This deal was played in the first qualifying session of last year’s Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs. Most tables sensibly played three no-trump, rather than try for four hearts.

So how did the play typically go? South wins the spade queen lead in hand and now must go after hearts sooner rather than later. At our reporter’s table, declarer advanced the heart jack, so it was easy for West to win and cash out the spades, finishing in the East hand. When a club came through declarer’s tenace South misguessed and played the ace, finishing down one.

Was declarer’s play right? The odds on the club finesse and the heart 10 falling are roughly even. So one can hardly criticize declarer for his play, one way or the other.

However, I wonder if declarer might have done better by leading a low heart from hand at trick two instead of the jack. If West (quite reasonably) misjudges the position, and plays the heart ace, declarer is home.

Equally, though, if West ducks the first heart, then a heart back to the jack would disclose the 5-1 heart break, and now at least South would know he needed to take the club finesse to make his game.

Additionally, if West doesn’t take his ace, but the heart 10 happens to be falling in two rounds, then you have eliminated your need to guess which finesse to take. Accordingly, the low heart at trick two looks like the right play all round.

Even the experts don’t get them all right. Witness what happened on this deal from the first semifinal session of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, when a multiple world champion reached four hearts after a strong no-trump auction where East had been somewhat frisky with his overcall.

When West led his singleton spade, North went up with the spade ace and played a heart from dummy to get the bad news. He won the heart ace and played the club ace followed by another club. Now West had no choice but to win and play a third club, ruffed.

Declarer next threw West on lead with the third heart, but after a diamond exit though South no longer had a diamond loser he did still have two spades to lose, for down one. West could avoid being endplayed in diamonds by unblocking his king at the critical moment.

At the point declarer ruffed the third club, he should have found his way home. Since he needed to find the diamond king onside, he should have led a diamond towards the queen at once. West must win and can do no better than exit with a diamond. At this point a trump to declarer’s king allows him to cash the diamond ace, pitching a spade. A third round of hearts puts West on lead to provide a ruff-sluff and dummy’s last losing spade goes away.

In essence, declarer loses a diamond trick he could avoid, but he gets a discard and a ruffsluff to more than compensate for that.

The fall nationals start this week in Orlando, so we shall be running deals all week from the championships in Denver at this time last year.

This deal was played in the second session of the Nail Life Master Pairs and goes to prove that not all accurately played hands produce great results. The field played in four hearts on this deal on a diamond lead to the king and ace. With trumps 2-2 and the club ace wrong, 10 tricks was the universal result. What’s the big deal then?

The point is that after East has overcalled one diamond, when West leads the diamond seven you must duck in dummy at the first trick. Imagine that the cards lie as in the diagram but put the heart five in the West hand and the club three in the East hand.

Here, if you go up with the diamond king at the first trick, East wins and plays a trump. Try and make it now! When declarer plays a club to the king and ace, East exits in clubs, and from there on in you can no longer take the two ruffs in dummy you need.

By contrast if you play low from dummy on the opening diamond lead, East wins the jack, but you can later arrange to draw trump and ruff out the diamond ace. In this way you will establish for yourself two discards of a club and a spade on the diamond queen and nine, and will not require the trumps to break.

Today’s deal requires some careful thought and complex maneuvering – and it is not helped by the fact that at first glance your contract appears to be safe, so you could be forgiven for a spot of premature euphoria.

Declaring four spades, you receive the opening lead of the heart 10 to East’s jack. That player takes the heart king and ace, then shifts to the diamond jack. When you win the diamond ace you should recognize that the only possible problem is a 4-0 trump break. If East has all four spades there is nothing can be done. But when West has four cards you should take a line that does not rely on diamonds breaking — a dummy reversal. (What that means in layman’s terms is to score extra trump tricks by ruffing in the long rather than the short hand.)

The first move is to cash the club ace. The next hurdle is to lead the spade nine to the ace, witnessing the bad break, and ruff a club with the spade eight. Now the spade two is led: West must split his honors, and the king wins in dummy. You can ruff the last club with the spade seven, then finesse dummy’s six. At this point the spade queen draws the last trump and takes care of the diamond four from your hand.

The last two tricks are taken by your high diamonds, and your 10 tricks consist of four trumps in dummy, four top side-suit winners and two ruffs in hand.

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.