Today’s deal from a team match saw both declarers sensibly treat the South hand as worthy of a weak two, in first seat non-vulnerable. The playing strength from the diamonds and the internal solidity of the spades more than made up for the missing high honors.

When North raised to game, both Wests led the club king. Each declarer saw that the easiest route to 10 tricks would come from ruffing three diamonds in dummy. First the club loser would be discarded on the heart king, and then they could embark on a cross ruff.

In both rooms declarer took his discard, ruffed a club to hand, then trumped a diamond. Now how to come back to hand to ruff the second diamond? At one table South played the odds, which favored a 4-3 heart break rather than a 3-3 club break. He played a third heart and ruffed it, and could next ruff a diamond and play a third club. Now he could not be prevented from coming to 10 tricks.

In the other room West deviously dropped his heart queen on the second round of the suit. Again declarer ruffed a club, then a diamond, but at trick six (knowing that West still had the club queen left) he tried a club. East accurately ruffed in with the trump ace, and played a trump. That let West take his king and lead another trump, to prevent South from ruffing any more diamonds. So declarer had to lose two spade tricks and eventually two diamond tricks.

With the average age of bridge players rising every year it is always refreshing to hear news of youthful success. Today’s deal from England was originally reported by Sally Brock.

Declarer was at the time a 16year old schoolboy Tommy Brass, who found himself at the helm on today’s deal, after reaching a very respectable grand slam. While the spades are more solid, a grand slam in spades is really no better a contract than seven clubs, since when played by North a diamond lead comes through the ace-queen and restricts your options.

Against seven clubs, West helped declarer’s cause by leading the diamond jack, which declarer could win cheaply to ruff his small diamond in dummy. He then cashed two top clubs. Had they broken, the hand would have been over, while had West had the trump length there would have been no chance to bring home the bacon.

As it was, though, when West discarded on the second round, declarer needed to play for a trump coup to reduce his trumps to the same length as East. So he led a heart to the ace and ruffed a heart, then played a spade to the king and ruffed another heart. He then cashed the spade ace and overtook the spade jack with the queen, needing East to follow suit (though had the heart king put in an appearance earlier, he would not even have needed that).

Once East followed, South played a winning spade from the dummy, planning to discard his diamond ace, and East’s trump trick disappeared whatever he chose to do.

Today’s deal is an example of how the play at teams or rubber bridge might differ significantly from what you would do at pairs.

As South you declare four hearts, and take the club queen with the ace. At first glance you have decent chances to make slam – you need some breaks in the red suits, but is that too much to ask? At worst, it appears that you might have two diamond and one heart loser.

So at pairs the best line is clear. If you try to enter dummy with a trump to take the diamond finesse, the bad trump break comes to light…too late! West will play another heart after taking the diamond queen. Then he can play a third heart, preventing any diamond ruff in dummy. You will lose three diamonds and a heart and go down – but console yourself that you have made the best play at matchpoints, and went down only because of two poorly placed cards and a horrid break.

Correct play at teams, though, is to play a diamond honor from your hand – probably the diamond 10 is the best card – without playing any trump at all. Even if the defense returns a trump after winning the diamond queen, they can’t stop you from ruffing one diamond in dummy, and losing only two diamonds and a trump. This is a safety play to retain trump control and falls under the general heading of “If you want to ruff something don’t play trump”.

The jury is still out on Bergen raises. The idea is to use a jump raise of a major as weak, with three clubs and three diamonds handling a limit raise and a slightly weaker hand, each with four trump. I am still on the fence here, though I concede they are useful for those would prefer to substitute system for judgment. Faint praise, I admit…

Today’s auction sees a Bergen raise in action. In four spades, the heart lead clears up one concern for declarer. Even so, South cannot afford to draw trump at once, because he is threatened with the loss of one trick in each suit.

Three of those losers are inevitable, but South can do something about the losing heart. He must go after clubs at once, to establish a discard for his slow heart loser on dummy’s extra club.

There would be no hurry about this if the opponents had led clubs or diamonds, but the actual heart opening lead puts South under time pressure. He must finesse in clubs at once. When the finesse loses and a heart comes back, he wins, and can take his discard at once. Now the rest is routine.

South would lose the race if he led a trump at the second trick. East would win and knock out South’s remaining heart winner. The club finesse would be too late; East would take the club king and cash a heart trick.

Note that if East smoothly ducks the club king, declarer had better not repeat the finesse, or he will regret his greed!

Steve Bloom is one of the best players you may not have heard of. Steve is a professor of mathematics in New York and rarely plays outside the national tournaments.

This is a deal where he asked me and my readers to plan the play in three no-trump on the lead of the diamond three. Since you may need two entries to develop the clubs, it seems natural to win the diamond in hand, and play ace and another club. If the defenders hold up, cross to the diamond queen and drive out the club king. What could go wrong?

Well, maybe the defenders will win the second club and lead a heart, removing your entry to your ninth trick. It won’t necessarily be obvious to them to win that second club, but, if they do, the winning defense should be easy.

So maybe you should win the diamond queen, and start on clubs, cashing the ace then overtaking the club jack if West plays low? This works if clubs are 3-3, the club nine is doubleton, or if West started with king doubleton – reasonable, but hardly a guaranteed route to success.

Let’s start again. Win the diamond in hand, and advance the club jack. If it is ducked, cash the club ace, cross to the diamond queen, and clear clubs, and claim nine tricks. If they win the club jack and lead a heart, you win, cross to the diamond queen, then come back to the club ace to cash the diamond king, before returning to dummy in spades and running the clubs.

One of the most satisfying ways to generate extra tricks for the defenders comes when they maneuver a trump promotion – or force declarer to do the dirty work himself. In today’s hand the trump seven became a master, even though declarer had a nine-card fit and a combined 100 honors.

North/South were playing a style where a two-spade rebid would have been non-forcing. After his very aggressive three spade call, both players got rather carried away on the deal, eventually settling in the delicate slam. Of course had they not done so, there would have been no story.

West kicked off with the club 10 to the queen, king and ace. With both major suits behaving in such friendly fashion, declarer could have succeeded by establishing dummy’s hearts and playing for an even trump break. His actual line seemed to improve on that chance, however.

South won the club ace and ruffed a diamond. He then crossed to his heart king to trump another diamond, then cashed the heart ace and ruffed a heart with the spade eight – a luxury that it turned out he could not afford. He then ruffed his last diamond, and in the five-card ending he led a winning heart from dummy.

When East ruffed in with the spade queen, it let declarer discard his losing club. Now with the remaining trumps 2-1, declarer seemed to be in control. However, West discarded the diamond king on this trick, and at this point another diamond from East promoted a trick for West’s spade seven.

I was reminded of today’s deal by the fact that its hero was Brian Platnick. With John Diamond, Brian was one of the pairs I took an interest in mentoring when he was a junior – more years ago than he would care to remember, no doubt. Brian and John were part of the US national squad in Wroclaw this September at the World Bridge Games that were eliminated in the knock-out stages, having finished second in the US trials in the previous two years.

This deal came up in a Vanderbilt Trophy match where Brian’s team won by just 11 IMPs, so it turned out to be critical in their eventual success.

Both tables reached four hearts by South after a transfer sequence. At one table, three rounds of diamonds let East ruff. This looks to be a good idea for the defenders, since it obtained a quick trick for them by getting a ruff that was not with a natural trump trick. Moreover, it left declarer with a losing diamond in dummy. However, the late Henry Bethe as declarer could take a diamond ruff for his ninth trick, with a spade finesse for his 10th, for plus 620.

At the other table, Platnick as West found the killing trump shift at trick two. Declarer followed a reasonable line when he simply cashed the spade ace and king, and Platnick ruffed in, to play a second trump. That left declarer with all the diamonds to lose and nowhere to discard them, which led to down two and 13 IMPs.

After a major-suit opening a simple raise usually shows seven to 10 points. Here, North has a maximum but only three weak trumps and the undesirable 4-3-3-3 distribution. South might drive to game or merely invite it, but either way it seems right to bid three diamonds. North indicates his balanced distribution and the weakness of his trumps by suggesting no-trump, but South overrules him.

After three rounds of spades, trumped in hand, South really only has to worry about his fourth diamond. He can achieve nothing by ruffing clubs and spades in hand – indeed all that might accomplish is the loss of trump control.

So declarer first tries to get a discard on a high club by leading to the king. When the ace turns out to be with East, there is no discard available.

When a club comes back, South wins in dummy, and can now afford to draw two rounds of trump, but must then leave one trump out in order to test diamonds. This line carries no risk, since if the diamonds break three-three, each opponent will follow suit and South will then be able to draw the last trump.

As it happens, the diamonds break four-two. Today’s South’s only chance to prevent the loss of a diamond is to ruff his last diamond in dummy. This can only be done if the player with the last trump also has length in diamonds, which happens to be the case.

Lucky? No, South has merely taken all his chances in sensible order.

South has an absolute maximum for his opening bid of one no-trump. North adds his own points to those shown by his partner, and since he has 11 points, he knows that his side has enough for game, but not for slam. Since North has no reason seriously to consider playing in a suit, he merely raises at once to game in no-trump.

When West leads the spade king it asks for the unblock of a high spade honor, or a count signal. This lead style is often called ‘strong king’; by contrast, one signals attitude on the lead of an ace or queen.

So East follows with the jack at trick one, and now South must employ a basic maneuver to make his contract — the hold-up play. He must delay playing his spade ace until the third round of the suit.

The reason for this play becomes clear when South next loses the club finesse to East. Declarer’s goose would be cooked if East could get to his partner’s long spade suit, for then the defenders would take a total of four spades and one club. Thanks to the hold-up, however, East is out of spades.

East does what he can, by returning a diamond. South must not risk the finesse. He can take nine tricks by putting up the diamond ace and cashing his good cards. South would go down if he took the first or second spade, for then East would be able to lead a spade to his partner upon winning his club trick.