Today’s deal sees a rather subtle point of spot-card reading, after North-South had done well, I thought, to get to their top spot.

North was playing the conventional style referred to as Kokish (or Birthright) where a direct rebid of two no-trump would have been non-forcing, suggesting 2224 or so. But he could show a very strong balanced hand by a twostep process after his two club opener. His precise sequence showed 28-30, and now South gambled that a six-card suit opposite might be all that was needed to make slam.

In six diamonds South received an unreadable heart spot lead, the four, which could have been from length or shortage. It would have been very easy to put all the eggs in one basket of playing for diamonds to split, by laying down the diamond ace. That way lies disaster, today. But declarer did better when he led a low trump from dummy at trick two.

West won the trick, and declarer’s first significant clue came when East pitched the spade six. West shifted to a spade, and now declarer had to decide how to get to hand to take the trump finesse. He guessed well when he decided West had heart length and spade shortage. Accordingly he won the spade ace, cashed the two top heart winners to pitch a spade, then ruffed a spade to hand. Once this stood up, the hand was over. South could draw trump with the aid of the finesse and pitch a club on dummy’s remaining spade winner.

Today’s deal sees North show both his long suits, after which South drives to game with a call in the fourth suit. North now has an option of rebidding his second five-card suit, or of bidding no-trump. However the decision isn’t close, to my mind. You can always find no-trump later, but getting your hand pattern off your chest as soon as possible is never a bad idea. As it happens, South can close proceedings by bidding no-trump himself.

When West kicks off with the spade queen, South can see there are at most five tricks available from the majors, so South must develop one minor or the other.

The clubs look slightly more promising than diamonds, but there is a real risk that going after clubs would let East in with the club king for a killing spade continuation.

In order to develop the diamonds South needs only to find the king with West, the safe hand, plus a three-two break.

So at trick one South discards a club from dummy and wins with the spade king. He then plays on diamonds with the intention of keeping East off play. He plans to lead diamonds twice from the South hand, using a heart re-entry when the queen holds. West will be allowed to hold the trick whenever he plays the king. That player can then cash three high spades, but South has the rest.

Note that if declarer plays the queen and ace of diamonds, losing the third diamond to East, a spade continuation would defeat the contract.

Mike Lawrence’s latest book, Tips on Cardplay, published by Master Point Press, contains this gem.

West leads the spade five against three no-trump. Dummy wins with the queen and you follow with the 10, suggesting the nine. This is not suit preference, it simply tells your partner what you have in spades.

At trick two, declarer finesses the diamond queen to West’s king. West shifts to the heart three and you take your ace. What now, and why?

You must return the heart six. West switched to a little heart, showing interest in hearts. If West had wanted you to revert to spades, he would have led a high heart spot to convey no interest. How else can you tell partner what you want him to do?

Lawrence notes that at the end of trick one you will often know whether your opening lead was a good lead or a bad one, but your partner may not be so sure. Later, when you get in, if you want him to return your new suit, lead a little card. If you want him to return your original suit, lead a high card.

If East-West don’t have this understanding, East might return a spade, playing West for the ace-jack of spades, allowing declarer to emerge with 10 tricks.

Lawrence also notes that you should return the heart six, whereas if you were left with 6-54, you would return the four. You are trying to tell partner how many hearts you have remaining, in case this affects his subsequent defense.

Today’s deal sees North with an awkward decision at his second turn. It looks right to invite game with a call of two no-trump, suggesting 10-12 HCP. Now South can drive to game, showing a 6-4 hand with extra values (if South had a 6-4 minimum with good spades and weak hearts he might have rebid two spades, then introduced his hearts over the two no-trump rebid). At his final turn North guesses well to raise to four spades, since the notrump game would be hopeless if the defenders attacked clubs early.

So much for the bidding; now let’s focus on the play. As South, you should consider how you would play the spade game on the lead of the trump jack. Clearly you need trumps to break, but can you do better than playing for three-three hearts?

Yes you can. Declarer must play low from the table at trick one, win the spade ace and then lead a diamond towards dummy. West must duck, or he exposes his partner to a ruffing finesse. East takes North’s diamond 10 with the king and does best to shift to the club king. Declarer wins this with dummy’s ace and leads the diamond jack, throwing a club from his hand.

West takes his diamond ace, and can do no better than try to cash the club jack. South ruffs, crosses to the spade king, and throws his potential heart loser on the diamond queen. He loses just one trump trick after this, to bring home 10 tricks.

Today’s deal was preselected for use in the match between the House of Lords and House of Commons from nearly a decade ago. You should try it as a defensive problem for the player sitting in the East seat.

After you have escaped from being doubled in one diamond you should plan the defense to three no-trump, against which partner leads the heart 10. When declarer plays low from dummy, you can see that in the unlikely event that your partner has the heart king, the contract will surely not make. But if your partner has led from a heart sequence and declarer has the king, you do best to unblock the heart queen at trick one. It duly holds the trick. What now?

First, suppose you go for the ‘normal’ defense and play off two further rounds of hearts. A competent declarer should now find his way home. He will win the third heart, discarding a diamond from dummy, play off three top spades and then go after diamonds. At some stage you will win the diamond ace but will have no option other than to play a club. This will run around to dummy’s queen, and now the diamond suit will provide plenty of winners for declarer.

Can you see a way to avoid this ignominy? After you win the first heart you must exit immediately with a low diamond. Now when declarer plays off his spades and leads another diamond (what else can he do?) you win, cash your heart ace and exit with a heart. Declarer must now play clubs himself, and thus will go down.

Today’s deal sees declarer drawing a subtle negative inference from the auction. One of the most popular gadgets in North America is called Drury, where a passed hand two club response to a major-suit opener shows a maximum pass with at least three-card trump support. In today’s deal when North admitted to his spade fit, South decided that he was not going to hang around short of game.

In four spades South won the heart lead and decided to maximize his chances in the spade suit by leading towards the queen. To do that he was prepared to burn his diamond entry at trick two. East took the spade queen with his king and forced declarer with a heart. When West followed with the three, the 5-3 heart break was revealed.

Now declarer guessed to cross to a diamond honor in dummy and finesse the spade 10. When it held, he did not draw the last trump, instead leading a third round of diamonds. East ruffed in and played a third heart, by which time declarer was confident that West had begun life with a 2-5-4-2 pattern. Since East was a passed hand, he was unlikely to have as much as an 11-count. And because he had not doubled the artificial two club call, West appeared to have a doubleton club honor.

So declarer led a club towards the 10. West, who had steeled himself for this moment, ducked smoothly. East won his queen and played back a club, but declarer confidently rose with the ace, and claimed the balance when the king appeared.

At the table South took an unusual view in the auction when he suggested six spades by rebidding his suit, after his partner had in principle denied any support for him. But South could see that even facing a singleton spade, his 150 honors might make spades the only playable game. And he was absolutely right; five diamonds has no practical chances if the defenders lead or shift to hearts, as they surely will.

While an improbable low club lead from West would have defeated four spades, the normal lead of a high club ended the defense’s chances, though it still required declarer to be wide awake. South was up to the task: he ruffed the second club and, without drawing trump, immediately played the diamond king. It did not matter whether East won or ducked. On winning the first diamond, East could see nothing more attractive than playing a third club.

Had declarer ruffed, he would have run out of trump, but he had the counter of discarding a heart from hand. Now, when a fourth round of clubs was played, declarer could ruff in dummy, while discarding a second heart from hand. Next he could return to his hand with the heart ace and draw trump in four rounds. Once trumps behaved, he could take the last four tricks with his winning diamonds. It would not have profited the defenders to shift to hearts at trick five, since declarer can always arrange to discard his heart loser on the fifth diamond after drawing trump.

Today’s trick question: How do you play a suit of 10-9 fourth in hand facing K-J third in dummy? You are in a slam and can afford one loser only. Before answering the question you might want to know more about the hand. After all, it can sometimes be right to play the critical suit immediately and put the opponent with the ace under pressure; sometimes it is better to find out more about the rest of the hand first.

But there is a third answer, as today’s deal will show. South had contracted, not very scientifically, for six clubs, and West led the spade queen. After winning, declarer drew trump in two rounds, cashed his diamond ace and ruffed a spade in dummy. Then came the diamond king and queen (on which South discarded two hearts) and a fourth round of diamonds.

None of this seems to help with the problem of playing the hearts, until you reflect on what happened while declarer was embarking on his voyage of discovery with the spades and the diamonds.

East discarded one heart on the third round of spades and another on the fourth round of diamonds. Therefore he started life with two spades, three diamonds and two clubs – and must hold all the missing hearts.

The solution to the problem is simply to discard a third heart from hand on the diamond eight. West wins, but with no hearts in his hand, he has to concede a ruff and discard, and now South’s remaining losing heart goes away.

Today’s deal comes from the third of three books published recently by Mike Lawrence, “Tips on Cardplay”. The book includes a dozen important topics, and today’s theme is one that all intermediate players should take to heart: every card means something.

Against three no-trump West led the heart five, to East’s ace. East returned the heart two to South’s 10 and West’s jack. West, knowing East had four hearts, (or he would have returned the top of his remaining doubleton) continued with the king, dropping South’s queen, and cashed the heart nine.

West could now exit with the spade eight. When declarer ran his spades West needed to find two discards. What should they be? With the sight of all four hands, West can’t discard a club today. But from West’s perspective, if declarer had the diamond queen not the club king, a diamond discard would be absolutely fatal.

The answer to this dilemma comes if West and East signal helpfully, rather than playing their cards at random. On the first two spade leads, East must follow with the spade 10, then nine. West now knows East has a stopper in the higher-ranking remaining suit, diamonds. If East has a diamond trick, it will be safe for West to discard diamonds and defeat the game.

Since both defenders know that East’s spade cards are irrelevant for trick taking, the only useful message for them to carry is suit preference. That principle might also apply to East’s play on the third and fourth rounds of hearts.