In today’s deal from a team game, both declarers reached four spades and received a trump lead.

At one table South decided to play for club ruffs. He won the first trick with the jack from dummy, and played a club to his queen. West returned a second trump after winning the club ace, East pitching the diamond two. South won in hand and ruffed a club, then had to decide how to return to hand.

Believing his opponents’ signals, he crossed to the diamond ace, then ruffed his last club, and now carefully played ace and a second heart. Had he played a diamond first, West would have won his king and led a heart, and could not then have been denied a diamond ruff. As it was, South could subsequently ruff a heart high to hand and draw the last trump, for 10 tricks.

South was optimistic about his chances of a swing, but in the other room declarer won the first spade in hand and ducked a heart. East won to play a diamond, and declarer finessed unsuccessfully. That let West play a second trump. South won the spade in hand to play the heart ace and ruff a heart high, then used the trump entry to dummy to ruff out hearts. He could later ruff one club loser in dummy and pitch one on the fifth heart, to score six trump tricks, two hearts, and two diamonds.

If defenders had won the diamond king to play back a club instead, South could have ruffed two clubs in dummy to come to 10 tricks.

Today’s deal is very satisfying, in that it illustrates the benefits of Bobby Fischer’s line about strategy at chess. When you find a good line, look for a better one. In today’s deal there was a decent and straightforward line, and a less obvious and better one. Fittingly, the cards rewarded the better play.

When the deal came up, both tables in a team game played in six spades. West had been dealt an apparently attractive top heart lead, though in retrospect he would have done better to lead clubs.

The auction having shown there was no future in hearts, both Wests shifted to clubs at trick two. One declarer drew trump and took the diamond finesse, and his 50 percent line did not come home.

In the other room South won the club king, and ruffed a heart to hand. Now he played the spade ace and a spade to the queen, relieved to see the break would allow him to take a second heart ruff. (Had spades not broken, he would have drawn trump and reverted to the diamond finesse.)

Now it was crucial to go back to dummy with a club (to stop anyone discarding from a doubleton) for the third heart ruff. South could next lead a diamond to the ace, draw the last trump with the spade jack, discarding his diamond loser, and claim the rest.

He had taken three trumps in dummy, three ruffs in hand, two diamonds and four clubs – a perfect example of a dummy reversal, in which the short hand draws trump.

Eighty years ago the Culbertson organization was the dominant one in bridge, and because it published the Bridge World it would frequently distribute deals played by Eli or his wife Josephine. However, they miscalculated when they complimented Josephine Culbertson for her play on this hand.

The auction posed South a real problem at her second turn; it might easily have been right to get partner to declare no-trump, but South bit the bullet and opted for the nine-trick game her way up.

Against three no-trump West obediently led his partner’s suit. Josephine Culbertson reportedly called for dummy’s jack and ducked East’s spade king. Now the defenders could lead a second spade, but West had no spade to play when in with the diamond king.

No mention was made of the fact that East had missed the correct defense of ducking the first round of spades. Now when West takes the diamond king and plays back a spade, declarer is toast.

Equally, it may be slightly less obvious, but declarer should have played low from dummy and from hand on the first spade — relying on split diamond honors. Then, no defense beats three no-trump. This idea of ducking the first spade applies equally well if the same contract is reached by North on either a low spade lead to the eight, or the 10 passed round to North. Ducking works equally well in this case too – but is no easier to spot.

In today’s deal North tries for a grand slam but signs off in six hearts when South cannot bid more than six diamonds over the five no-trump enquiry. (South would have done more with the diamond queen instead of the jack).

When West leads the club jack, South wins the ace and takes one top diamond. If no large diamond appears on his right or left, declarer might well simply draw all the trumps and play a second diamond to the jack. This line would succeed unless East had begun with a singleton diamond.

However, when the diamond 10 appears from East, South decides to take it at face value. He draws two rounds of trump ending in dummy, cashes two spades to pitch his club loser, then leads a diamond toward his own hand, while leaving one trump outstanding.

If East discards on the second diamond, South will win with the king, and give up a diamond. This leaves him in position to ruff a fourth diamond with dummy’s high trump.

However, since nothing can be gained by discarding, East ruffs the second round of diamonds and plays back a spade. South trumps, and can cash the diamond king, then ruff a diamond for his contract.

As an aside, maybe West could persuade you to go wrong if he started life with Q-10-9-3 by dropping the 10 on the first round? You might then draw all the trump before playing a second diamond, and be left with two diamond losers.

Most US experts play two over one as game forcing. But in competitive auctions two over one at the two level should not be forcing to game. It should show values but does not guarantee a rebid – anything that sounds non-forcing thereafter should be non-forcing.

Thus in today’s auction North’s raise to three hearts could be passed. South might well bid three no-trump over three hearts, (though it isn’t clear which game is best – it depends on who has the diamond ace).

Against four hearts West leads a top spade, and South has to guess whether to win or duck. He does well to hold up, to cut the defenders’ communications. If West continues spades, declarer wins, and lead a diamond to dummy’s king and comes to 10 tricks relatively easily.

But West does better to shift to a club at trick two, attacking declarer’s late entry for the diamonds. Declarer wins in hand and leads a diamond to the king, ducked by East. Now declarer draws two rounds of trump with the king and ace and leads a diamond to the 10 and jack. Back comes a second club, and declarer must win in dummy and lead a third diamond, subsequently using dummy’s last trump as the entry for the diamonds.

If East plays back a spade not a club after winning the diamond jack, declarer takes this in hand and must draw the last trump – if he plays the third diamond before doing so, West ruffs his partner’s winner to cash a spade for down one.

One of the most difficult and controversial areas of bridge is how to signal in a suit contract at trick one when an honor is led that will hold the trick, while dummy puts down a singleton.

There are two schools of thought: for what it is worth, I am closer to the first position, but the second is more popular. The first says “Signal attitude in the usual fashion if continuation is possibly correct. Only if continuation makes no sense do you use suit preference, low for the lower possible suit, high for the higher.”

The second more mainstream school suggests that everything is about suit preference when there are two possible suits to shift to. But if there is only one possible shift, encouraging the opening lead says don’t shift to the obvious suit.

In today’s deal West leads the heart king against four spades, and the singleton in dummy should affect what East’s signals ought to mean.

Here he should play the heart three, suggesting a high honor in clubs – clearly the ace from West’s point of view. So West shifts to the club four and the defense takes the next three tricks with the club ace, jack and king.

By contrast if East had the diamonds under control and no club honor he would follow with a high heart at trick one, and West could exit in diamonds. That would allow the defenders to collect whatever winners they are entitled to in due course.

After South opens one spade, North is too strong to raise to two spades but is not quite right for a limit raise to three spades. He plans to describe this hand by first bidding a forcing no-trump, then raising to three spades. However, when South shows a sixth spade, North should just up and bid game. A raise to three spades would be right were the spade jack the club jack.

After East wins the first two hearts and shifts to a club, South wins and can see he might lose two hearts, one diamond and one club. His best chance is to establish a long diamond, which will be easy if diamonds split three-three. But if they split four-two, dummy’s entries must be handled carefully.

South must duck a diamond at trick four. When West wins and returns a club, South can afford to cash only one high spade from his hand, since dummy’s trumps will be needed for entries to the diamonds. He then leads a diamond to the ace, ruffs a diamond high, leads a trump to dummy, ruffs another diamond high, and leads one more trump to dummy.

Trump having finally been drawn, South is in dummy where he wants to be, to cash the long diamond for his 10th trick.

Note that if South draws even one round of trump before ducking the diamond, the defense could then play a second round of spades, using up one of dummy’s entries prematurely. In turn, the defenders could set the game by shifting to trump at trick three.

As South in four hearts you can see you have one club and two diamonds losers off the top. Your first instinct might be to go for spade ruffs in dummy, but the problem with re-entries to hand makes this awkward.

Imagine you ruff a spade in dummy, cross to your club winner and ruff a second spade. So far so good; but when you draw trump, the bad break means you will never establish your long club.

Curiously, you can survive a 4-1 trump break, but not a 4-1 club break, when you would simply have four top minor-suit losers. Once you spot this, you may see the winning line of taking your spade ace and ducking a club at trick two. This allows you to be more flexible by retaining club entries to both hands.

If the defenders play on diamonds, you ruff two diamonds in hand, drawing trump with dummy’s excellent spots. If they play on spades, you ruff two spades in dummy, making South the master hand.

Equally, if the defense returns hearts, you win in hand, ruff a spade, return to hand with a trump, and ruff a second spade. That lets you play a club to your hand, draw trump and concede two diamonds at the end for 10 tricks.

The lesson of this hand is that when you have a 4-4 trump fit, you do not have to decide on the master hand immediately. You may need to wait until you have set up your ruffs. Equally, remember to protect your entries to retain trump control.