Today’s hand comes from the 2015 European Open Championships, since this week the 2016 European Championships are taking place in Budapest. The deal shows two very different approaches with the North-South cards, one very successful, one not.

At one table North took a very cautious view. He heard his partner double two clubs and bid only two hearts – a cautious view opposite a partner who’d shown some values. And North might well have balanced with a double when three clubs came back around to him. Whether that would have got his side to game or not is quite another matter. As it was, it was only the heart ruff that held East to nine tricks for plus 110.

In the other room, with at least one club loser, a guess for the diamond queen, not to mention 5-0 trump, the contract of four spades was in severe jeopardy. Berend van den Bos led the club ace and another club to tap the dummy. Declarer, Simon De Wijs got the bad news when he cashed the spade ace. He played off the heart ace and ruffed another one low, ruffed a club with the spade queen (as West discarded a diamond), then played the ace, king and a third diamond.

Poor West was in and had nothing but trumps remaining. Declarer won the forced return with his eight and led the thirteenth diamond. West had to ruff that again, and lead another spade, this time into declarer’s K-10 tenace. That meant declarer had 420 and a gain of 11 IMPs.

Today’s deal from the 2015 European Open Championships saw Roy Welland and Sabine Auken in action. Over her RHO’s three club call, Auken’s double was easy enough but over five clubs, Welland’s best action was far from obvious. Some players doubled with this hand to show some strength but must have felt unhappy when partner passed. Some other players bid five spades and were allowed to play there.

Roy Welland was among the five spade bidders, but Sabine had the last word. She boldly raised her partner to six, giving him the problem of finding both the major suit queens to make his contract. It should be noted that, if you locate the two missing queens correctly, you can even make seven hearts (but not seven spades).

Bidding and making a grand slam is admittedly a pipe-dream, and declarer’s task in his small slam was hard enough. Welland ruffed the club lead and quickly overcame the first hurdle when he successfully finessed East’s spade queen while drawing trump. After that, he played the diamond ace and another diamond. East went up with the king and exited in clubs. Welland ruffed this with his last trump and proceeded to cash the diamond queen. When West showed out, it became apparent that he had started with one spade, two diamonds and in all probability seven clubs, in view of his choice of opening bid. He was thus favorite to have room for three hearts; so Welland cashed his heart king, then led a heart to dummy’s jack to land his contract.

On today’s deal from the 2015 European Open Championships, the popular contract was four hearts, down on the bad trump break. Sylvie Willard did well in the auction when she stopped in two hearts, then even better in the play.

West led a spade to her partner’s ace, and on a spade return Willard inserted the nine, and drew trump. She could cross to dummy’s diamond ace now and take a spade finesse for her 10th trick. When East blanked her club king, Willard actually came to an 11th trick.

On the auction shown Geir Helgemo declared four hearts and won Kholomeev’s diamond king lead, to lead a spade up. East won the ace (which wasn’t fatal) and shifted to a trump, which was. Helgemo now tested trump, found the bad news, and played four rounds of the suit to put West on lead as East discarded the club jack, a low club and a low diamond. What was West to do now?

A diamond discard would cut the defenders’ communications and let declarer lead the club queen, covered all round, then take a spade finesse and endplay East to lead another spade. So West exited with a spade to the queen and king. Helgemo cashed his penultimate trump, pitching a diamond from dummy, and gave East three losing options. A spade would be immediately fatal, a diamond would transpose into the same ending above, so East pitched a club. Helgemo now could duck a club, taking a trump, two clubs and a spade for the last four tricks and all the matchpoints.

All this week’s deals come from the 2015 European Open Championships. When Mark Horton published this deal he commented on the fact that the play in slam offered declarer the chance to make his contract, based on a clue from the auction and the play. Of the 102 tables in play, most played slam, the vast majority tackling six spades from the South seat.

The normal sequence of play was for declarer to receive a top diamond lead after West had preempted in diamonds and North had raised either to three spades or four spades, and East had sacrificed in five diamonds.

After winning the top diamond lead, how should you plan the play? While West rates to have more diamonds, and thus fewer spades, the player who jump raises the preempter is the one who is more likely to have trump shortage. Imagine an East with Q-7-4 of spades and a relatively balanced hand – say a 3-2-5-3 pattern with not much in the way of high cards. Would YOU sacrifice in five diamonds over four spades? Of course not. It is far more likely that East has shortage somewhere – and the most likely place is in spades.

Precisely one match produced an honorable push at 980. Congratulations to the declarers in Penfold-de Michelis. Kalin Karaivanov and Luca de Michelis both reached slam after East had raised a pre-empt to the five level. Both declarers won the opening diamond lead and duly finessed West for the spade queen. Well done gentlemen!

In this deal from a Regional knockout, careful signaling was required to defeat the final contract. Would you and your partner have been on the same page?

Against South’s two hearts West found the best lead of his doubleton diamond. East won the queen and, looking at the heart ace, knew that playing two more diamonds – hoping to give West a trump promotion – could wait. So he shifted to the spade five, and West made the key play of withholding his ace, playing an encouraging eight instead. (If West had discouraged in spades, East would have played a club when in with the heart ace, hoping to find West with the ace-queen. His plan would have been to take two clubs, two diamonds, the heart ace, and another trump trick via a promotion.)

At trick two, declarer took the spade shift in dummy and led a heart. East rose with the ace and played his second spade. West won and returned his lowest spade, the three, a suit-preference signal for clubs, the lower-ranking suit. East now knew that West did not have a promotable heart honor, so playing more diamonds would be futile. Instead East switched to a club, setting up the defense’s sixth trick before declarer established a diamond discard for his losing club.

If West had given a higher suit-preference on the third spade, East would have cashed the diamond ace and played a third round – exchange the club king and queen and the heart queen and jack in the diagram, and now a trump promotion defeats the contract.

At matchpoint pairs the North hand should probably simply raise one no-trump to six. It is possible to imagine hands where a minor-suit slam might be better — indeed six clubs today might be the top spot, but if you simply look at the North and South cards you’d feel you were heavy favorite to make six no-trump. Should diamonds break, or if you can guess who has four diamonds, you are home and dry. In real life, you play slam on the heart 10 lead; now you can place East with the heart ace, and the contract is 100 percent certain on careful play.

To make your slam you must play low from dummy at the first trick. East has to withhold his ace, or you have 12 top tricks. So your heart king wins, and at this point you cash four clubs and three spades, throwing a heart from hand.

You have no real clue as to which of the defenders might be short in diamonds, but you can cover your bases by next taking the diamond ace-king. If diamonds were 3-2 or West had jackfourth of diamonds, you can claim 12 tricks.

But when worst comes to worst, and East shows up with the long diamonds, you have reduced everyone to three cards. East has had no option but to have already come down to the bare heart ace, together with the guarded diamond jack. So at this point a heart to the queen and ace sees East forced to lead away from the diamond jack.

Today’s deal saw a contract of four hearts where success or failure revolved around holding the diamond losers to two. Admittedly, the defenders can lead a spade and take a diamond ruff at once to defeat the game. However, after a top club lead, declarer was in with a chance, though the play is more complex than you might imagine. Follow it through to the very end – and cover up the East and West cards if you want to give yourself a proper challenge.

Let’s say you win the club queen lead and draw trump, as West discards two clubs. When you play a spade to the king, East wins and presses on with spades. You win the queen and cash your remaining club winner, ruff a spade, and have reduced to a five-card ending with four diamonds and a trump in each hand. You lead a low diamond from dummy to the 10 and king and…

BZZZ! Thank you for playing, and here is a beautiful parting gift. In this position West wins the ace and leads back a low diamond. Now, whether you play low or the jack, you are doomed as the cards lie. If you put in the seven and cross to hand in hearts, LHO can pitch the diamond nine and take the last two tricks with a club and diamond winner. You needed to lead the diamond seven to the 10 and king. Now if you guess to play low from dummy on the diamond return, you will make your game, since you can overtake dummy’s four and lead a third diamond.

In today’s deal North showed a second negative at his second turn, then had a problem at his third turn over South’s three notrump call. Declarer would have had just eight tricks in no-trump today, so North’s decision to convert to four hearts was not unreasonable, and it left South in a contract with decent play. Even with the diamond finesse onside, declarer still needed some cooperation from the defenders. However, he received some help when West quite naturally led a top club.

South realized he would need the diamond finesse, but that a 4-2 club break might cause him some big trouble. He also realized that he wanted a club continuation at trick two, so when East followed low to the first trick South dropped the 10. Although a spade shift would have been the killer, West naturally continued with a low club, and declarer captured East’s jack, drew one round of trumps, and played a third club. East showed out on this trick, so West led a fourth club. Declarer would have gone down had he ruffed in dummy, but he carefully discarded the losing spade from dummy. From this point on he could not be prevented from drawing a second trump, ruffing a spade in dummy, and taking the diamond finesse for his 10th trick.

Although the defenders could have prevailed by shifting to a spade at trick two (and might have done so had South followed with a small club at the first trick) one can hardly blame West for his club continuation. Sometimes you have to pay off to a nice play.

In today’s deal North-South had plenty of high cards and controls but no intermediates and no fit. When South bid his long suits and heard his partner revert to hearts, he expected to find a doubleton heart opposite. Still, since he might have been facing as much as a 10-count, he felt obligated to make one more try for game. He showed his extra values and bid out his pattern with his two spade call. Over this, North might have invited game with a bid of two no-trump, since he had some high-card extras and the fourth suit under control. Instead, he made a repeat game-try by bidding the fourth suit, and respected his partner’s sign-off.

West was optimistic that the bad trump break would be enough to sink the game so long as he could kill ruffs in dummy. So he led a heart, and when South took this with the ace he counted only seven top tricks.

The easiest way home was to maximize his use of trumps. He started by ducking a diamond, and when West won and pressed on with trumps, South realized he would not have time to set up diamonds. (Had both hands followed to the second trump the way forward might not have been so clear).

As it was, declarer led a club to the ace and ruffed one of dummy’s clubs in hand, then came the diamond ace, spade king and spade ace followed by another club ruff. When both opponents followed suit, South had nine tricks, graciously conceding the last three tricks to the high trumps, spades and diamonds.