not come as a total surprise to you.

If you discourage hearts at the first trick, implicitly showing an odd number of cards in that suit, then maybe partner will find the club switch at trick three?

I normally like to use deals where virtue is rewarded and carelessness punished. That is the case, in a way, with today’s deal; however, although it came close to deciding an international match, it did not quite do so. The margin of the match was just one IMP in favor of the team who failed to bring home game here – so you could argue that at a different vulnerability the unsuccessful declarer might not have slept well that night.

At the unsuccessful declarer’s table, the heart nine was covered by the 10 and ace. South took an unsuccessful diamond finesse, and East won to shift to the spade six, second highest, denying a decent suit. When Declarer won in hand and crossed to the diamond ace to pass the club jack. West lost no time in winning and playing back the heart eight, and now the defenders had five winners.

In the other room when the heart nine was led, declarer correctly ducked in dummy. He won his heart ace and led the diamond queen for the finesse. East won and played back a spade, just as in the other room.

But South made no mistake when he won the spade ace, then played the club ace and another club. West could win and play the heart eight through dummy, but when dummy covered with the 10, the contract was safe.

South had one heart, four clubs and two tricks in each of the other suits, nine in total.

Do you like South’s response of three no-trump to the opening one club bid? I cannot say I’m too enthusiastic about it, myself. The point is that your heart holding suggests that partner might be better off as declarer. And when your RHO passes over one club, wouldn’t you want him on lead rather than LHO – who might have a better idea of what to lead against a final contract of three no-trump? I’d prefer to respond one diamond here and let partner get no-trump in at his own convenience.

After a spade lead by West, declarer finds himself distressingly short of straw from which to put together some bricks. He plays the spade jack from dummy, and the first blow comes when East covers with the queen. South cannot afford to duck, for fear of losing four heart tricks on the go.

If clubs break 3-3 declarer needs only three diamond tricks, but if not, he will need some help in the diamond suit, both from a friendly lie of the cards, and friendly opponents.

When South leads the diamond queen from his hand at trick two West must not cover with the king, for that would allow dummy to win the ace and for declarer then to successfully finesse the nine. If West ducks the diamond king, then although declarer can set up three diamond tricks, he cannot do so without losing a trick in the process. The defenders simply set up spades, and declarer has just eight tricks when clubs do not behave.