Today’s deal is from the pairs contest in Tromso at the European Open last July. It produced an excellent technical problem for the North-South declarers.

This board was played in seven no-trump at only seven of the 53 tables. Slightly to my surprise, making seven hearts would have been a considerably better than average result. Maybe the board is harder to bid than it appears?

Anyway, be that as it may, your task today is to play seven notrump from South. A spade lead may be the most awkward (because it prevents you discarding a spade from South on the hearts). So let’s give you the most challenging defense.

The correct line is to win the spade, cash one club if you like, then four (and only four) hearts, overtaking the third. When you cash the fourth (but not the fifth!) heart East is obliged to pitch diamonds – the menace he holds under South — not spades, which would produce a relatively simple double squeeze for declarer.

Beware: Cashing the last heart now would squeeze your hand. Instead you must take the diamond ace-king first; when you do this and lead the fifth heart, East must discard a spade, or the clubs will run. Now you have to bite the bullet and pitch your fourth club (never easy to do, since partner will sneer if the opponents had double-bluffed you and set it up as a winner already). When you cash off the clubs, West will be squeezed in diamonds and spades.

The field did not shine on this deal from the first day of the Tromso Mixed Teams. Only 12 of the 84 tables playing this deal reached the grand slam – and 10 went down in it! Seven pairs went down in game – one in five diamonds! That might make the result of the pairs who went down in six hearts look more acceptable. Meanwhile 30 pairs bid to the small slam, the rest contenting themselves with game. I suppose we should be happy no one played partscore…

The two tables who bid and made seven diamonds received a top club lead. They won the ace, led the spade queen to the ace and ruffed a spade. Then they unblocked in hearts and ruffed a spade with the 10. They cashed the heart ace to pitch a club, ruffed away the last spade winner with the diamond ace, and drew trump.

This line required spades to break 4-3 and diamonds no worse than 3-1, and might have survived West’s holding either the doubleton spade king or five small spades. The failure of so many pairs in the grand slam – by playing on hearts, without realizing that this line entails more luck in hearts than the winning line requires in spades – is remarkable. If you won’t stop to do the math in a grand slam when WILL you stop to think?

Only Ton Hoeyland and Maria Dam Mortensen played the grand slam correctly. They were thus rewarded, if not with glory, with something at least as important: a metaphorical ‘thumbs-up’ from this column.

The first board of the 2015 Tromso Mixed Teams saw Roy Welland drive his partner Sabine Auken to a delicate slam, and let her try to make it. I have simplified their auction. In real life a club lead would have defeated the contract, but that was not obvious to anyone during the bidding.

In six hearts Auken received the lead of the diamond five, which went to the three, the queen and her ace. She then played a heart to dummy’s jack and East’s ace. That player now returned another diamond, though even at this point a club return to dummy’s ace might still set the contract, since declarer does not yet know about the 4-1 trump split.

Anyway, after the diamond return Sabine won with the king and continued with the heart king. When East showed out, she could now continue with a club to the ace to take the heart finesse. When declarer then played off all her trumps, West was squeezed in three suits. That meant 12 tricks to declarer and 11 IMPs to Welland’s team, since his teammates defended game in the other room.

Incidentally, that declarer also received a diamond lead. His next move was to play the heart queen from hand. Now if East wins this, the heart jack is the entry for the trump finesse. If East ducks the ace, a low heart to dummy’s jack will reveal the trump split while the club ace is still in dummy as the entry to take the trump finesse and execute the same squeeze.

At Tromso last summer in the EBL Open Mixed Teams, Katrine Bertheau for the Casino Floor team found a pretty defense against her opponent’s four heart contract.

Bertheau led a spade to West’s ace and a second spade went round to the jack. Bertheau now played a third round of spades, forcing declarer to ruff in hand, in an attempt to gain control over the trump suit.

Declarer next played a diamond to the king and ran the heart queen. Bertheau correctly ducked, continuing her accurate defense, since if she had won and played a fourth spade, declarer could have ruffed in dummy to retain trump control. Declarer would have been entitled to relax when the first trump finesse succeeded, but his hopes were dashed when he continued with the heart 10 and Bertheau won to play a fourth round of spades. Since declarer was now forced to ruff in hand, West had wrested trump control from him, and established the setting trick.

That might had been a great IMP swing if Bertheau’s teammates had managed to make a game at the other table. But declarer stood no chance of making his five club contract when the heart king was offside. With spades 4-4, three no-trump was the only making game today.

For the record, it would have been possible to make four hearts on any lead with the sight of all four hands, if declarer could have avoided finessing hearts. The winning line is to cross-ruff and endplay West in trumps. But no one would find this at the table.

At Tromso in the European Open last summer Barry Myers found a very nice play to bring home his slam here. Look just at the North and South cards first before seeing the whole story.

Myers sat South and East’s two heart call showed hearts and a minor, the four heart call presumably showing a combination of an optimistic temperament, extra shape, or a misreading of the vulnerability. North-South actually come closer to making four hearts than their opponents, after a trump lead. But now is not the moment to worry about that. How do you play six spades after a diamond lead?

Myers correctly identified the lead as a singleton, but nonetheless finessed at trick one. Back came a diamond at trick two. Myers ruffed high as West pitched a club. Then he sneaked the club jack past his LHO, pitching a heart from dummy. Next he cashed the club ace to pitch a second heart from dummy. He advanced the spade nine, and when West ducked, he let it run. Then he crossed to the heart ace to ruff another diamond high, finessed the spade eight and claimed after drawing trump.

Had South covered the spade nine, Myers would have ruffed the diamond high and subsequently finessed the trump six to bring home his slam. At the critical moment East was known to hold 1-5-5-2 distribution, so there would have been no guesswork involved.

The critical defensive error was West’s in not covering the club jack, which would have left declarer far too much work to do.

All this week’s deals come from last year’s European Open event in Tromso, Norway. Today’s deal may have the appearance of a routine four spades, but the defense led a diamond to the ace for a club shift to the king, followed by a second club. Now everything depends on the way declarer tackles the hearts after drawing trump and eliminating the minors.

There are two sensible lines: both leading the heart ace followed by a small heart, or running dummy’s heart jack initially would work here, so you might wonder why bringing home the game was worth as much as two thirds of the matchpoints. The answer is that declarer has a perfectly decent alternative line of playing for the heart king-queen to be together by tackling hearts by leading low from hand toward the 10, hoping to endplay one opponent or the other.

How to decide? If your opponents lead the diamond six to the first trick, playing 3rd/5th leads, you can build up a clear picture at the critical moment of West as 1-4-4-4 pattern. His play in clubs, diamonds and spades will strongly suggest his actual pattern. That being so, playing for a doubleton honor must be right, since West might well have led from heart king-queen at trick one.

In turn, that might encourage you as West the next time round to return the club nine at trick three. If partner isn’t ruffing the second club, your spots are irrelevant for trick-taking, but not for misleading declarer about the count on the hand.

South’s jump rebid promises a balanced distribution and 18-19 HCP. North should not hesitate to carry on to game opposite these values, but his honor location strongly suggests no-trump – played by his partner – will be more sensible than a possible 5-3 spade fit played his way up, on a club or heart lead through the South hand.

When South wins the first club lead, he can count a total of eight tricks. If he tries to set up his ninth winner in spades or hearts, he will have to give up one trick in that suit and may then lose four clubs as well.

The best line of play here is to give up a club and let the opponents their tricks. If they do, a squeeze may develop; and if they fail to take their tricks immediately, they may not get a second chance. And if clubs are 4-3 you can always revert to ducking a spade.

South therefore leads back a club, and allows West to cash out his long suit. Declarer prepares to save spade length in the dummy and heart length in his own hand. If either opponent has the only stopper in both suits, he will be squeezed, as will be the case today.

As the cards lie, it will not do West any good to shift at trick three. Declarer sets up spades, keeping West off lead, and has his contract.

And yes, four spades by North can make after any lead but a club. I leave the details to the reader!

As East you see your partner lead the diamond king then play the diamond seven to your ace, declarer following with the nine and five. What now?

Declarer surely has solid hearts, but maybe it is just possible for partner to have a club honor. Could he have the king and have returned what looks like a high diamond? The question as to whether this is a suit-preference position or a count position may be dependent on individual partnerships. West can be fairly sure his partner has three or more diamonds, or he would overtake the first diamond.

But there really doesn’t seem room for declarer not to have the club king or he would have opened four hearts – wouldn’t he?

The point is that if you play a club now and partner has the queen, declarer is even money to guess right. But try playing a spade, a defense that wins whenever partner has a doubleton spade and either the heart jack or the club king. It still leaves declarer with a guess as to what to do, if missing the ace-queen of clubs.

What is more, declarer’s communications are now decisively cut, since you have prevented him from drawing trump and running the spades. He can cash two spades safely, of course, but then if he plays a third spade, your partner will be able to ruff in. Equally, of course, if he plays a club instead, you rise with the ace and play a third spade, promoting partner’s heart jack into the setting trick.

How much should a vulnerable preempt deliver? I prefer intermediate jumps when at unfavorable vulnerability, and my vulnerable double jumps are typically better than an opening preempt. On that basis, both South’s three heart overcall and North’s raise were at the aggressive end of the spectrum.

How would you play four hearts on the lead of the club jack? First things first: it is important to duck at trick one. This helps to preserve your entries and keep control. West now needs to switch to a trump to prevent you ruffing a club in dummy (which he may not find it so easy to do from, say, Q-x-x).

However, this time East takes his partner off the hook by overtaking with the club queen, and does find the trump switch. It is disappointing to see West show out on the second round of trump.

East’s defense so far has strongly suggested the diamond finesse will lose, so it looks best to play a diamond to the ace and ruff a diamond. Now exit with a trump from hand, and East wins and plays back a club to dummy’s ace. When you cash the diamond queen, discarding your last club, East ruffs in, and has only black suits left. You should not misguess on a spade return (East would not jeopardize his sure trick), and on a club return, you ruff and run all your trump, squeezing West in spades and diamonds. To keep diamonds guarded he must bare his spade king, and now your spade loser vanishes.