At the Yeh Bros Cup Teams last year, Team Ish from the USA did not set the tournament alight, but Chris Willenken of the USA and Dennis Bilde of Denmark worked some magic here – and won the bestdefended hand of the year from the International Bridge Press Association.

Against three no-trump, Bilde’s lead of the diamond nine travelled round to the queen and ace. Declarer tested clubs to find the bad news, West pitching two hearts then a diamond. Willenken now shifted to a low spade to declarer’s ace, and a heart was ducked to the jack and king.

Willenken could see the endplay looming on him. To get out of his own way, he exited with the spade 10. Declarer won in dummy, pitching a heart from his hand, and cashed the last two club winners, finishing in hand.

Willenken pitched a diamond on the first, and the spade king on the last one, which had the effect of potentially establishing the spade nine in dummy for the fourth round of the suit. However, in the four-card ending declarer could do nothing but duck a heart to East, and this squeezed dummy in the process.

West had come down to J-8 of spades and the diamond eight. So when declarer pitched a diamond from the dummy, reducing to two spades and one diamond, Willenken could exit in diamonds, to the now bare king, and West could take the last two tricks in spades. Had declarer bared dummy’s spade nine, Willenken would have led a spade to his partner to cash his two winners.

In this deal from the 2015 Yeh Bros Cup teams from England and Japan both reached three notrump, on the defense of a low spade lead round to the 10 and queen.

At one table, Paul Hackett guessed diamonds and ran the suit, West pitching a heart, East a heart then a club. Paul now took dummy’s two top hearts and led a spade from dummy, covering East’s five with the six. West could not underlead in spades, since Paul still had the jack left (and had East put up the eight, South’s six would have been larger than East’s remaining spot, the five). So all West could do was cash out his spades and surrender the last two tricks to declarer in clubs.

In the other room, the first trick went the same way when Paul’s son Justin Hackett was West. Declarer also cashed out the diamonds, guessing the queen correctly, but here Justin discarded a discouraging club 10 as West. Now but when South tried to strip out the hearts and endplay West, Justin had a heart left to reach his partner at trick 12.

There is a legitimate defense, though; let’s go back to trick one. When partner leads the spade seven, you know declarer has two honors in spades. Don’t waste a high spade spot at trick one and do not pitch a spade on the run of the diamonds. Then your 10-8 of spades ensures your partner can pitch a heart on the diamonds. If necessary, your partner can put you in with a spade, should declarer try to endplay him by playing on spades after stripping off the hearts.

The Yeh Bros Cup attracted a world-class field in Shanghai last spring. The sizable cash prizes on offer may not have been irrelevant. Today’s deal is from a match where a top-ranking Italian squad heavily defeated an American squad, with a big swing coming their way here.

West led a top heart against three no-trump. East pitched first a low diamond, then the club 10 when declarer, Antonio Sementa, won the heart ace, and returned the suit. West won the heart and shifted to a club; declarer won, then drove out the remaining heart honour, and claimed nine tricks on the club return.

Did the defenders still have a chance at trick three? Curiously, after the heart lead, it was too late to shift to spades at trick three. East takes the ace and switches to clubs, but declarer can win and run the diamonds, and watch East’s discards.

If East comes down to two clubs, then declarer can lead king and another club, and East is endplayed to lead round to the spade jack at trick 12. If East instead comes down to three clubs and the bare spade queen, declarer next gives up a heart. The defenders can only cash one spade winner, and declarer has the rest.

In the other room Agustin Madala, overcalled one heart. Norberto Bocchi as East bid clubs then doubled three no-trumps, presumably to prevent his partner leading hearts. After a spade lead, Bocchi went up with the ace and shifted to clubs, and declarer could take no more than eight tricks.

In today’s deal from the Yeh Bros tournament, we see the eventual winner of the Pairs tournament in action. Michael Byrne of England, playing with Mike Bell, reached four hearts on an unopposed auction after opening the South hand a 14+-17 notrump.

Had the defenders led and continued spades, East overtaking at trick one to play the spade jack, then shifting to a club, when left on lead, East would likely have fallen victim to a squeeze in the minors.

But West led his club king to trick one. Byrne won and drew trump, then led a spade from dummy. East flew up with the ace and returned the suit, West overtaking to play a third spade and declarer was forced to ruff. East, who had discarded a diamond on the third trump, now pitched another diamond. In the six-card ending, he was down to three diamonds and three clubs.

Declarer, who had lost two tricks up until now, played three rounds of diamonds ruffing in dummy, then exited from the board with a low club to force East to win and lead into the club tenace at trick 12.

As a side issue, I was pleased to see Michael Byrne doing so well as a player. He has been in the forefront of coaching and captaining the England Juniors over the last decade. But he has also had considerable success as a player, and won the Brighton Swiss Pairs, England’s largest pair event last summer, to cap off an excellent year for him.

The final of the Yeh Bros Cup, a tournament with $100,000 for the winning team, was contested between two Chinese teams, China Open and Red Bull. Somewhat curiously, the Red Bull team included a pair of Dutchmen, Simon de Wijs and Bauke Muller, who have been playing professionally in China for several years, as well as representing Netherlands in most of the recent International events. The two teams had met earlier in the double-elimination event, with Red Bull winning the earlier battle, but they lost the match that mattered.

This was an opportunity for China Open, but it finished up being a significant pick-up for Red Bull. The Red Bull declarer had heard West preempt to three spades over a one diamond opener. He bid a somewhat cautious four hearts – there being few more attractive alternatives, admittedly — and played there, guessing diamonds to make 12 tricks. In our featured room North-South had more room to find out about their combined values, and they reached six diamonds.

Linlin Hu received a low club lead to the ace and a spade shift. Declarer immediately went after trump and misguessed, to go one down. Had he taken his slight extra chance to explore the opponents’ shapes by playing the second top spade and ruffing a spade, he would have found West with very long spades and surely at least three clubs. Then I think he would have been heavy favorite to guess trump – don’t you?

That being said, I think de Wijs deserves some credit for the swing, for not pre-empting here.

Last year the Yeh Bros Cup was played in Shanghai. This is an invitation teams tournament held every two years, and the generous prize money sees the world’s top teams come to compete. The event is sponsored by Chen Yeh, an international furniture manufacturer, who decided 15 years ago to create an event that would simultaneously allow him to compete against the world’s best in head-to-head combat while also providing a forum for a top-class field to play for what is currently the largest prize-money pool on offer anywhere in the world.

Today’s deal sees Australians going mano a mano. Ishmael Del’Monte was at the helm in three no-trump, after overcalling two notrump over East’s third-in-hand wideranging two spade opener. Arjuna Delivera led the spade queen, ducked all round, then a second spade went to declarer’s king, as Bruce Neill ducked to reduce any pressure on his partner in the ending.

Del’Monte won his spade king, cashed the heart queen, then played the percentages when he led a heart to the nine. Since East was marked with long spades, West rated to hold the heart jack.

When it held, declarer finessed in diamonds by leading to the jack, losing to the queen. West could return a club, but declarer took the ace, unblocked his heart winners, came to the diamond king, and could cash the heart king and finesse in diamonds against West’s 10. He ended up taking four hearts, three diamonds and one trick in each black suit for nine tricks.

Only six declarers out of 24 brought home the no-trump game here.

You declare four spades, and the defenders lead a low trump to trick one. You can envisage both the club ace and the spade ace as being with West. You can also expect West to hold three trumps to the ace; otherwise West would surely have embarked on a different defensive strategy on lead. Therefore, playing a second trump will see you make only nine tricks, as West will surely win the ace and play a third trump. The same will be true if you play a club.

However all is not lost. While you may not be able to ruff anything in dummy, you can ruff hearts in hand. What you need to make 10 tricks is a layout along the lines of the one shown here.

Win the first trick with the trump 10, then play the heart queen to the ace and ruff a heart in hand. A low diamond to the jack sees a second heart ruffed. Now a diamond to the ace is followed by a third heart ruff.

At this point you will lead your remaining spade, the queen. West does best to take the spade ace and get off play with a diamond to your queen. When you play the diamond king, West can ruff. But now he has only clubs remaining, and you will score a trick with the club king. You will make two trumps, the heart ace, three heart ruffs, three diamonds and a club, for a total of 10 tricks.

Opening four spades here opposite a passed partner has a lot to recommend it. Against four spades, West starts with ace and another heart, East following up the line. You can reasonably assume it is West who is short in hearts not East. Plan the play to give yourself the best chance to make your game.

You intend to try to clear trumps, hoping to hold your losers there to one. That means you cannot afford to suffer a ruff. You won’t make four spades if East has the spade king, unless West has a doubleton spade. If that is so, when you lead ace then jack of spades, West will have no trumps left to ruff the third heart. If West does have a third trump, you are surely dead in the water whatever you do.

Equally, there should be no problem if West has both the spade king and club ace, since he cannot put his partner on lead for the ruff. But what if West has the spade king and East the club ace? Then West can win the spade king and lead a club to his partner for him to lead the third heart.

You can overcome this lie of the cards without jeopardizing your other chances, if you play West to hold the diamond ace. At trick three lead the diamond king from dummy, and if East plays low, throw the club eight away. West will win and try a club, but you can ruff and play ace and another trump. West can win, but must surrender the rest.

Against four hearts, West leads the spade king. How do you propose to make 10 tricks?

At the table after ruffing the opening spade lead, South played both top trumps at once. Then he crossed to table with the diamond ace to ruff another spade. Next, he played on diamonds, discarding a spade from dummy on the third round of the suit. Alas, East ruffed in, then cashed the queen of trump before playing his last spade. West overtook this with the spade queen and played a fourth round of the suit. Declarer ruffed and could generate an endplay in clubs for down one, but that was hardly a triumph.

The way to avoid this unpleasant outcome was to cash just one high trump from hand before playing on diamonds. After East ruffs the third diamond and presses on with a spade, declarer can ruff and play a fourth round of diamonds, discarding dummy’s last spade. East can do no better than ruff and play a third spade. This is ruffed in dummy and the last trump is drawn with declarer’s king. A low club is discarded from dummy on the last diamond, and declarer has 10 tricks: the trump ace-king, four small trumps – taken separately — three diamonds, and the club ace.

After both opponents follow to the first round of trump, all this plan does is to give the defenders the chance to make up to two trump tricks in addition to one club. So it will also succeed against almost all 3-2 trump breaks as well.