This deal sees South hear his partner make a limit raise in hearts. While he has a promising hand, the likelihood of slam being better than a finesse is very small. Rather than give information away by cuebidding, it is sensible for him simply to raise to game and give West a blind lead.

West nonetheless finds the best lead, of the spade queen, and South sees that he must develop dummy’s clubs without allowing East to get in. The danger is that East would lead a diamond through South, and set up too many winners for the defense.

The clubs allow for the straightforward finesse or ruffing finesse, but there is a danger in winning the first spade and drawing trump, then taking the ruffing finesse in clubs, discarding a spade in the process. The defenders’ communications remain in place, so West could win the club king and lead a spade to his partner, for the killing diamond shift.

The secret is to hold off on the first spade, take the second, draw trump, and lead to the club ace. Now the club queen is led through East for a ruffing finesse. When East puts up the club king, South can ruff and use a trump entry to dummy to take his discards. But if East had played low, South would have discarded his last spade. Even if West had the club king and took this trick, he would be unable to get East in with a spade, thanks to the duck at trick one.

After three passes, both Souths in a team game had no ambitions beyond game facing a passing partner, so they opened and closed the auction with a call of three no-trump. This normally shows a solid seven-card minor and few high cards in the other suits. But third or fourth in hand, other considerations apply.

At both tables the opening lead was the club jack, won by South’s ace. One declarer led out diamonds from the top, then played a third diamond to East’s queen. East appreciated that the most likely chance of defeating the game lay in hearts, and returned the three. South rose with the king, captured by the ace, and West continued with the heart jack, so the defenders emerged with five tricks. It wouldn’t have helped if South had divined to play low on the first heart.

The second declarer worked out the necessity to keep East off lead, so he entered dummy with a spade and led a diamond. When East played low, he inserted the nine as a form of a safety play. He was prepared to invest a diamond trick to achieve the avoidance play he wanted.

West won with his jack, but could not attack hearts profitably from his side of the table. He returned a club, and South soon wrapped up 11 tricks. It would not have helped if East had put up the queen or 10 of diamonds. South would have won in hand, then returned to dummy and finessed again – and now he emerges with 12 tricks.

The textbooks don’t tend to spell out how to cope with a balanced 31-count. In an unopposed auction the use of the Kokish relay (using a two heart rebid after opening two clubs as a puppet to two spades, to show various balanced hands or unbalanced hands with hearts) may help you. Details are available at
www.bridgeguys.com/Conventions/kokish_relays.html.

But on today’s deal South couldn’t try out this gadget, because West opened three clubs. With no idea whether to go high or low, South put on his rose-colored glasses and found the delicate slam-try of six no-trump.

After the passive lead of the diamond seven, dummy’s spade king provided declarer with a sporting chance. There were 11 top winners, with the club finesse likely to be a broken reed after West’s pre-emptive opening. Similarly, the chances of finding either major suit breaking seemed slim.

South tried these possibilities in order. Neither major suit behaved, and when the club finesse failed, he was out of chances. In the ending East knew to discard his useless spade, to win the last trick with his heart jack.

A curious line of play would, however, have led to success. Suppose that at trick two, declarer had advanced the club queen from his hand? By surrendering the inevitable club loser early, he keeps control of the clubs and rectifies the count for a squeeze. Four diamonds and the club ace will squeeze East in the majors to generate the 12th trick.

Reading through the columns of the late Omar Sharif I spotted this confession from the Macallan Invitation Pairs tournament. Omar played this board against Nicola Smith and Pat Davies, who eventually finished second – probably the best performance by a Ladies Pair in any invitation pairs event.

Against three no-trump Smith led the spade jack, ducked to Omar’s king. Sharif led a club to the ace, and a second club. Smith ducked this trick, and took the next club as Davies pitched two spades. At this point it was obvious to West to switch to a heart, and that defeated the hand.

It was only later that declarer realized what he could have done. If he crosses to dummy with a diamond at trick two, to play a club to the jack, it would have been nearly impossible to duck this trick. Now the shift to a heart would have been that much more difficult, since West would not have seen a discard from her partner.

By contrast, when I declared three no-trump against Sabine Auken and Daniela von Arnim, I received the same spade lead, but Auken astutely won her ace and shifted to hearts.

I won the third round of hearts, and decided that East appeared to have nine cards in the majors, which made her partner more likely to have club length. So I crossed to hand with a spade, to run the club jack. I repeated the finesse in that suit, and now could pick up the clubs for five tricks, to make my contract.

The deceptive possibilities arising from letting go a nine or a 10 at the strategic moment seem virtually limitless. On the following hand the maneuver was a well-tried one, but it scored a goal nonetheless.

After a heart lead to the ace, East had to find a diamond shift to beat the contract legitimately. Instead he played the normal-looking spade, which declarer won to lead a club to the jack. To created possible confusion for declarer, East dropped the club nine, trying to look like a man with the doubleton 10-9 of trumps.

It worked – though it probably should not have done. When you play at the US national championships it is a fair assumption that your opponents did not leave the farm earlier that day…

Seduced by the sight of the nine, declarer crossed to hand with a top spade and advanced the club queen, to the king and ace. Now declarer cashed the heart queen and led a low diamond. East hopped up with the diamond king, cashed the club 10 and played a third spade. Declarer could ruff in dummy, but was left with a diamond and heart still to lose.

It might seem that even after the trump misguess, South could have recovered. But declarer could not have succeeded even if she had left the heart queen in dummy as an entry to the diamonds. The defense play spades at every opportunity, and the heart blockage leaves her with a diamond loser at the end.

North-South cards might reasonably have played three no-trump here. This is a contract that makes if diamonds are 4-4 or if, as here, the player on lead has an unattractive three-card holding.

But at the table South showed a very strong hand with extra playing strength in hearts, by jumping to three no-trump. Had he held a strong balanced hand with a five-card suit in the 18-19 range, he would simply have bid two no-trump, so this sequence showed real extra playing strength. North guessed to convert to four hearts, a contract that looks very unlikely to make on accurate defense.

As it turned out, though, the 2-2 trump break gave declarer some interesting chances, based on the fact that both black suits are frozen — neither side can play on them without losing a trick.

Against four hearts West led a trump, not a bad move, as either black suit would have been immediately fatal, and declarer won to play a diamond. The defenders elected to win and play a second heart. When trumps broke, a second diamond saw whichever defender won the trick having to decide between opening up a black suit or play a diamond.

Since leading either black suit would have conceded the 10th trick, the defenders accurately played a third diamond. South ruffed, and played ace, king and a third spade. East had to win this trick, and now had to open up the clubs. South ran the lead round to the queen in dummy, and claimed the rest.

At matchpoint pairs it is often very hard to determine if you are in a normal contract, or an unusual one. In a standard contract, it is normal pairs tactics to consider playing for the maximum number of tricks. If you go down, you can at least console yourself that you were following a sensible strategy.

By contrast, at rubber bridge or at teams you want to follow the safest line for your contract, and as a defender you look for the guaranteed way to defeat a contract. That means the number of overtricks or undertricks is less important than beating or making the contract.

Today’s deal is a classic example. After North produced a jump raise of spades – which according to his partnership agreement was preemptive – South found himself in game. West had no reason not to lead the club queen, and South won the first trick and had to formulate a plan.

The obvious thing to do is to ruff clubs in dummy. Declarer trumped a club, led a diamond to the ace, and ruffed another club low. Then came the question of how to get back to hand: declarer chose the safest line of leading a heart to the ace, and ruffed the fourth club high. East could choose whether to discard or overruff, but declarer was sure to score four more trump tricks and make his contract.

Had declarer finessed in hearts, West would have won his king and sunk the contract by shifting to trump, to kill the third club ruff.

On this 1997 deal from the Cap Gemini tournament North comes home in five diamonds easily enough, by ruffing spades in dummy. However, at one table Marc Bompis declared three no-trump by North, after East-West had bid spades.

If the defense lead a spade to the queen and a spade back, declarer may not get a spade trick — but he can set up the diamonds while keeping West off play. However Gabriel Chagas and Marcello Branco found an ingenious variation. Branco led the spade ace and followed up with the spade 10, and Chagas ducked this!

Now Bompis had his spade trick, but declarer could no longer give up a diamond trick without letting the defenders cash out. He tested diamonds, then tried the heart finesse and went two down.

Finally, Alain Levy played four hearts, by South, against which Tor Helness led the spade king. At trick two he correctly switched to a club, and Levy won the ace and ruffed a spade. Then he played a club to the king and ruffed a club, took the diamond ace and played a fourth spade, overruffing East’s eight with the jack, and cashed just one top heart.

With eight tricks in the bag he now led a diamond from hand. Helness was forced to ruff, but whatever he did next, declarer would make his remaining small trump now, or later.

Have you noticed that there WAS a defense to beat the contract? East could have overtaken the spade lead and played a trump, to kill the club ruff in dummy.