Bridge players learn early that in order to run their long suits they should unblock their suits by cashing the high cards in the short hand first. However, every rule has its exception, and each hand should be treated on its own merits; consider today’s deal, for example.

North-South might appear to belong in seven hearts, but the opponents’ violent preemption tipped South off to potentially bad breaks on the horizon. He offered a choice of slams at the six-level, and North sensibly settled for hearts.

When West led the spade king, declarer rose with dummy’s ace then cashed the ace and queen of trump. If hearts had broken 3-2, there would have been no problem in coming to 13 tricks, so long as diamonds broke no worse than 4-2. But now even the small slam was in trouble, because entries to dummy were so limited. After cashing the diamond ace and jack, South used his last entry, the club ace, to play the diamond king. When East ruffed in with the nine, the slam was dead, for declarer could no longer reach dummy and he had an inevitable club loser.

The route home is instead to cash the heart ace and king at tricks two and three, leaving the queen in dummy as a late entry. Then comes the diamond ace and jack. Now a heart to the queen is followed by the diamond king for a spade discard. This way the club ace still remains in place, as the entry to the rest of the diamonds for club discards.

When Zia Mahmood was relatively unknown, he honed his craft at rubber bridge and built up a reputation for originality at Stefan’s Bridge Circle in London. He has gone on to become a bridge icon, and is now universally known just as “Zia”. There are very few people in the bridge world known by a single name – perhaps an indication of his place in the pantheon of bridge.

Here is an example of his ability to pull the wool over his opponents’ eyes; why does it always seem to work for him and never for me?

He was partnering Jan Jansma of the Netherlands in the Open Pairs at the 2013 European Open Championships in Ostend, and they were disputing the lead in the final with Sabine Auken and Roy Welland; they were finally overtaken on the last few boards.

Against three hearts, West led the spade ace, under which Zia, knowing a ruff was in the offing, unhesitatingly dropped the king. This play might have cost him a trick, but seeing the jack in dummy, and believing Zia, West switched to a diamond. Zia ducked in dummy, and when East took his ace, Zia could win the diamond return with the king. That let him dispose of his losing spades on dummy’s clubs.

It was time to broach trump now. Zia played the jack from dummy and saw East’s 10. Now Zia couldn’t conceive of a player holding Q-10 and not covering. So he rose with the king, dropping the singleton queen. 10 tricks made!

Today’s deal will ask you to plan the defense to three hearts as East, after West has led the spade jack, on the auction shown.

When the deal came up in a team game, both Souths reached the delicate contract of three hearts, after a spade lead. One pair was successful on defense, one pair failed, though in the second case it was not really clear whether the defenders had done anything terribly wrong.

Both Easts came to the conclusion that the fact that their partner had led the spade jack and not a top club or diamond virtually guaranteed that declarer had to have the heart ace, a high diamond honor, and at least a decent club holding. Eventually, therefore, declarer would, if left to his own devices, come to six hearts, one club and two diamonds. So they worked out that they had to shift to a club at once.

At one table East won the spade ace and switched to the club 10, ducked round to dummy’s ace. However, when West won the first diamond, he decided to play his partner for the club king rather than the spade queen, and a club switch let claim his contract. At the second table, East found the way to put his partner on the right track by winning the spade queen at trick one and shifting to the club 10. Now West knew to play back a spade when he won the diamond queen. A second club through declarer left declarer without resource.

In this deal from a daily bulletin a decade ago the comment about the play was that at one table “Four hearts was the normal contract and declarer brought home an easy overtrick.”

It seemed to me that the defenders should have managed their three top tricks, even if finding a way to the setting trick was beyond them. Of course, at the featured table a trump was led and it was indeed easy to make 11 tricks.

However, suppose West leads an unspectacular spade five, and wins the next spade to switch to a trump. Declarer will win, unblock the club ace, draw a second trump, cross to dummy with a trump and cash his top clubs.

Suppose declarer now ruffs his last club high, reducing everyone to four cards. To keep his three diamonds and his trump, the best West can do is discard his spade. Declarer now has a complete count of the hand, knowing West has a 3-4-3-3 shape, and must decide who holds the diamond jack.

If it is East, finessing for that card is straightforward. But there is a way to succeed if West holds that card: declarer draws the last trump and leads the diamond king from hand. West must win and play another diamond, which declarer can run around to his 10. Contract made!

In order to defeat four hearts legitimately, East must arrange to be on lead after the second spade (either by winning the queen at trick one then cashing the ace, or playing the ace then queen). He can then switch to a diamond.

Goldilocks had the afternoon off from the local duplicate bridge club, so she was taking a quiet nap, when she heard the normal buzz of conversation that always accompanied the three bears return from their game.

When she asked if there were any deals that had led to more than the usual degree of dissension, Papa Bear shoved the hand record under Goldilocks’ nose, covering up all the cards except those of North and East.

On the auction shown, Papa Bear sat East. He encouraged on the opening lead of the heart king, but the play did not take long after this. South ruffed the second heart, drew trump, and claimed the balance. “I suppose a passive defense could have been right.” Said Goldilocks tactfully but inwardly she was unpersuaded.

Mama Bear butted in to say: “I overtook the heart king at trick one and shifted to a club. Declarer guessed well to duck and we held him to ten tricks.”

Before Goldilocks could enquire whether this had turned out to be a good score or a bad one for Mama Bear, Baby Bear, who had been bouncing up and down in his chair interrupted excitedly.

“I also overtook the heart king at trick one, but I shifted to the club queen at the second trick. Now whether declarer covered or ducked the trick, we had three club winners to cash, and the game had to go down.”

“Nicely done” said Goldilocks, realizing that if Baby Bear continued improving at this rate, he would soon be unbearable.

In a good contract it is often sensible to work out what is the worst that can happen to you, then take steps to deal with that situation, should it arise.

Against three no-trump West led the club queen, and declarer thought that the best chance of making his game lay in the diamond suit, where he had a nine-card fit.

So he captured the club queen with the ace and continued with a diamond, inserting the eight from dummy. East won with the king then returned a club. Declarer ducked, won the club continuation and led another diamond. When West showed out, South played dummy’s ace then exited with another diamond. East won, and played a heart. With West having the ace, South finished with just seven tricks.

Admittedly the worst that could happen did happen, in that the diamond honors were all offside, clubs broke 5-3, and the long club hand held the heart ace. But how should South have saved the day?

The answer is that he needed to test spades first. If that suit broke 3-3, then there would have been no need to rely on the diamond suit at all. Declarer then knocks out the heart ace, and his game comes home. That is courtesy of four spades tricks, the diamond ace, and two tricks in each of hearts and clubs.

Had spades not split, declarer could have reverted to attacking diamonds, with the tempo on his side if the suit breaks. If neither suit splits, he has no realistic chance to succeed, whatever he does.

In today’s deal North had a straightforward overcall of one no-trump over West’s one spade call. When South transferred to hearts, North decided to suggest a non-minimum with heart fit by cue-bidding two spades. South wasted no time in driving to game, and the defenders naturally went after spades at once.

The key play came early, after West led king, ace and a third spade. Declarer had to follow suit on the first two tricks, but he had the chance to be hero or villain when East ruffed the third round of spades with the heart seven.

South found the correct play of discarding a diamond on this trick. No matter how the play of the hand might have gone, South was eventually going to surrender this diamond trick. Hence it cost nothing to discard this loser at this moment.

As you can see from the full deal, South was then able to finesse through West for the heart king, and could win the rest of the tricks without difficulty.

South would have lost his vulnerable game contract if he had made the mistake of over-ruffing at the third trick. Declarer would have had to use the heart jack for this purpose, which would have left him with insufficient trump spots to pick up West’s guarded king. West could cover with the king if South led the queen, to ensure his trump trick.

Since South would have been unable to avoid losing a diamond trick as well, he would have had to concede two spades, a trump and a diamond for down one.

You can choose to play or defend two diamonds today. It is from last spring’s Norman Kay Platinum Pairs.

Against two diamonds West led the heart 10, to the king and ace. The club four was returned to the ace, followed by the club queen, won by the king. South led a diamond to the 10 and jack, ruffed the club return, then played the diamond ace and seven. West could win and kill dummy’s club menace, holding declarer to eight tricks.

Should East have ducked the heart king at trick one? Yes. Say declarer leads a diamond to the queen and king. Now if the defenders take their heart ruff (and who wouldn’t?), West can exit with the club ace and another club. But eventually he will be squeezed between spades and clubs, for the contract.

In fact West does better to exit with the club queen, before cashing the club ace. Declarer wins the club king and cannot play a second club, or West can kill the club menace. Instead, declarer must ruff the fourth heart back to hand. Now the black-suit squeeze will work.

The defenders’ retort is not to play for heart ruffs at all, but to shift to the club ace and club queen at trick three, locking declarer in dummy. When South ruffs a club to hand to play trump, West wins and only now takes his heart ruff. Then he can play the fourth club, to kill the squeeze.

So must the defense prevail? Not if declarer plays an unlikely heart himself at trick two – I leave the details to the reader.