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.

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!