In today’s deal the bidding (or lack thereof) gives you a vital clue to the lie of the cards.

When West leads the spade king against six hearts, you win and draw trump in two rounds while ruffing two spades in your hand and one club in the dummy, eliminating the black suits.

West drops the black jacks on the third round of spades and clubs. This tends to suggest that if anyone holds four diamonds, it will be him. Another clue is that if West had a singleton diamond and 10 cards in the black suits, with a known good spade suit, he would surely have bid over one heart.

Taking all of this into account, you should lead the diamond eight, planning to run it. If East wins with a singleton nine, jack or queen, he will have to concede a ruff-and-discard with his return. If he wins and is able to return a diamond, the suit will break 3-2. At the table, if West covers the diamond eight, you will win dummy’s diamond ace and continue with a low diamond toward your 10. West will win the trick, but must then lead away from his remaining diamond honor, or give a ruff-and-sluff.

If the auction or play had led you to believe that East had the diamond length, you would instead cash the diamond ace and lead low toward your 10. When East rises with the queen or jack on the second round, he would then have to lead into your diamond tenace or concede the ruff-sluff.

Looking at the North-South hands, wouldn’t you expect 12 tricks to be made every day of the week? There are six top winners in the red suits, and five in the black suits. Declarer can test clubs and fall back on the spade finesse if necessary…can’t he? Up to a point, yes; but sometimes the defenders can force declarer to commit himself prematurely, and that is so in today’s deal, though it may not be obvious at first or even second glance.

At the table, the bidding saw North make a quantitative jump to four no-trump and South found a scientific way to explore for a minor-suit slam, settling in six no-trump when no club fit came to light.

When West led the diamond jack against the slam, South won with the queen. He led a heart to the king and then led back to the 10. West ducked twice, won the third heart and returned the diamond 10.

Now declarer was at the crossroads. In dummy for the last time, he had to decide what to discard on the other top diamond. Aware that the 3-3 break was against the odds, he chose to discard his small club and take the spade finesse, to go two off.

Declarer might have considered testing the clubs after two rounds of hearts were ducked, though if the hand with four clubs also has the heart ace, the contract would now fail. This seems the best line to me; but whatever the case, the credit should go to West for his thoughtful defense.

In today’s deal, with a singleton, five trump, and apparently fitting cards, South should jump directly to four spades at his second turn after discovering his partner has opening values and spade support. A bid of three spades would be purely competitive and not a game try, while a double of three hearts would be a more balanced game try.

When dummy comes down, South can count just four tricks in side suits. He therefore needs to take six trump tricks. One way is to win four trumps in his own hand and ruff two cards in the dummy. Another way is to win three trumps in the dummy and to ruff three cards in his own hand. Either way will work perfectly well, so long as South avoids drawing trump prematurely. As is usual, when you want to ruff things, don’t draw trump.

The easiest route to the cross-ruff is to trump two of clubs in dummy. The first step is to win the opening lead and try the club finesse. West wins the club king and shifts to ace and another spade, since he can the see the looming threat.

South now leads a club to his ace, ruffs a club to dummy, then ruffs a heart, and ruffs another club. At this point South can afford to draw West’s last trump. He comes to his hand by ruffing another heart and leads out his last high trump. He has taken eight tricks, and can collect his side’s diamond winners to make his contract.

Times are changing somewhat since I learned the game of bridge as to whether success can most easily obtained by playing well or making your opponents play badly. One aspect of this is whether to look for major suit fits facing a one no-trump opener, or whether to blast out three no-trump when you have a balanced hand with a four-card major, thus giving away less information.

In today’s hand I would say Stayman is optional for North, but as it turns out, South will end up in three no-trump whatever North does.

Against three no-trump West should lead the spade queen, and South must hold up dummy’s ace for two rounds in an attempt to cut the defenders’ communications. But it is the next trick that is critical for the success or failure of the contract.

When the heart queen is led from dummy, East must refuse to cover it, and he must also resist the urge to cover when the jack comes next. The point is that his own intermediates are so weak that he knows he can never build a trick for himself, much less his partner, who cannot hold more than two cards in hearts from the play thus far.

Provided East saves his king, declarer will end up one trick short in his contract. He has one spade, one club, plus three tricks in each red suit, but no more. If East covers either the first or second heart, declarer should collect four heart tricks, and East will have a red face.

Today’s hand, comes to me from Ed Freeman, and was originally played on BridgeBase.

West’s aggressive overcall might have led declarer to finding his way home in three no-trump. The two club overcall was part of a method called Suction, showing either long diamonds or both majors, at least 5-4 shape. North’s double was Stayman, the two diamond call suggested diamond tolerance, and the two heart bid showed the majors. Now North suggested a heart stopper, looking for a spade stopper from his partner, and South followed instructions and bid three no-trump.

The question posed was how to make three no-trump on a small spade lead to the ace. When East returned the spade nine, South covered, and West ducked. Now how was declarer to continue?

If declarer tries to cash out the diamonds, as he did at the table, he will be disappointed in the result. South can then take his club winners, but unless West does something foolish, declarer will take no more than eight tricks.

The best way to make the hand is to pitch a diamond from dummy at trick two, then exit with a spade at trick three. (Some small variations in the timing are possible). This is a classic suicide squeeze, in that if West cashes all his spades East succumbs to pressure in diamonds and clubs. If West shifts to a club or heart without cashing all the spades, declarer can simply set up the ninth trick in diamonds.

When South opens one no-trump, North should conclude that despite his weak majors, the practical game is the nine-trick one. With a singleton major, he would feel very differently.

After a low heart lead against three no-trump, South has five tricks from the majors. If East plays any heart but the king, South would have to win the trick, but when the king pops up, he can duck and win the next heart.

South needs four tricks from the minors; which suit should he go after first? Today, it would be fatal to go after clubs, since they can provide only three tricks. West would take the club ace and drive out South’s remaining heart honor, then would get in with the diamond ace to run the hearts.

The best chance is to lead a LOW diamond at trick three. This offers two chances. If East can win the ace, the suit may break three-three and provide four tricks all by itself.

The second chance is that West may have the diamond ace. If so, he must duck, or South can win four diamond tricks, even if the suit breaks four-two. When West plays low, South has stolen a diamond trick and can then switch to clubs for his nine tricks.

Note that if declarer plays East for ace-fourth of diamonds and crosses to the spade ace at trick three to lead a diamond toward his hand, an inspired East might fly up with the ace from his hypothetical ace-fourth. He could then return a heart, leaving the diamonds blocked.

I have to admit I might have duplicated East’s actions on today’s deal, and paid exactly the same penalty for an over-active imagination.

At the table East was outside the range for a strong no-trump. He opened one club, and South’s simple overcall in diamonds was passed back to him. You could argue he might have let well alone; West surely had to be weak, because he could not hold diamonds and a penalty double, given East’s diamond holding.

But East reopened with one heart anyway, letting South compete with an imaginative and aggressive jump to two spades, and now North rubbed it in by driving to the spade game.

West kicked off with the heart 10, and South played low from dummy, both on the first and second round of the suit. After ruffing low in hand, he drew two rounds of trump, relieved to see the suit break, and now felt confident from the bidding that East held the diamond king.

To keep West off play, he led out the diamond ace then the queen, and had achieved his objective. (Had he let West in, a third heart would have set up a heart winner for the defenders eventually).

East did his best to force declarer again by playing the heart ace, but declarer ruffed with his last trump, trumped a diamond in dummy to set up the suit, then played a club toward his king. East had to take his ace, or lose it, but that was the end of the defense.

When South opens one no-trump, North knows that his side has the values for game. While some would blast three no-trump and let the opponents find the killing lead, purists would prefer to describe their hand and let partner decide where to play. After a minor suit transfer, new suits at the three level should show shortness; with a long minor and four cards in a major, you would start with Stayman.

When West leads the spade three against three no-trump, South should duck the first two spades, hoping the suit will block. If so, East will have to shift, leaving the spade ace in dummy.

As it happens, East’s doubleton double honor means the suit does block, and East therefore shifts to the heart 10 at trick three. When South wins his heart ace it may look natural to cash his top diamonds; but it would be fatal today.

When declarer plays a third diamond, West would take his queen to play a third spade. Declarer would be cut off from the heart king, and would thus come up a trick short.

Equally, South cannot cash his heart king before he gives up the diamond trick. West would unblock his heart queen and the defense could then run the hearts.

The paradoxical solution is to play ace then a small diamond at trick five. South can subsequently get back to his own hand with the diamond king to cash the heart king. Then he can re-enter dummy with a black suit ace to run the rest of the diamonds.

When you open a major suit doubled on your left, your partner will often want to raise your major, both constructively and obstructively. Rather than raising with all hands with 3-9 points, you might choose to subvert a response of two clubs to show a maximum simple raise, while the direct raise is 4-6 HCP.

Using this gadget gets you to game here. But how will you play four spades when West leads the heart king? You must keep East out of the lead, for fear of a diamond shift. So duck the heart king lead, in case West could later cross to his partner’s heart jack or 10.

You win the next heart in dummy, and now have to tackle trumps. Today, if you play the suit from the top, East will be able to ruff in on the third round of clubs and find the killing shift to a diamond. To prevent this, it feels right to lead a spade to the 10 immediately. If trumps were originally 2-2, you will be able to set up clubs after drawing trump, as you have a late trump entry to the board.

Here, though, West can win with the jack, but can only exit with a club, which you will win in hand to run your trumps. In the five-card ending, dummy has two diamonds and K-Q-8 of clubs. To keep clubs guarded, West must pitch all his hearts and the diamond queen, coming down to the bare diamond ace. You switch tack now, discarding dummy’s small club, then give up a diamond to West and claim the rest.