In today’s deal North-South were playing that their weak twos when vulnerable in second seat would promise very close to opening values, hence North’s majestic leap to slam after the opponents bounced to four spades.

West tried the effect of the spade ace and another spade, hoping to build a trump trick for his side. Declarer carefully ruffed the second spade with the trump queen, and East, not knowing which minor to discard, correctly underruffed. Then South cashed the heart ace, drew trump, and played a fourth heart, while throwing two clubs from the table.

Since West was marked with nine spades and no hearts, he had four cards in the minors. If the contract was to succeed, declarer knew that he needed East to have sole guard of clubs, so East had to hold at least three cards in that suit, but he would also need to have started life with at least four diamonds.

Declarer now took the fifth trump, reducing to a six-card ending with four diamonds and the club ace-king in dummy, while declarer held three small clubs, the guarded diamond king and a trump. If East pitched a club, declarer would score trick 13 with a small club. So he discarded a diamond, and declarer ruffed out the diamonds, with a club entry to the board to score the last trick with the diamond seven.

The blockage in clubs had prevented him from cashing either minor earlier. Note how much easier the hand would be to play if the club and diamond kings were switched.

South was too strong for a 15 to 17 no-trump, so he showed real extras in a balanced hand, then revealed his good three-card heart suit at his third turn. North now closed his eyes and leapt to slam, to ensure his side reached the right trump fit. Had he cuebid four spades his side might well have ground to a halt in game.

After a low spade lead, South realized he need to ruff the opening lead, as he was not sure what to discard from dummy at that point. A trump to hand and a low club up saw the club king win.

South then played a second trump to hand. If trumps had been 3-1 or 4-0, declarer would have almost certainly have been reduced to taking the heart finesse. As they were 2-2, he played another club, and since West had the club ace, the defense was helpless. The location of the heart king was now irrelevant: if West took the ace, declarer could claim immediately. He would discard his heart losers on dummy’s clubs, and his spade ace and remaining trumps would take care of dummy’s three small hearts.

So West tried the effect of ducking the club ace. This might have been effective if East had started with the heart jack, rather than declarer, since South might have ended up losing two heart tricks. As it was, though, declarer could simply take the heart finesse and claim 12 tricks when it lost.

Against four hearts West leads the club 10. East wins, plays the club king and ace, then leads out the jack. You win the club queen and play the trump ace. Alas, West discards a spade. Is there a way to make a 10th trick?

The 3-0 trump break has ruled out using dummy’s trump 10 as an entry to your spade ace and king. Since the diamond king is marked in the East hand there is no point in leading a diamond. Instead, you should try the effect of the trump nine. If East is caught napping, he will win the trick and you will be able to reach dummy to cash the spade winners.

Today, East will allow the trump nine to win. You will then need the deal to be similar to the one shown here. You must hope East started with exactly three clubs. You exit with a low trump to dummy’s 10 and East’s jack, leaving him with no good return. The spade queen will provide access for you to dummy’s two spade winners. But if instead he exits with a low diamond, you will run it to dummy’s queen. Then you will discard your remaining diamond loser on a top spade.

Incidentally, if dummy’s hearts were 1-0-7-2 you can lead the heart nine on the first round of trumps, and overtake if West discards. Then East must win, and even if he was dealt a 3-3-3-4 pattern originally he will have to lead a heart round to dummy’s seven, or let declarer reach dummy with a spade or diamond.

In today’s deal North emphasized his diamonds then came out from behind the bushes by supporting spades at the four level. Neither opponent had anything further to say, so four spades became the final contract.

When dummy came down, South should have expected to make his game very easily with five trumps and six diamonds plus a heart ruff to give him 12 tricks. At rubber bridge there was, however, no harm in taking out just a little insurance against a bad trump break.

If one of the opponents had four trumps, South knew he would lose a trump trick sooner or later. If this happened late in the hand, the defenders might then be in position to take additional tricks in hearts and clubs as well as their trump trick. South realized he could afford to lose a trump trick and two clubs, but he could not also afford to give up a heart trick.

Having worked that out, South saw that he could ensure his contract by surrendering a trump at the second trick. Dummy’s remaining trump would then prevent the opponents from taking any heart tricks. The defenders could take their two club tricks, but then South would easily win the rest.

If the defenders had forced dummy with a second heart at trick three, or after cashing a club winner or two, declarer could then have come back to hand with the diamond jack to draw the rest of the trump.

The judicious application of scissors would have seen the declarers home on today’s hand, but both Souths missed their chance for the unkindest cut of all.

The two Souths played four spades, and at each table West led the heart queen. The first South rose with dummy’s ace then cashed the trump ace and king, being disappointed to find the 3-1 break. Next came the club ace, followed by a diamond to the king. Had West held the diamond ace or had diamonds broken 3-3, declarer would have made 10 tricks. As it was, East won, and played a low heart to West’s nine. West continued with the trump queen, and now declarer had no entry to dummy’s clubs for diamond discards.

At the other table, after winning the heart lead, just one round of trump was cashed before South played a diamond to the king. East won; now West ruffed the diamond return, played a heart to East’s king, and the second diamond ruff sank the game.

Declarer here was on the right track, but after drawing just one round of trump, had he exited with his second heart – the Scissors Coup – communications between the defenders would have been cut.

Declarer could subsequently have gone about his business, in the knowledge that West could obtain a maximum of one ruff – and that with a trick to which he was entitled anyway. Of course ducking the first heart is almost as good. Even if the defenders take a ruff, the contract will only go down if one defender has a singleton spade and diamond.

This month I shall be running a few deals from Larry Cohen’s latest teaching tool: “Larry Teaches Declarer Play at Suit contracts”, (available from his website). The book discusses many basic strategies for intermediate players.

Try today’s problem, where West leads the spade king against four hearts. Declarer can count a sure spade loser in addition to potential losers in hearts and clubs. If trumps are 2-2 and the club ace is onside, declarer should come home with an overtrick. As you can see, Larry has not made your task easy: trumps are 3-1 and the club ace is offside.

It might appear that declarer has to lose a spade, a trump and two clubs. But, declarer can make his contract by combining the partial drawing of trump with a technique from Cohen’s chapter on throw-in plays.

The spade king lead marks the queen with West, which may turn out to be useful. Declarer wins the spade ace and tests trump with the ace and king. The 3-1 break is bad news, but the fact that it is West who is out of trumps will prove useful.

Leaving a high trump outstanding, declarer aims to get help from West. He strips off the diamonds and exits with the spade jack. West can win, but then has either to lead clubs or issue a ruff-and-sluff. East still has a high trump, but by keeping a trump in dummy, declarer is able to endplay West and hold his club losers to one.

Today’s deal was recently voted the best played hand of 2011. Geir Helgemo was at the helm, a man who would be pretty close to the top of most people’s list of world’s best declarers.

After the two-suited overcall South heard his partner show short clubs. He asked for keycards, and North treated his fifth spade as the queen, making it easy for Geir to bid the grand slam.

When West led the club king, East followed with the jack. With the sight of all four hands can you see how Helgemo made his contract?

Helgemo reasoned that West rated to be 5-6, and that he also rated to have two diamonds – since East might have bid an eight-card diamond suit. So he won the club ace, cashed the heart ace, then the diamond king and ace, and the heart king. He next played the spade nine from dummy and ran it!

You might wonder how all this maneuvering was going to benefit him, but watch the magician at work. After a spade to the jack, he now played the spade king, and by virtue of the earlier trump finesse he was now in position to duck or overtake in dummy depending on West’s play. This spectacular maneuver is called an Entry-Shifting Squeeze.

If West had discarded a club, Helgemo would have ducked in dummy, after which he could ruff two clubs, setting up the fifth club in hand. If West had thrown a heart, declarer would have overtaken with the ace and been able to set up the long heart.

In today’s deal North-South did well to reach six no-trump, a better contract than six spades, since if both red suits behave, it can be made with only two spade tricks. And at pairs, it would also be more rewarding if it came home.

Declarer won West’s top diamond lead in dummy, then cashed the spade ace, and when East’s queen dropped, he played a club from dummy. East (worried declarer had the spade jack and that he was trying to steal his 13th trick) went in with the ace and continued with another diamond.

Declarer won the diamond in dummy, played a club back to his king, and cashed the diamond ace and nine, West discarding a club. Now the percentage play in spades is to take the finesse (following the principle of restricted choice, which argues that if East had a singleton honor he would have had no choice which card to play, whereas if he had the queen-jack doubleton he would have had a choice).

But declarer instead cashed the spade king, East discarding a club, followed by the club queen, on which West was forced to discard a heart. At this point declarer knew that each defender had three hearts left so he could play hearts from the top and make 12 tricks.

In retrospect it is curious that if West had unguarded his hearts on the fourth diamond, declarer might well have had more trouble reading the ending. By discarding his third club prematurely, he exposed the full count on the hand.