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.

Against four spades, reached after a slightly aggressive jump raise by North, West leads the diamond jack, covered by the queen and king. What is your plan to make 10 tricks?

The contract requires some friendly breaks. The black suits must break 3-2, and it also requires that the defenders cannot promote a trump by playing on diamonds. The full deal needs to be similar to the layout here.

After winning the diamond ace, if you cross to table to with a trump and lead a club to the king, you will fail in your contract whenever West has the ace, because the defense of repeated red-suit leads will leave you without enough entries to establish the clubs.

A better plan is to rely on clubs being 3-2 and simply to lead a low club out of your hand at trick two. On this layout East will win the trick with the 10 and cash his side’s diamond trick. After trumping the red-suit continuation, ruff a club with dummy’s 10. Then cross back to hand with the queen of spades to ruff a second club with the king, thereby establishing the club suit.

Now play dummy’s last trump to your ace, to run the club suit. West can take his nine of trumps whenever he likes, but that will be his side’s last defensive trick. All you will lose is a trump, a diamond and a club. You managed to create a trump loser, but saved yourself two entries to hand in the process.

Against six diamonds West leads the spade king, and East signals an odd number of spades. At trick two, West shift to the heart queen. What is the best approach to make a 12th trick?

Even if you can find the club queen, you must establish a long club to take care of your slow heart loser. After winning the heart shift in hand with the king and drawing trump, you could cash the club ace in the hope that West has a singleton club queen: if this proved successful you would have the four club tricks you need.

However, if the cards lie as shown in the diagram, the only successful approach here is to win the second trump in dummy (and when West shows out the singleton club queen becomes less likely) then lead the club jack. East can do no better than cover it with his queen.

You will then win the club ace, lead the club four to the 10, followed by the club two, to finesse the six. The play will be equivalent if East ducks the first club.

As West will by now be marked with an original with 5-5-1-2 shape, you will know to finesse on the third round of clubs. This line produces a fourth club trick whenever West started with a doubleton such as: 9-8, 9-7 or 8-7.

Note that there is no point in playing West for a doubleton club queen. While you would not have a club loser, you would still have one in hearts.

In today’s deal you might consider what you would lead as West after the given sequence to six no-trump. Your knowledge of the bad break in spades would normally suggest a passive opening lead (a heart or club, to taste). If you were looking at a spade holding such as jack-third, you might well go for an aggressive choice. In general, any time the opponents follow a quantitative auction to game or slam, you try to judge whether the cards lie well or badly. The worse they lie, the more passive your defensive strategy should be.

Be that as it may, at the table, West chose a top diamond and was soon taught a sharp lesson. Declarer won the diamond ace and played a diamond straight back. West put up his nine, so declarer took dummy’s king and led another diamond, to build the 10 into a trick. West took his jack, and exited with a passive fourth diamond, instead of a heart, which might perhaps have given the defenders a chance.

Declarer won the diamond 10, then cashed his top spades to discover the bad news. Next he played a club to dummy’s queen and took dummy’s spade winners, pitching hearts from hand. Meanwhile, East kept his clubs, so had to bare his heart king.

When declarer came to hand with a club to the ace, and cashed his remaining club winner West also had to throw a heart, to preserve his spade winner. Declarer discarded the spade from dummy and the heart seven took trick 13.

Today’s deal saw South double a weak two and North respond three clubs, natural invitational and value showing. With a weaker hand North would have bid two no-trump as a puppet to three clubs, planning to pass with long clubs or correct to his long red suit if he had one. This convention is known as Lebensohl and originally applied only after a one no-trump opener, but has had its use extended to today’s sequence.

After this start South bid his hearts, used keycard when his partner cooperated for that suit, and drove to seven no-trump, knowing he rated to be able to claim the contract at trick one.

As it turned out though, when dummy went down with surprisingly weak clubs, the contract required careful play. It looks obvious to play West, the non-preempter, for long clubs, but South went the extra mile. He won the spade lead, cashed the top hearts, pitching spades from dummy, and now made the key play of the diamond king and queen. Had both hands followed, declarer would have started clubs by leading a top honor from hand. When East discarded on the second diamond he was almost sure to have begun with precisely 6=2=1=4 pattern. So declarer led a club to the ace and back towards his hand, putting in the nine when East played low. Had East split his honors, it would have been easy to cross back to the diamond ace to take the marked club finesse.

The annual House of Lords versus the House of Commons match features a contest between talented amateurs. As you might expect, the quality of bridge is mixed. But some of the deals have been pre-selected, to give the players the opportunity to shine by demonstrating good technique, knowledge of the laws of probability, or even by revealing sound partnership understandings. It was into that latter class that today’s deal fell.

All roads would seem to lead to three no-trump here, probably via a two no-trump opening. West has a natural lead of the spade 10, especially as no attempt was made to locate a major suit fit. Declarer can count on seven sure tricks – five in clubs and two in spades. Should he put up the spade jack?

Yes indeed; if dummy’s jack holds the first trick, there will be no problem in setting up a trick in diamonds for the ninth trick. But the jack loses to the queen, and declarer wins the king. The natural suit for declarer to turn to is diamonds, and here is where the defenders have to be on their toes. When South advances the diamond king, West must duck. And East must signal his distribution clearly, by following with the seven, suggesting an even number, so that West knows to take his ace at his next turn. The point is that if East has two diamonds, South has four, and a second hold-up would be pointless. If East has four, winning the second diamond trick holds South to just one trick in the suit.

In today’s contract, declarer had bid the hand intelligently to the right contract, but when dummy came down he thought the route to nine tricks was a safe one. Unfortunately for him, he tackled his suits in the wrong order, and so he failed in his mission.

Against three no-trump West led the spade three and South appreciated that nine tricks were easily available – in addition to the four top tricks in the majors, four extra tricks could very likely be developed in diamonds and one further trick in clubs.

So on winning the opening lead with dummy’s spade ace, declarer called for a diamond. East won, and returned a spade. The jack lost, and South was forced to win the spade continuation. When the club finesse also lost, the game was sunk.

If declarer had appreciated that spades could not be continued to advantage from the West hand, he would have taken the club finesse at trick two. It loses, but no return by West is damaging. Say a heart comes back. Best is to play low from dummy, win the jack with the ace, then set about diamonds. Now, so long as diamond break no worse than 3-1, (when the defenders could duck the diamond ace three times) nine tricks are there.

Once again, it would have paid to make a detailed plan when dummy went down. As declarer you have every right to take your time to do this – even to the extent of discouraging dummy from playing the spade ace until you are ready.