In today’s deal when East opened two spades, some Souths might have doubled, planning to give partner a chance to show values, and if not, to play three no-trump. That would be sensible, but at the table our hero jumped directly to three notrump, to end the auction. Since dummy was not without its features, the play in three no-trump would have been very straightforward on a spade lead. However, West hit on a fourth-highest heart three, and that gave declarer real problems, since he could not reach dummy except in the diamond suit, which would need the diamond king to be onside. Otherwise, if the heart honors were wrongly placed, East would surely be able to win the diamond and play a heart through declarer.

However declarer found a solution, based on the fact that spades were known to be 6-2. He won the heart lead on table, finessed the spade queen, cashed the top clubs and the spade ace, then exited with the heart king. West could cash out the hearts, but was then endplayed to lead diamonds, after which dummy was high.

The first time I looked at the hand I thought that if South had exited from hand at trick seven with a low heart, West might have won with the ace and successfully exited with a low heart. But that would have gifted South an eighth trick; to make a ninth, he would then have had to endplay East with a spade, to force him eventually to lead diamonds round to dummy.

In today’s deal a penitent correspondent indicated what a neat line of play they had found – but only after going down at the table, then burning the midnight oil to discover their mistake.

Had North simply raised two spades to three (the value bid), South would of course have accepted. West led a top club against four spades and, unwilling to jeopardize his sure trump trick, continued with two more rounds of clubs, forcing dummy to ruff. An early trump or heart play would of course have been fatal. But now South cashed the spade queen – with East’s 10 suggesting there might be breakers ahead. That left declarer the decision of how to come to his hand to dispose of the outstanding trumps.

It seemed normal to take dummy’s diamond ace and king, then to re-enter hand with a diamond ruff. Nice try, but no cigar: West over-ruffed, and exited with a heart. With the lead locked in dummy, it was impossible to avoid promoting a second trump trick for West, which led to the contract’s defeat.

So: what was declarer’s remedy? South should simply have cashed both red ace-kings at once, first in diamonds, the shorter suit, then hearts, leaving himself with nothing but trumps in hand. Now, when he ruffs a diamond and is over-ruffed, he will be able to win whatever West leads next in his own hand, to complete drawing trump.

Even if West ruffs an early red-suit winner, declarer should still be able to cross to hand safely in the other red suit.

South might consider opening two clubs here – and if you were playing strong twos, this hand would be ideal for one. Still, whatever route South follows, a strong heart raise from North will surely see South drive to the heart slam.

After the lead of the spade jack South must make the key play at the first trick, and it might be one that would not occur even to an expert – until too late.

The slam appears to hinge on the club finesse. If it succeeds, so will the slam. But what if it should fail? All would be well if East could be persuaded to play back a spade. Can anything be done to persuade East to return a spade in this situation?

The answer to this question points you to the key play at trick one. You must put up the spade queen from the dummy, hoping East will cover with the king. Now when you win the spade ace it is no longer clearly a singleton.

Next take the club finesse, hoping that if it loses, East will be convinced by your earlier play into returning a spade. If he does, you will claim the rest, and East will feel like a fool; but you will get the credit.

Two further issues: do not draw trump before finessing in clubs, or West might get in a signal for diamonds. Secondly, your use of Blackwood followed by a jump to slam does suggest an ace is missing…but these things are always easier to work out with the sight of all four hands.

Goldilocks was at home preparing the porridge for the next day when the three bears trooped in from the local duplicate.

It did not take much perspicacity on her part to note that both parents were exhibiting even more angst than usual, while Baby Bear was beaming all over his face. Consequently, Goldilocks contented herself with a neutral greeting. But 30 seconds later, Papa Bear thrust a handwritten sheet of paper under her nose.

Showing her only the North and South cards from today’s deal he asked her how she would play three no-trump on a fourthhighest spade six lead. When Goldilocks put up dummy’s queen, it held the trick. Now she tried to sneak the diamond jack past East. No luck: East won the ace and put the spade jack on the table. Cover or duck?

Goldilocks conscientiously did the math: “Spades cannot be 6-2 on the lead of the six, since I can see the five four and two – so I must cover in case the spades are blocked.”

“My partner missed it!” huffed Papa Bear. “They covered the jack against me” said Mama Bear. “So we both scored terribly on the deal.”

Meanwhile Baby Bear, who had kept silent for 30 seconds – thereby beating his own world record by 25 seconds – could not contain himself any longer. “When I was East I unblocked the spade jack at trick one, and now when I won the diamond ace and put the spade 10 on the table the contract was dead in the water”.

“Just right,” said Goldilocks approvingly.

In today’s game the fate of the contract went from ‘healthy’ to ‘moribund’ at trick one, and the contract sank without trace at trick three.

South might have upgraded his hand into a one diamond opener, planning to rebid two no-trump over a major-suit response. The quick tricks in diamonds make that a sensible evaluation. But his side got to game anyway; all he had to do was bring it home.

After West led the spade queen, declarer played by rote, rather than addressing the real problem of the deal, when he ducked in both hands. Now forced to win the second spade in dummy, he started on diamonds, and when the 4-1 break came to light there came to light, he had no fallback play available. The clubs could be set up, but not cashed.

South should have worked out that if diamonds were breaking 3-2 now, they would still be breaking 3-2 later on in the deal. It was therefore right to go after clubs before diamonds, playing king, ace and a third club. If they broke 3-3 or the queen or jack fell doubleton, then the contract could be brought home.

This line requires a re-entry to the North hand, hence South needed to keep the spade ace intact and win trick one with the king. Then declarer can go after clubs directly, and the fall of the queen makes life easy. Even if one player had the club suit doubly guarded, South would still come home if diamonds broke.

When North shows at least nine cards in the minors by his rebid, South might look for a suit contract if his honors (and intermediates) in the majors did not suggest no-trump so strongly. For example if South’s red suits were switched he would surely use the fourth suit then raise diamonds. As it is, though, it looks logical to drive to three no-trump; now North’s weak tripleton in hearts is not enough of a reason to overrule his partner.

In three no-trump, dummy wins the spade lead with the ace. South can count two spade tricks, one heart, and eventually four diamond tricks plus at least two clubs. This is enough for game, but South must make sure nothing can go wrong.

If South goes straight after the diamonds, his best suit, East might win the ace. Now a spade will be led through him, establishing West’s long suit, forcing South to take nine tricks without losing the lead. A losing club finesse would then be fatal, since the defenders could run their spades.

It may look safe to play on hearts; but that too would fail. South does best to go after clubs. If the queen holds, South can switch his attention to diamonds. Should the finesse lose, West cannot safely continue the attack on spades.

Today, when the club finesse loses,West rates to lead another spade, hoping that his partner has the jack. But even if he finds a neutral exit in a red suit, declarer can establish nine tricks by setting up diamonds.

In today’s deal South gave his slam a decent shot but ran into accurate defense.

Later that night South realized that he could have made his contract; but the damage was already done.

After South opened a strong no-trump, West intervened with three hearts. Maybe North might have settled for a slam try, but at the table he bid five no-trump, to show a two-suiter. That got his side to their easiest slam, but when East found an inspired double, North thought there would be a heart ruff or bad trump break around, and so ran to six notrump.

When West led the heart king, South won and took two club finesses. They both succeeded, but when the bad break came to light, things looked bleak.

However, South spotted that there might still be hope if East could not reach his partner in hearts (and the auction had suggested as much), together with the spade queen. South cashed his club ace and all his diamonds winners, ending in dummy. Then he exited with the club 10, to throw East on lead.

If East had exited with a low spade, declarer would have had the rest of the tricks. But East found the elegant shift to the spade queen, blocking the suit, and leaving declarer a trick short.

So what was South’s error? He should have taken just three rounds of diamonds (leaving himself an entry to hand). That would have removed East’s exit cards, and allowed for the successful endplay in clubs.

Sometimes a contract can be so poor you have only one convincing line of play for your contract. And sometimes even identifying a playable line can be a struggle!

Here after South stretched to open two clubs, North relayed with two diamonds. Now when opener rebid two hearts, North raised to three hearts, (stronger than four hearts). Subsequently, an exchange of minor-suit cue-bids saw South elevated to slam. Did both players do too much? I guess so.

When West led the spade four, declarer ducked in dummy, hoping that West had led away from the 10. But East could follow with that card, and South won with the ace.

Declarer played two rounds of hearts, then four rounds of diamonds. His hope was that the hand with three trumps would have to follow to all the diamonds. Somewhat to his surprise, the cards cooperated, and two spades could be discarded from dummy. But when declarer played a spade, West hopped up with the queen to return his last heart, and kill dummy’s spade ruff.

As is so often the case, declarer’s fatal mistake came at trick one. When West produced the spade 10, South should riposte by allowing it to hold. Now the timing of the hand has changed. East will probably return a spade, but declarer takes his ace now.

The key difference now is that after two rounds of trump followed by four rounds of diamonds, dummy’s last two spades depart as before. But now a spade can be ruffed with dummy’s last trump and declarer can claim the rest.