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.

Against six hearts West led the club 10, taken with dummy’s ace. Declarer, who had received the warning signal in the auction that one or both red suits might be breaking badly, decided not to go for overtricks by ruffing spades in hand. Instead he drew two rounds of trump by playing to the eight, then leading the queen to the ace.

On discovering the 4-1 heart division, he realized he could not overcome a 4-0 diamond break if it was West who had the diamond length. However, he saw that he could succeed when it was East who had four diamonds, by playing on diamonds before drawing any more trump. So he cashed the diamond king.

If both defenders had followed to the diamond, declarer would simply have drawn the remaining trump and claimed 12 tricks; six diamonds, four trumps and the two black aces.

However, when West discarded on the first round of diamonds, declarer continued by playing the diamond queen and ace, then ruffing the diamonds good. After drawing the remaining trump with his king and queen, declarer had his 12 tricks.

Nicely played by declarer, and no doubt he might well have followed this line even without the opponents’ bidding, but I wonder if West’s intervention was well judged. After all, he had a virtual Yarborough, his partner was a passed hand, and the vulnerability was as unattractive as possible. Sometimes you have to pick between clichés: silence is golden, and loose lips sink ships.

Over the last 20 years Alfredo Versace of Italy and his partner Lorenzo Lauria have taken their places in the very top echelons of Italian world champions. Last summer in the warm-up for the Spingold Knockout Teams, Versace encountered this neat play problem, and found an elegant solution.

Against four hearts West led the spade two. Versace made the critical move when he won the spade ace and ruffed a spade. East followed with the 10 and king, and Versace then drew trump in three rounds (West having the singleton jack). Now he led a diamond, perhaps intending to put in the seven, had West followed with a small card. In fact, though, the trick went to the jack, queen and king.

East now had to shift to the club seven. This went round to West’s ace, and back came a third spade. Versace ruffed, then led a diamond to dummy’s seven as West discarded. In the four-card ending, East had been stripped of his major-suit cards, and was down to one club and the 1-0-6-4 of diamonds. Whatever he led next, he had to concede the rest, one way or another. As you can see, the spade ruff at trick two was essential to remove East’s exit card in this position.

Of course, not every story has a happy ending. Versace’s +620 held the loss on the board to five IMPs. His teammates at the other table had saved in five clubs and had been doubled to go minus 800 after the defense found the spade ruff.

In today’s deal the route to three no-trump looks too easy. There must be a catch here… right?

When South responds one heart to his partner’s opening, North rebids his long suit. Now South, with a full opening bid and stoppers in all the unbid suits, can bid game in no-trump; no other contract looks appealing, and slam is a long way away.

After a small spade lead by West, South puts up dummy’s spade queen at the first trick because the queen may win a trick now, but can never win a trick later. (If dummy had queen-third of spades you would duck, naturally, to preserve your second spade trick if West had led from the ace.)

As it happens, the queen holds the trick, and South knows that West has led from a long suit headed by the ace. It is now necessary to develop the long diamonds without allowing East on lead. If that happened, East would continue the attack on spades, and West would then defeat the contract by running his suit.

Once you see the problem, the solution is relatively easy. At trick two you should lead a low diamond from dummy and finesse the nine. If this finesse should lose, the rest of the suit would be good, and West could do no harm.

As it happens, the finesse wins. The rest of the suit is good, and South is off to the races. If South had played the diamonds from the top, he would have lost a trick to East’s jack, and the spades would then defeat him.

It is important to understand how South can describe a strong balanced hand by his first two calls. With 15 to 17 points, South can open one no-trump, whereas with 20 to 22 points, South would open with two no-trump.

However, with in-between hands, in the range of 18 to 19 points, the solution is to open one of a suit, then jump rebid at notrump. North can raise to three no-trump, since he has eight points in high cards, which should be more than enough for game.

When dummy comes down, South sees he needs four club tricks to make his game. He can only do so if East has the club king. Moreover, since there is only one entry to dummy, South must manage to take all of the necessary club finesses without wasting entries.

Best is to begin clubs by leading the nine from dummy. When it holds the trick, the queen can be led next. Once this also holds the trick, a third club finesse can be taken, and the contract can be brought home.

It would be wrong to lead the club queen first. If South drops the small club under dummy’s queen, he must win the second club in his own hand, and then cannot return to dummy for the third club finesse.

It would be no better to lead the queen and contribute the 10 under it. East would duck the first club, then cover the club nine with the king. This leaves South with a losing club for the fourth round of the suit.

At the table, in six diamonds on a trump lead, declarer drew trump and led ace and another spade, hoping to guess the suit. This was essentially a 50% line, and it failed when he put in the 10. Can you do better?

One improvement is to play a low spade up after drawing trump, planning to put in the 10 if West ducks smoothly. Even if you misguess, you may recover with a major-suit squeeze. This comes to roughly a two-thirds chance.

Another approach is to go after hearts. Lead low to the ace, low to the king and then play a third heart. This works when hearts break or East has a singleton or doubleton honor, or when West has some specific doubletons. But if hearts don’t behave, you have virtually no chance. This line comes in at sixty percent. Granted, if you prefer to back your judgment after two top hearts to go after spades, you may survive a 4-2 heart break.

But on balance I prefer drawing trump, cashing off the clubs, then leading to the heart ace and playing a heart back to the seven. If hearts are 3-3 you are home, and if West has a singleton honor, honor-fourth or four low cards, you have the 12th trick. And you still have a chance if West has either a doubleton honor or doubleton heart nine. He must win the second heart and then lead spades for you – giving you the contract half of the rest of the time. The combined chances amount to close to 70 percent.

To say that South had been given a complete blueprint of the deal below in his contract of five clubs would be only a slight exaggeration. After the bidding and the play to the first trick, he could pinpoint every high card in the defenders’ hands. The good news is he was given the opportunity for a rather unusual play; the bad news is that he thought of it too late.

Against five clubs doubled West led the spade ace to the three, queen and six, then rather woodenly led another spade. As it turns out, a heart switch would have been more purposeful. South ruffed and led a trump to the two, 10 and jack. East returned a heart to dummy’s ace and, although the finesses against both of East’s kings were right, there was only one entry to the table. East was able to cover whatever card was led from dummy, and wait for the setting trick in the other minor.

Can you spot the winning line? If you place East with every missing honor card, then declarer should start trump by the highly unusual maneuver of leading the nine from his hand. East can win with the jack and lead a heart, but the difference now is that declarer can make his second play in trumps the lead of a club honor from dummy. Whether East covers or not, there will remain a vital entry on the table to lead the diamond jack, and avoid a loser in that suit.