Hands from team matches where a swing comes from a different line of play or defense often yield interesting discussion points. Today’s deal saw identical auctions, with South declaring three no-trump on a fourth-highest spade lead to East’s ace. Yet one table made their game, and one table went down.

Where the defense prevailed, East captured the spade with his ace and shifted to the diamond queen, ensuring four tricks in that suit whether South covered or not. When West complimented his partner, East remarked that this was hardly challenging as after South followed with the spade two at the first trick, the three of spades lead could only be fourth highest from four, marking declarer with four spades. Since the clubs were an obvious danger, his logical play at trick two was the winning one.

And that is the point of the hand; in the second room, South diagnosed the danger before he played from dummy to trick one. He could see that if he was going to win the first trick, life rated to be very straightforward, but if East had the spade ace he might need to be deflected from the winning defense. So he craftily followed with the spade nine from hand to trick one under the ace.

East now hoped his partner had five spades, and that continuing spades might allow West to cash out the spades or at least set up the suit. After a spade continuation, South played low from hand and emerged with 10 tricks at the end of the day.

Today’s deal shows that defensive signaling may be critical for each member of the partnership to plan the defense. But an intelligent declarer can listen in on the signals and can sometimes take advantage of the information conveyed to make an ‘impossible’ contract.

When West led a top diamond against four spades, East followed with a small card, and West sensibly shifted to a club. Declarer could see that he needed to accomplish three things: he needed to draw trump, set up the hearts to pitch his club losers, and ruff away his losing diamonds.

Accordingly, he won the club king and led a heart to the 10, king and ace. Back came a second club, so South won it in dummy and needed to work out how to bring home his game, given that West appeared to have two hearts. He decided that he needed West to have 2=2=6=3 distribution. So he ruffed a heart to hand, cashed the spade ace and king, then ruffed a diamond. Next he cashed the heart queen and jack, pitching clubs as East impotently followed suit, while all West could do was discard diamonds. Although East could trump in on the fifth heart, declarer could get rid of his last diamond loser and claim the rest.

The key was that West felt obliged to signal honestly on the first round of hearts to his partner. Had declarer believed that hearts were three-three, he might have cashed two top spades, ruffed a diamond to dummy, and tried to run the hearts.

This deal occurred in the 2015 Spingold tournament, but I have modified the spot-cards to make the point more elegantly.

West kicks off with the spade six against five clubs, so you have avoided the killing heart lead. You win the spade in hand, and start out on clubs. Both opponents follow to the first trump, but West pitches an encouraging heart on the second trump. Plan the play.

Without drawing any more trump, you must cash two more spades (surely East is not ruffing in yet). As it happens, West began with the doubleton 6-4, so you can take your heart discard on the spades without drawing the last trump. You now get to play diamonds to best advantage by leading twice, rather than once, from dummy.

West is surely 2=8=2=1 or 2=7=3=1. If the latter, considering that East probably has the heart king, West is a heavy favorite to have the diamond ace (rather than the diamond Q-J-x, or he might well have led that suit).

If West does have the diamond ace, your choices in diamonds are initially to lead low to the seven, or low to the 10. In other words, East’s critical holdings are Q-J-x, Q-9-x and J-9-x. Since there are twice as many holdings with one honor as two, you must lead a diamond to the seven. If it loses to an honor, West will surely try to cash the heart ace. Ruff, cross to the club queen and lead a diamond to the 10. When that forces the ace, you can claim the rest.

Today’s deal came up in the ACBL simultaneous pair game in support of the Canadian Olympiad this June.

The commentary indicated that West was likely to pass initially, then back in with two hearts after hearing one club to his left and one spade to his right. North should not repeat his clubs – that would show at least a trick more than he has — but South can reopen with a double, which is primarily for take-out.

North has an obvious rebid of three clubs now, and this lets South bid three diamonds at his next turn, which is clearly natural and forcing. The absence of a heart stopper should now be apparent. North should eventually give preference to spades, and South can raise to game.

West’s target will be to build extra trump tricks for his side by leading hearts at every turn. After three rounds of hearts, ruffed in hand, South will cross to dummy to take the spade finesse. When West wins his spade queen and leads a fourth heart, would you as declarer remember to ruff in dummy with the spade six? That play might seem irrelevant – but just look at the spot cards. You will find that East cannot overruff, and now you can cross to hand with the club queen and draw the remaining trump. If you forget to ruff in dummy, West scores an extra trump trick, to defeat the game.

Making 10 tricks in spades will surely score North-South well, since many pairs will misjudge the bidding or the play here.

In response to a minor-suit opener there is no unanimity as to the meaning of responder’s jump to two or three no-trump. Many play the jump to two notrump as invitational, so that North can pass with a minimum opening bid. So here South jumps to three no-trump to suggest a balanced minimum game force, tending to deny a biddable four-card major. That ends the auction.

After the lead of the spade 10 (top of a sequence, not denying a higher honor such as the ace, king, or queen) South captures East’s queen with his king and must develop the diamonds to make his game. But he can see that he needs to do so without allowing East to gain the lead for a potentially fatal second round of spades. If East is allowed to lead a spade through declarer’s jack, West may be able to run the spade suit on defense and defeat the contract.

The solution is very simple – once you see the problem. South crosses to the heart jack and leads the diamond 10 from dummy, planning to duck this around to West. If East covers, South captures the queen with his king, goes back to the heart king, then leads a diamond to his seven. He does not care if West wins the trick, since he is in no danger if it is West who leads the second spade for the defense.

This line of play ensures South can run the diamonds without letting West in, and thus make overtricks in his game.

How should East defend against four spades, when partner leads the club king to trick one? At the table East played low at trick one, and West continued with the club ace.

Now, not wishing to open up either red suit, West switched to a trump. Declarer still doesn’t seem to have a 10th trick, since diamonds do not break and the heart ace is offside.

However, many-time world senior champion John Holland won the spade ace at trick three, and without testing the diamonds he ran all the trump, discarding hearts from dummy.

He reduced to a five-card ending where dummy had the bare heart king and four diamonds, while he had two hearts and three diamonds in hand. What was East to discard on the last trump? A diamond would give declarer four tricks in that suit, while if East reduced to the bare heart ace it would allow declarer to establish the heart nine for his 10th trick.

West certainly had an awkward problem at trick three. His best chance to beat four spades is to find East with two tricks in a red suit, or perhaps one red ace and a trump trick (in which case nothing matters). I would have switched, though probably to switch to a diamond than a heart.

However as East, since you know West is surely going to continue with a top club at trick two, whatever you play, maybe if you play the queen first, partner will continue with the ace, and will read your carding as suit-preference?

Let us look at the contract of four hearts after the lead of the club queen to the ace. At trick two declarer must play a spade, to preserve entries for the elimination that is to come. East takes the spade king with the ace, and a diamond shift is surely the only chance to set the game.

If declarer wins this and draws trump, he will surely go down, since he will strip the hand and play a diamond, and West will cash out three diamonds for down one.

So say South ducks the diamond. If East is left on play he can do no better than exit in a black suit. Declarer draws trump, cashes the remaining black winners, and takes the diamond ace to find the bad news. Then he takes his one remaining chance when he exits from hand with the spade 10, pitching a diamond from dummy. East can win, but must now surrender a ruff-sluff, and dummy’s remaining diamond loser goes away as declarer ruffs in hand.

West should maybe find the defense to beat the game at trick three. Once his partner produces the spade ace and diamond queen, declarer must have all the missing high cards, and four hearts. The only chance for the defenders is for West to overtake the diamond queen and give his partner a ruff. With three tricks in the bag, a passive exit from East leaves West with a diamond winner, and East with the spade jack, to counter declarer’s pressure in the endgame.

Today’s deal originally arose in a home countries international match between England and Northern Ireland (and was subsequently recycled into the Lords versus Commons match).

After a strong two-club opener, South ended as declarer in three no-trump. West led the heart queen, won perforce by South. Rate your chances.

The club blockage is extremely aggravating, and with only one heart stopper remaining, it might seem that, after cashing the top clubs, you will only be completely safe if West has both the missing aces. Equally, if West has just one of the aces, it may be a matter of guessing which, in order to reach dummy before the hearts are established.

Curiously, though, declarer can always get home if he plays the hand correctly. When the hand was originally played, after unblocking the clubs, both declarers continued with the diamond king at trick five. Naturally, East ducked; but now with a diamond trick in the bag, the declarers abandoned diamonds and knocked out the spade ace, to come to nine tricks without breaking a sweat.

The second time around, Lord Hamilton and Lord Kalms were defending three no-trump on the lead of the heart queen. After cashing the top clubs, South advanced a sneaky spade jack. But Lord Kalms wasn’t fooled – he ducked, and now declarer was toast. A second spade would see the defense win and shift to hearts, while declarer had only eight tricks. So declarer tried a diamond to the queen, and East won his ace and cleared the hearts to set the game.

Not all finesses are created equal. Sometimes the timing of the play dictates that one suit must be broached before another.

The explanation for the bizarre auction here is that North responded two clubs because he thought he was a passed hand and was bidding Drury to show a strong spade raise! If you think this can only have occurred at a local club, it came up in a topbracket knockout final, and North was a famous player. Luckily, the contract reached was a reasonable one.

When West led his diamond, it might appear that declarer needs two out of three finesses in spades and clubs (and probably to find trumps breaking 3-2) to succeed. However, dummy’s shortage of entries means care is required. Declarer wins the opening lead, crosses to the heart ace, and takes the club finesse. If West wins the king, declarer must find East with K-J or K-J-x of spades. He leads the club 10 to the jack and a spade to the 10, then ruffs the club ace to play a spade to the queen.

If the club queen holds, declarer leads a spade to the 10, then ruffs the third club in dummy to lead another spade. If East covers with the club king, the club jack and the club ruff are declarer’s two entries.

Taking the spade finesse first fails today, because the early club finesse creates two additional entries. Also, be careful not to discard a club on the heart king – that loser has an important role to play!