Keeping control of which defender stayed on lead, plus some good guesswork in the endgame, was the key to success in this contract of four spades.

West led the heart queen, and before playing from dummy South worked out that success or failure might hinge on holding his club losers to one. To maximize his chances, he decided he needed to keep East off lead for as much of the deal as possible.

Thus, when East encouraged with the heart seven at the first trick, declarer ducked. Had East overtaken the queen with the king, South would have won. After drawing trump, he would have returned a heart, hoping West would be forced to win the trick.

As it was though, declarer won the heart continuation at trick two, drew trump, and played three rounds of diamonds. If West was forced to win, he would be endplayed either into returning a club or giving a ruff and discard, which would allow a potential club loser to disappear. However, it was East who won the third diamond. Had he returned a low club, South would have played low, and now on winning, West would have been endplayed.

East (who knew his partner would duck with the ace-jack) put declarer to an additional test when he cannily returned the club 10, which went to the queen and king. West now returned a low club and declarer had a 5050 guess as to what to do. I think he did well to rise with dummy’s nine, don’t you?

The Dyspeptics rubber bridge table has a reputation for wildness – both in the bidding and play, as well as in the post mortem of course. But on today’s deal they might have outdone themselves, since each of the players took an action that might have been construed as anywhere between aggressive and completely certifiable.

Mind you, it was not an easy hand for North-South to bid, and the final contract of six spades was a fair one – though it could have been set by force on a trump lead. When West led a top club, South wasted no time in winning and trying to cash three hearts to dispose of his losers. This was a line that was unlikely to succeed, given the auction. Indeed, East could ruff in to play a trump; and that was curtains for declarer.

Before South could go into his usual litany of excuses, he noted the red glint in North’s eye, and instead meekly requested enlightenment. Can you see a winning line for declarer?

South must duck the opening lead, win the trump shift in hand, then unblock the club ace. He can now cash two hearts pitching dummy’s last club. His next move will be to ruff a club low, then come back to hand, first with the diamond ace and subsequently with a diamond ruff, to trump his last heart loser with the spade ace. At the end he is left with just enough spades to cope with the 4-1 trump break, together with his master heart.

It is always satisfying when a swing is generated in a team game by one player following the right line, one the wrong, and the card gods demonstrating that justice will be done, though the heavens fall.

In today’s deal both tables played four spades, on a low diamond lead – though it seems perfectly reasonable to me to lead the nine here – it may even persuade declarer to mishandle the trumps if he suspects a bad diamond break.

Be that as it may, in one room declarer took the diamond finesse, thinking that he would break even by pitching a club loser on the diamond ace if it lost. That ignored the possible defensive club ruff, and with the cards lying as they did, even when no club ruff was forthcoming, there was still no practical way to avoid losing two clubs and a trump. Down one.

In the other room South realized that he was faced with a classic elimination hand. The only problem was to check that there were enough trumps to complete the elimination without risk. South won the diamond ace, played off the spade ace (happy to see the 2-1 break) and ruffed a diamond. Then he led a heart to the king and ruffed a diamond, cashed the heart ace and ruffed a heart. Finally he exited with a trump, and let the opponents open up the club suit to his benefit.

Whatever the defenders did, they could take only two club tricks now.

Today’s deal saw both North and South have close decisions as to whether to go on to slam. However, both judged well, since the duplication in spade length meant that although the final five-level contract was a good one, there was no guaranteed route to 11 tricks.

You might consider just looking at the North and South hands to appreciate declarer’s problem, before reviewing all 52 cards.

At the table declarer won the spade lead, drew trump and played the diamond king and a diamond to the jack. East won her queen and switched to the heart jack. Declarer played the queen, West covered with the king and now declarer had to go down, since he could not avoid two further heart losers.

Can you see where declarer went wrong (without the benefit of peeking at the opponents’ cards)? It was correct to play on diamonds before hearts. South really does not have any easy way to endplay the defenders unless the heart king is right – in which case he will always make at least 11 tricks.

But what South should have done was play low from hand on the heart jack, and win in dummy. Now he can cash his diamonds, to strip off all the side suits bar hearts. Declarer next plays a low heart to his queen. He still succeeds if East has the king, but he also succeeds when, as here, West originally held king-doubleton of hearts. West can win his king, but now has to give a ruff-and-discard.

Against four spades you lead the diamond king, getting the two from partner and the three from declarer. Is the contract beatable or should you hope to hold it to four? The answer may surprise you: you are almost a lock to set the contract if your side does everything right. Can you see the key to the defense?

The secret lies in partner’s play to the first trick, the diamond two. In a situation like this, your partner is obliged to give you a count signal. The missing diamond is the seven, and if partner had it, he would play it to show you a doubleton; that means declarer has the seven. Rather than cash your diamond king, you should switch to the club eight. When you get in with the spade ace, you will lead a low diamond for partner to ruff and will receive a club ruff in return to defeat the contract.

This is an easy defense when you think about it correctly. As long as partner can be relied on to give count when he is expected to, defenses like this one are available. If you couldn’t trust partner to give count, you would have a much harder decision. It might be right to defend as you did on the chance it will work, but it might also be right to shift to a heart, hoping to get a trick there.

Knowing for sure that your partner will play the seven from a holding of 7-2 takes away the mysteries of this hand.

While three no-trump is the comfortable game contract here, both tables in a team game played in clubs after an invertedminor response. One pair overbid to slam, and with the spade and diamond finesses both losing, declarer could not avoid going two down when he played to make his contract.

He was hoping that declarer in the other room might similarly overreach. However, on the auction shown in the diagram South was favored with a heart lead against five clubs, rather than the more challenging spade lead, and found himself in with a fighting chance. He won the lead in hand with the king and played the club ace-king. Now after cashing the heart queen and heart ace, he led an innocent low diamond from hand, planning to run it if this were not covered.

However when West put in the eight, declarer tried the queen, and East won his king to play back a low diamond to the 10, jack and ace. Now came the diamond seven, and this time East was forced to cover with the nine, and declarer discarded a spade from hand.

East was now on play, and whether he returned a spade into the tenace or exited with a diamond or heart for the ruff-sluff, declarer would have the rest. Declarer’s line of play virtually ensured the contract unless the diamond spot-cards were extremely unfavorably located from his perspective. And at the very worst South could always have fallen back on the spade finesse.

Today’s hand, from the Dyspeptics Club, failed because declarer did not pause for sufficient thought at trick one.

South picked up his usual powerhouse and found himself in three no-trump a moment later. West led the spade four, to the six, seven and nine. Declarer followed up with the heart king, then continued the suit. When the jack failed to drop, he could see no serious alternatives to pressing on with developing that suit. A fourth heart let East in, and the spade through declarer’s tenace saw the game consigned to the dustbin.

After the event North was less than impressed: can you see why? As North commented, South should have risen with dummy’s spade 10 at trick one. If it holds, you are in the hand you need to be in to try for a safety play in hearts. Since declarer needs only four heart tricks for his contract, and overtricks are essentially unimportant at this form of scoring, making the contract is the paramount consideration.

When dummy’s 10 holds, South knows that West holds the missing spade honors, so East is the danger hand and needs to be kept off lead. At trick two, best is to play a low heart from dummy, and if East follows low, insert the eight. West wins, but no return from that side of the table can harm him.

South can win the return in hand, cash the heart king, and when both defenders follow, enter dummy in diamonds to enjoy the heart suit.

Today’s deal saw North-South stretch to slam, when North felt obliged to show his ace. South subsequently felt entitled to expect to find his partner with some values in the minors, since he clearly had no honors in trump. But dummy’s 3-3 pattern in the minors meant declarer had considerable work to do.

After a top diamond lead, how would you set about trying to develop 12 tricks? The key is to take three tricks from the clubs, which requires the finesse to work. Imagine a simple line such as winning the spade and finessing clubs. You might now draw trump and rely on clubs breaking, or play ace and another club, or even draw two rounds of trump and then either play ace and another club, or duck a club. As the cards lie, none of these lines work. Equally, if you draw two rounds of trump too early, East can win the club and a play a third trump, preventing the ruff in dummy.

You might justly consider yourself just a little unlucky. But it would not be that unlucky, since you would have missed your best line for the slam. That involves the somewhat counterintuitive line of ducking the first club. You win the return, draw precisely two rounds of trump, then lead to the diamond queen and finesse the club queen.

When it holds, you play the club ace and ruff a club, exploiting the fact that the hand with four clubs has the long trump. This lets you ruff the fourth club safely in dummy.

Difficult bridge hands come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes as declarer you are faced with a hand where you cannot see the winning line, while at other times you may have too many attractive options. Today’s deal falls into the latter category: plan the play in six hearts on the spade ace lead.

You ruff and draw trump, finding they break 2-1. Having done so, how do you play the minor suits to best advantage?

First things first; if you take the club finesse and it loses, you are almost certainly down, so long as the defenders don’t do anything stupid. If you play ace, king, and a third club, you will make if the club queen falls. Equally, if clubs break 3-3, you still have a 50 percent chance of forcing the opponents to play diamonds. Overall, though, that does not work out at much more than a one-in-three chance.

All things considered, it looks best to play on diamonds before clubs. If you run the queen and find that West has the king, you will always succeed. Either West will cover, letting you win and play another diamond, to set up two diamonds for club discards; or West ducks, and the queen holds, eliminating your diamond loser.

By contrast, if you play to the diamond ace and back towards your hand, you don’t always succeed when East has the king. (Consider the diagrammed deal with the diamond two and king switched).

So you should run the diamond queen immediately, and fall back on the club finesse if necessary.