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.

The main difference between pairs and teams is that at teams or rubber bridge you always try to make your contract, or defeat the opponents, without worrying too much about overtricks or undertricks — if the contract isn’t doubled.

South forgot that instruction when he declared four hearts. West led the spade queen, and East did well to withhold the ace. Declarer won with the king, played the diamond seven to dummy’s jack, then called for the heart jack. East rose with the ace, as the bad trump break came to light, and returned a diamond. Now he could put his partner in with a spade for a diamond ruff, and that was the setting trick.

In the other room, after the same start, South appreciated that he could afford to lose two trump tricks and a spade. So at trick two he led a low heart from hand. The jack lost to the queen, but now declarer was a tempo ahead. He won the club switch in hand and continued with another low heart, to the 10 and ace. After winning the club continuation he was able to enter dummy in diamonds to finesse the heart eight successfully, then cash the king. Had the defenders shifted to diamonds at trick three, declarer would have won in hand and remained a tempo ahead in the race to draw trump.

Even if West had held the four trumps, the second declarer would have been home, whereas leading the jack from dummy would immediately have been fatal.

Today’s deal sees South open one diamond then reverse into hearts, thus forcing any preference to diamonds to come at the three-level. This is the essence of a reverse and it guarantees a king more than a minimum opener, plus at least 4-5 shape.

North can produce a forcing raise of hearts, then use keycard and explore for a grand slam before reluctantly giving up at six.

After a top club lead by West, South can see that the side suits will provide five tricks in aces and kings. The slam will be safe if declarer can win seven trump tricks.

The safest play for the contract is to ruff once in each hand with a low trump and then continue the cross-ruff with high trumps. South should cash the side winners first, then execute the cross-ruff as planned.

So win the club king, unblock diamonds, cross to the club ace and cash the diamond ace to pitch the club jack. Then play ace and ruff a spade low, and ruff a club low (unless you have seen both the queen and 10 appear from East!). Once the low ruffs stand up, crossruff high. At trick 12, South will not care about a possible over-ruff, for he is bound to make one of the last two tricks.

If declarer had ruffed with a low trump after trick seven, he would have risked an early overruff. The defender would then return a trump, and defeat the slam.

The peril may be slight, but why endanger a slam for a possible overtrick?

When South opens one club, West overcalls in hearts. Now, rather than raise clubs directly, North cuebids to show a strong hand. A jump in clubs would be preemptive. Since South has a stopper in the enemy’s suit, he bids two no-trump (a non-forcing call facing a limit raise) and North raises him to game.

After the low heart lead, South can see that he needs at least two club tricks to make his contract. All would be fine if the club finesse happens to work, but if the club finesse loses, South must expect to have to face an avalanche of hearts.

It looks normal to put up the heart queen from dummy and cross to hand to try the club finesse. However, when this loses, a heart return would give West five tricks in that suit, to take the contract two down.

South must take out insurance against the club finesse losing by ducking the opening lead in both hands. Since East has only two hearts, this unusual holdup play will bring home the contract today. South can later take the club finesse in safety, as East will not be able to get to his partner’s hand for the rest of the hearts.

Note: this play would not work if hearts were 5-3 and the club finesse lost – but then the contract could never be made. And also note that if the club queen and ace are switched, it is safe to win the heart queen and run the club queen into the non-danger hand.