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.

Good technique, coupled with taking the long-term view, stood declarer in good stead today. The trump suit offered him the chance for two careful moves, and he took both his opportunities.

Against four spades, reached after a slightly cautious rebid by South, West cashed the club king and ace, and continued with a safe club jack, although a heart might worked better today. Declarer was on the ball; he ruffed with the nine of trump, appreciating that he might need a late re-entry to dummy to set up the heart suit for a second diamond discard, if hearts didn’t break 3-3.

South continued by cashing the spade ace, just in case the queen was singleton. Then he entered dummy in hearts, to lead a second round of trump. When the 10 appeared from East, declarer put in the jack. Once it held, he drew the last trump, and was home safely.

And if the spade jack had lost to the doubleton queen? The contract would still have made so long as hearts were 3-3 or 4-2. If 4-2, the fourth round is ruffed with the trump eight. Then the carefully preserved spade four, overtaken with the six, is the entry to the long heart for the second diamond discard.

This particular maneuver, of manipulating your smaller trump to allow maximum flexibility of entries, is one that it is easy to overlook. But once you get in the habit of it, you may be surprised how frequently it will pay dividends.

Against four spades West leads the club ace and East signals an even number of cards in the suit. At trick two, West leads the six of trump, East discarding a club. Since West will have almost all of the missing high cards, how do you propose to make 10 tricks?

You have six top tricks and can ruff a club for a seventh. If hearts are 3-3 you will always make 10 tricks. The trick is to find the extra chance when East has the heart length, as here:

Entries to the closed hand are at a premium, so you should win the trump shift with dummy’s 10. Next you must play the club queen. West will take this and play a second trump: if it is the nine, play the jack from dummy and overtake it with the king and if it is the two, win the trick in hand with the seven. Next you should ruff a club, then draw West’s last trump, ending in hand.

Next you lead the heart three. West cannot profit from playing the ace, though in practice he is likely to win and exit in hearts, letting you pitch your diamond loser from hand on the fourth heart. If dummy’s heart king wins, a heart to the queen and ace sees West win the trick; but now he will find himself endplayed. You will run a diamond exit around to your queen, whereas a club shift will see you ruff in dummy, while discarding a diamond from hand. Either way, your hand will be high.

You don’t see a 20 IMP swing very often, but this one came up in the round of 16 in the US Trials last May. In one room Jeff Aker reached the grand slam in spades. Matthew Granovetter led a trump and Aker won the jack with his ace, played a club to the king, and cashed the ace. A trump to hand followed and a club was ruffed.

Then came another trump to hand and three rounds of diamonds, pitching a heart from hand.

West couldn’t keep the heart guard and the diamond guard so he discarded a heart. In order to retain his club guard East had to pitch a heart. So Aker took the last two tricks with the heart ace and 10.

This was a very elegant solution, but note that Aker could have disdained the squeeze and simply ruffed a second club in dummy. Had he done that, he would have needed to cash two rounds of diamonds and ruff a diamond to hand. He was likely concerned that an early round of diamonds could be ruffed, but with the appearance of the spade jack at trick one, the queen and 10 were the two highest trumps out, so he was safe except against a 6-1 diamond break.

This rated to be a decent pickup, but in the other room, a bidding accident led to an unappetizing final contract of six no-trump. When West led the diamond jack declarer missed the best line. Had he played off all the spades and diamonds, East would have been caught in a heart-club squeeze.

During the 2015 US Open trials two teams playing Precision ran into one another. Both tables played an opening two diamonds to show a three-suited hand, with short diamonds.

In one room South took a very low road, selling out to three clubs and defeating it two tricks. In the other room Kevin Bathurst finished at the helm in three notrump. Vince Demuy led a fourth best club to the queen and ace. Bathurst played a heart to the king. John Kranyak won his ace, and the defense cashed out the clubs, then exited in hearts.

Bathurst now cashed the diamond king and queen and the spade ace. The diamond nine went to the ace, on which Kranyak was forced to part with either a heart or a spade. He chose a spade, so Bathurst finessed the spade queen and successfully fulfilled his contract.

East could have done better here had he simply returned a heart at trick three. I can understand why he would have been unwilling to do that, since if his partner had a singleton heart, this play would have given up the whole suit. But a safe way to set the game was to win the heart ace and club king, then exit in diamonds. Now declarer cannot exert any pressure.

Finally, note that because of the blockage in hearts, declarer can come home at double dummy by cashing a diamond winner from hand at trick two and exiting in clubs. The defenders now cannot prevent the squeeze from biting.

Today’s deal from the qualifying stages of the US trials saw one of the more serendipitous swings that I’ve seen.

At one table North-South reach the diamond slam on a more complex auction than the one shown. North had used keycard and East had been able to get in a heart lead-directing call, so West led a low heart. Declarer sensibly rose with the ace, drew trump and stripped out the spades, then exited with a low heart from dummy to leave East on lead.

East correctly guessed to rise with the king, and shifted to the club jack. Declarer knew East was expert enough to have shifted to the club jack without the other high honor. He elected to win in hand and finesse against West; down one. The percentages in this position are close enough that one could hardly blame him too much.

In the other room North-South avoided the grand slam; but they played six no-trump instead, by North, when East had also shown the heart king during the auction. After a spade lead there seemed to be no squeeze or endplay. Declarer, Gary Cohler, spotted a slim chance, but he needed to find East with sole guard of the clubs and the heart king.

He ran the diamonds, then when East discarded spades he cashed the remaining spade honor. Finally he exited with ace and another heart, and in the three-card ending he had already committed himself to play East for real clubs. So when East shifted to a high club, he played him for both honors, and made his slam.

The US trials are currently taking place in Denver, to select the open team to represent the US in the Olympiad in Wroclaw, Poland, later this summer.

All the deals this week come from the trials last May, and today’s deal saw something of a peculiarity. We have all been forced to bid with really bad hands, but when was the last time you saw a three-count take two free calls in a non-forcing auction?

Barry Rigal as North opened one diamond, showing five diamonds or an unbalanced hand. Jeff Aker, South, passed initially, but when he knew he was facing short hearts he decided to compete first in diamonds, then in spades. By his third turn, North knew that even though South had a really weak hand, with no more than four spades, he also surely had four diamonds. Since the auction had implied that South had heart length, he must have a singleton club. So North drove to game.

After a top heart lead Aker won the ace, played the club ace and took a club ruff, then took the losing finesse in diamonds. Back came a third club and Aker ruffed, crossed to the spade ace and ruffed the fourth club with the spade jack. West could overruff for the defenders’ second trick, but now the remaining trumps fell in one round and Aker had 10 tricks. That was worth a game swing, when the other table played partscore after North had opened one club and the double fit did not come to light.

Every year the US Bridge Federation organizes trials in four categories, Open, Women, Senior and Junior. The Open trials are currently being held to select a team for this September’s Olympiad, an event to which every country can send one team in each category.

Today’s deal cropped up in last year’s trials. It sees a competent declarer having a blind spot. See if you can do better than him!

Would you have balanced over three clubs with three notrump? It depends on how macho you feel, I guess, but it was not unreasonable. When your partner transfers to spades and East doubles you may have second thoughts – but at least you have four trumps. After a top club lead, plan the play.

The hand should be close to an open book. East has a singleton club and all the outstanding high cards, so the key is to avoid letting West in to cash clubs. Win the club lead and play the diamond king to force an entry to dummy for the spade finesse. That way the defenders cannot promote the spade king on the third round of clubs.

East will win the diamond ace and shift to a low heart. You rise with the ace and ruff a diamond to dummy. Then you take the trump finesse and end up with eight spade tricks and two aces.

If you play ace and a second spade, or lead a low trump at trick two, East can force an entry to his partner’s hand, to allow him subsequently to cash out his club winner.