Today’s deal saw a fine duel between declarer and the defense. Both North and South appeared to have something in hand for their bidding, and the final contract was an excellent one. But despite trumps breaking favorably there were only nine top tricks. After the lead of the club queen, declarer was threatened with losing four tricks in the minor suits via a club overruff.

South crossed the first hurdle when he ducked the club queen, thereby neatly cutting the defenders’ communications in that suit. West continued with a club to the ace, and back came a low spade. Reluctant to commit himself immediately to the club ruff, declarer first took a diamond finesse. Now East won this with the queen and subtly returned the spade 10. When the nine appeared from West, declarer decided that the spade jack rated to be to his left, so a club ruff in dummy looked safe. He unblocked the heart ace and tried to ruff his club in dummy, planning to ditch his potential fourth diamond on the heart king. East could overruff in clubs, and that was down one.

Had East not false-carded in trumps, declarer might conceivably have found the winning line of cashing the heart ace and playing two more rounds of diamonds, ending in dummy. This would work whenever diamonds split, or when the player with three trumps had long diamonds.

Overall, I think declarer followed the percentage line, since clubs certainly rated to break decently more often than diamonds – but East certainly helped push him in the wrong direction.

Rubber bridge is an exciting form of the game – and there can be a lot of money riding on your decisions, not just the glory of matchpoints or IMPs. This deal cropped up at TGR’s rubber bridge club in London. Put yourself in the West seat by covering up the East and South hands for the moment.

What would you lead against six hearts, reached on a delicately nuanced auction?

At the table West chose the club queen, which held the first trick, East, a good player, playing the seven and declarer contributing the five. What now?

When West continued with the club jack, declarer did not cover in dummy but ruffed in hand. He ran all but one of the trumps and cashed the diamond ace and king, reaching a three-card ending in which dummy had the bare spade ace and two clubs, while declarer had two spades and a heart in hand.

Since West could not pitch a spade or declarer would cash the spade ace and his hand would be high, he came down to the bare club 10. Declarer read the position perfectly when he led the club king, ruffed away East’s ace, and now dummy was high.

Should West have got the position right? I think so. East was known to have the club ace by the end of trick one, so his seven should be a count card not attitude. To defeat the contract, West must shift to a top spade at trick two, to take out declarer’s vital entry to dummy prematurely.

The target in today’s deal is to reach the heart slam, and then to make it.

Control-showing responses to the two club opener fortuitously get South to be declarer in slam after North shows a balanced 22-24 then jumps to four hearts over the transfer. This suggests four trump and a non-minimum in context.

In six hearts declarer wins the spade lead with the ace and cashes the heart ace. If trumps break, there are 12 top tricks. But the 4-0 trump division places a real onus of care on South. When West pitches a club, the risk of 5-2 clubs becomes a real one, in which case declarer cannot take a club ruff in dummy with either a high or a low trump without creating a winner for the defenders. Accordingly he must make sure to set up the diamonds to ensure his discard, then play to ruff spades in hand.

At trick three he leads a heart to his 10, then advances the diamond queen. East takes the second diamond and returns a spade. After winning this with dummy’s king, declarer cashes the diamond king, throwing a club from hand.

Now comes a spade ruff in hand, the two top clubs ending in dummy, and declarer has reached a three-card ending in which he can lead the last spade from dummy and leave East with no winning options. If East ruffs in, South overruffs and draws trump. If he discards instead, declarer scores his small heart, and has two high trumps for the last two tricks.

South has an obvious rebid of his strong five-card suit when his partner sets up a two-over-one game force. North should simply raise to game now, assuming the partnership plays that as a minimum hand with no slam interest.

After the fourth highest lead of the club two South doesn’t need to put up dummy’s club queen. If West has the king, South will have a later chance to win with dummy’s queen; and if East has the king, there is certainly no advantage in playing dummy’s queen.

South must go after hearts at once, saving dummy’s trumps as re-entries to his own hand. When dummy’s king wins the first heart trick, South has a convenient way in trumps to get back to his hand for another heart lead. West takes the heart ace, and continues with the club jack. The defenders cash two clubs and now East shifts to a diamond. South wins the diamond ace then leads the spade queen, with the intention of drawing trump with the queen and ace, ending in dummy. If the hearts are then established, all will be well.

However, when the spade 10 appears from the West hand, South can improve on that plan. It is now possible to enter dummy both with the spade ace and also with the eight.

South therefore overtakes the spade queen, ruffs a low heart with a high trump, and leads a low trump to dummy’s eight. South can now cash dummy’s hearts to pitch his diamonds, and make his game.

It often surprises me to see players rush through playing a slam. After all, if you won’t give full consideration to your play in a slam, when will you take the time? In today’s deal declarer gave his contract the respect it deserved, and was rewarded.

When West led the diamond king against seven hearts, declarer realized that he had reached a contract with 13 apparent tricks available – barring a hostile break. At second glance the grand slam seemed to depend on how the trumps divided. If they were 2-2, he could ruff a spade and club in dummy; if 3-1, then clubs might need to be 3-3. That wasn’t good enough, so South returned to his cogitating, and eventually saw that there might be a way home however hearts broke.

He took the club jack in hand, led to dummy’s diamond ace and immediately ruffed a diamond to hand with the four. A trump to dummy disclosed the bad break, and now declarer needed more help from the club suit. He took a diamond ruff with the eight, then cashed the heart ace. Next he led a club to the king and ruffed the fourth diamond with the king, his last trump. A spade to the ace allowed North’s master trumps to take care of West’s last two hearts.

Declarer had the master clubs and spades left, and ended up taking 13 tricks in the form of six plain winners, three diamond ruffs in hand and four trumps in dummy. This approach is most accurately referred to as a dummy reversal.

There is certainly a case for South driving his hand to game when his partner produces a free raise of spades. But these days the mantra to support with support has taken hold to such a degree that South might do better to take the slightly cautious approach and ask North whether he has a hand or a foot. North will normally commit to game with either a maximum, in context, or a fitting hand for the majors.

The defenders lead and continue clubs against four spades. South ruffs, and can afford to surrender one trump in addition to the inevitable loss of one club and one heart. South cannot protect himself against a hostile trump break, since he will be forced to ruff clubs at the second trick, and again when he gives up a heart trick. Hence South must look for the best line on the assumption that trumps break 3-2.

Best is to ruff the second club, drive out the heart ace, ruff another club, and then draw two rounds of trump with the ace and king. Now, ignoring the trump queen, declarer runs his heart and diamond winners. West may take his high trump when he pleases, but South has the rest.

Note that at trick six South must not lead to the spade king and take the trump finesse. If he did, he would lose to the queen, and back would come another club. South would have to ruff with his trump ace, and this would set up West’s spade nine as the setting trick.

The North hand offers a real problem in standard bidding after West stretches to double a one spade opener from South. At the table, North had a conventional gadget up his sleeve: he was playing a jump in hearts (the other major) to be a mixed raise in spades. This suggested four trump and just less than a limit raise, but more than preemptive values. South now had enough to drive to game.

When West led the club king, South tried to encourage the defenders to continue attacking clubs by dropping the nine, trying to give the West the impression that East’s play of the club three was the beginning of a signal. If West had taken his club ace it would have set up South’s club queen.

As it happened, West, used by now to South’s wiles, decided to shift to a red suit. Logically enough he tried the heart queen, and now South continued his devious ways by contributing a low heart from both hands, hoping that West would assume that his partner had the heart ace.

Maybe West might have focused on East’s low heart at this trick, but he can hardly be blamed too much for pressing on with another heart. Now South came into his own. He took the heart ace, drew trump, discarded the diamond king on dummy’s heart king, and ruffed out the diamond ace. He could get back to dummy with a trump, to discard two clubs on dummy’s two good diamonds, and another “unmakeable” contract had come home.

Today’s deal proved to be the critical difference in a close loss I suffered in a national knock-out match. My first reaction was that my teammate had been unlucky, in that his counterpart had been given a nudge in the right direction. But I realized later that luck had very little to do with it.

What happened was that both tables reached slam, but against my teammate a low diamond was led. Declarer won and drew trumps, ending in hand. Then he took a club finesse and when it lost he was doomed to defeat.

In the other room West led the heart nine against the slam. It was now easy for declarer to win the heart jack, draw trump and cash the diamond ace and king. Then he ruffed a diamond to hand and played ace and another heart. East could win the trick, but then had to lead a club into the tenace, and that was the 12th trick.

The hand is something of an optical illusion, though. It might look as if the contract hinged on one of the club or heart finesses working, but the heart finesse on its own is not enough to make the slam. The club finesse IS enough to make the slam though. So just focus on making the slam when the club finesse loses. You can never do so if the heart finesse also fails, but if you take the heart finesse and it succeeds, the endplay on East means you do not need the club finesse to work.