Today’s deal saw a contract of four hearts where success or failure revolved around holding the diamond losers to two. Admittedly, the defenders can lead a spade and take a diamond ruff at once to defeat the game. However, after a top club lead, declarer was in with a chance, though the play is more complex than you might imagine. Follow it through to the very end – and cover up the East and West cards if you want to give yourself a proper challenge.

Let’s say you win the club queen lead and draw trump, as West discards two clubs. When you play a spade to the king, East wins and presses on with spades. You win the queen and cash your remaining club winner, ruff a spade, and have reduced to a five-card ending with four diamonds and a trump in each hand. You lead a low diamond from dummy to the 10 and king and…

BZZZ! Thank you for playing, and here is a beautiful parting gift. In this position West wins the ace and leads back a low diamond. Now, whether you play low or the jack, you are doomed as the cards lie. If you put in the seven and cross to hand in hearts, LHO can pitch the diamond nine and take the last two tricks with a club and diamond winner. You needed to lead the diamond seven to the 10 and king. Now if you guess to play low from dummy on the diamond return, you will make your game, since you can overtake dummy’s four and lead a third diamond.

In today’s deal North showed a second negative at his second turn, then had a problem at his third turn over South’s three notrump call. Declarer would have had just eight tricks in no-trump today, so North’s decision to convert to four hearts was not unreasonable, and it left South in a contract with decent play. Even with the diamond finesse onside, declarer still needed some cooperation from the defenders. However, he received some help when West quite naturally led a top club.

South realized he would need the diamond finesse, but that a 4-2 club break might cause him some big trouble. He also realized that he wanted a club continuation at trick two, so when East followed low to the first trick South dropped the 10. Although a spade shift would have been the killer, West naturally continued with a low club, and declarer captured East’s jack, drew one round of trumps, and played a third club. East showed out on this trick, so West led a fourth club. Declarer would have gone down had he ruffed in dummy, but he carefully discarded the losing spade from dummy. From this point on he could not be prevented from drawing a second trump, ruffing a spade in dummy, and taking the diamond finesse for his 10th trick.

Although the defenders could have prevailed by shifting to a spade at trick two (and might have done so had South followed with a small club at the first trick) one can hardly blame West for his club continuation. Sometimes you have to pay off to a nice play.

In today’s deal North-South had plenty of high cards and controls but no intermediates and no fit. When South bid his long suits and heard his partner revert to hearts, he expected to find a doubleton heart opposite. Still, since he might have been facing as much as a 10-count, he felt obligated to make one more try for game. He showed his extra values and bid out his pattern with his two spade call. Over this, North might have invited game with a bid of two no-trump, since he had some high-card extras and the fourth suit under control. Instead, he made a repeat game-try by bidding the fourth suit, and respected his partner’s sign-off.

West was optimistic that the bad trump break would be enough to sink the game so long as he could kill ruffs in dummy. So he led a heart, and when South took this with the ace he counted only seven top tricks.

The easiest way home was to maximize his use of trumps. He started by ducking a diamond, and when West won and pressed on with trumps, South realized he would not have time to set up diamonds. (Had both hands followed to the second trump the way forward might not have been so clear).

As it was, declarer led a club to the ace and ruffed one of dummy’s clubs in hand, then came the diamond ace, spade king and spade ace followed by another club ruff. When both opponents followed suit, South had nine tricks, graciously conceding the last three tricks to the high trumps, spades and diamonds.

When South shows the majors, North, who has set up a game-forcing auction at his first turn, can afford to raise to three spades to set up a slam try.

South may not be encouraged by his partner’s earlier diamond bid, but his controls and shape suggest making one mild slam try. Here, facing North’s three spade call, South might sign off at once, but he chooses a modern gadget to make one small effort toward slam. His three no-trump call indicates no extras but that he is otherwise not unsuitable for slam.

(When a major suit has been agreed this is the so-called nonserious three no-trump bid. This was invented and popularized by Eric Rodwell).

Over three no-trump, North signs off in four spades, and when West leads a club to the king and ace, East returns a trump. South has only two plain-suit winners and therefore needs eight trump tricks to make the game contract. He can get these tricks if he ruffs three times in the dummy. South wins the spade in hand, ruffs a club in the dummy, then takes a discard on the diamond ace. Here he must discard a heart rather than a club. South needs all of his clubs in order to ruff three times in dummy.

The rest of the play is a crossruff. South ruffs diamonds in his own hand and clubs in the dummy. 10 tricks made, and West is left to rue not leading a trump to the first trick — not an easy play to find, I admit.

Today’s deal was played in four hearts at both tables of a team game. In one room West led his top club, and the defenders set up a winner there to go with their two diamond tricks. Declarer won the opening lead and could see the possibility of four losers: two diamonds and one trick in each of the black suits. He decided that his best chance was to find East with the doubleton diamond ace, so he crossed to dummy and led a diamond to his king.

Although West could get in with the diamond ace to cash a club and lead a spade through dummy’s tenace, the 7-1 spade break meant he could never put his partner in to cash a spade, and so the contract came home.

In the other room the defenders led spades, which seemed little better. Declarer followed the same approach of crossing to dummy in hearts to lead a diamond to the king. West could see no future for the defense if he won the trick, so he ducked smoothly.

Declarer was not up to working this out. He assumed that East had the diamond ace, so he ducked the next diamond to East, who cashed his spade winner and shifted to clubs, setting up the fourth winner for the defense.

Of course if declarer had led to the diamond queen at trick four he would have come home with overtricks, but I think West deserved to defeat the contract – don’t you?

There were a few interesting points on this deal from a national Swiss Teams event. Although South is a bit light for a vulnerable three spade opening vulnerability, the eighth spade made the action a reasonable shot. When the South who reported the deal to me received the lead of the diamond queen, she won in dummy and, in order to create an entry back to hand, played a heart at once.

West won this and played a second diamond. Declarer won the king and now played the spade king. There was nothing West could do any more.

At the other table in this match, though, West led a club. Declarer had to guess whether this was a doubleton or a singleton. A singleton lead is perhaps somewhat unlikely, as that would give East a great club suit, along with a top heart honor (or West would have led one at trick one), and he might well have opened at favorable vulnerability at either the one or three level.

Be that as it may, declarer erred by winning the club ace at trick one. He then played the spade king to West’s ace, and West played a second club to East’s queen. East now cashed the heart ace. What would you play as West, to make sure that East played another club, to promote your spade jack?

At the table, West found the expert discard of the heart king, making it clear no more hearts would cash, and giving East no alternative but to play a club. Thoughtfully done!

Today’s deal saw me as East, and wondering if I would have been weighed in the balance and found wanting had declarer put me to the test.

At the table my partner led the club king against four hearts. I followed with the two, feeling that my count might be more important than attitude here. After due deliberation, West switched to the diamond five. You might care to plan the play now, in declarer’s shoes.

At the table declarer was frightened of a ruff, and so rose with the diamond ace, then cashed the top trumps, and continued the attack on diamonds. I won the king and shifted to the spade four, a count card. Declarer knocked out the trump queen, and West cashed his spade winner, so declarer lost a trick in each suit for down one.

Notice that if I win the diamond king and give West his diamond ruff, South is a tempo ahead in the race to 10 tricks. That also applies if I continue with clubs on winning the diamond king. So it is surely best to finesse at trick two, hoping East does not find the spade switch.

My instincts are that the spade shift at trick three is sufficiently logical that I would have made the play. It might cost overtricks, but it is very unlikely to let through the contract, and surely West should have cashed a second club if one were standing up. Given that South appears to have three diamonds, he would not finesse unless the layout of the cards looks very much as it does here.

Some contracts may appear to be so straightforward that declarer takes his eye off the ball. Today’s hand was one such, and quite a few folk who should have known better ended with egg on their faces.

When South opened a strong no-trump at matchpoint pairs North might simply have shot out three no-trump. Instead he bid two spades, as a transfer to clubs. If South had simply bid two no-trump rejecting the invitation, North would have settled in three clubs. But when South bid three clubs, suggesting he would accept an invitation, North was happy to convert to three no-trump. For the record, a new suit by North would have shown a singleton now.

When West led the spade king, declarer was so delighted with his side’s combined assets that he took his eye off the ball. He called for the spade ace, then led a low club. When East pitched a diamond, the club suit was suddenly blocked, and nine top tricks had morphed into seven; and there were not enough entries for more than one red-suit finesse.

Even though this was matchpointed pairs, taking a red-suit finesse for a possible overtrick was far too risky. So there was no hurry to rush in with the spade ace. The cautious players ducked twice, then discarded a club on the spade ace, and had nine winner without a finesse. It doesn’t help the defensive cause if West switches to a red suit at trick three; that leads to an overtrick, since dummy still has an entry for the clubs.

In today’s deal when North made an invitational two notrump rebid, South knew that he could deliver his partner seven top tricks. In my opinion the odds favored three no-trump being the best game but at rubber bridge his 150 honors were too much for him, and he bid four spades.

South ducked the lead of the club eight and captured the jack with the ace, then drew trump and knocked out the club queen. East returned the fourth club, leaving declarer to negotiate the red suits.

South made the right first play when he led a diamond up (planning to play the king if West followed small. In fact West hopped up with the ace and shifted to a low heart and South was now confronted by a straightforward decision: which is the right play from dummy?

Most bridge players consider such problems sheer guesses, but South tried to reconstruct West’s hand. That player held four trumps, but had led one of declarer’s suit. He might have opted to play a forcing game, in the hope of making declarer ruff. Why didn’t West do so here, but lead a suit bid by declarer?

It’s easy to see that he didn’t lead a diamond because he held the ace. But surely West would have at least considered leading a heart if he had started with three or four hearts headed by the queen. The most logical reason for West’s failure to lead hearts originally was the same reason that explains his failure to lead a diamond: his hearts were headed by the ace.