Since the Spring Nationals are taking place this week in Reno, all the deals this week come from last year’s Nationals in New Orleans. This deal from the Educational Fund Pairs helped Pablo Lambardi and Ricardo Angeleri to victory.

Against two no-trump West led the heart six, ducked in dummy by Lambardi. East won the king and returned the suit, taken in dummy. Lambardi ran the spade jack to West’s queen. Back came a diamond to the ace and the diamond jack to the king. Since East as a passed hand had shown nine high-card points, the second spade finesse was sure to lose. Lambardi cashed the club ace and club queen, happy to find the 3-2 split. When he played off the heart queen, West discarded a spade. Now Lambardi played the club 10 to dummy’s king, on which East erred by discarding the diamond nine. In turn this brought West under pressure since he was forced to retain two spades, and thus to discard a diamond – and at that point it didn’t matter which one he threw.

He was thrown in with the diamond, giving him the choice of leading a low spade to let the spade 10 and diamond seven take the last two tricks, or of leading the spade king, to give Lambardi the last two tricks in that suit.

At the critical point in the deal, East could have prevented declarer from making the overtrick by keeping his diamond nine and letting West pitch his diamond 10.

Today’s deal comes from last year’s spring nationals, as do all the hands this week.

It came up in the Vanderbilt knock-out teams, and saw declarer presented with a ticklish declarer-play problem. Yes, in retrospect it might have been more lucrative and less stressful to defend to three spades doubled and collect an easy 500.

However you have put yourself in four hearts, and you receive the lead of the spade jack from Giorgio Duboin. Zia Mahmood overtakes the lead with the spade queen. How would you play from there?

At the table, declarer won the spade lead and went after clubs but eventually lost control, the 4-2 trump break proving to be too much for him when the defenders continued the attack on spades. Declarer found himself locked in dummy and forced to play on diamonds, thus conceding a trick to the small trump and eventually to East’s spade winner.

The best line seems to me to be to duck the spade lead in an attempt to retain control. If East plays a second spade as he rates to do, ruff, then cash dummy’s top hearts, return to hand with the diamond king and play a third trump. Whatever the defenders do, you have the communications in place to return to hand and draw the last trump, then run diamonds.

If East shifts to a club at trick two, go up with the ace and play three rounds of trump. So long as trumps break or East has honordoubleton, you are home.

On this deal from the first qualifying session of last spring’s Silodor Open Pairs, you would really like to play seven no-trump, but the textbooks don’t cover how to bid 29-point hands — unless you are playing a relay system.

At the table where Bill Pollack was declarer, his auction saw him struggle to reach six notrump. When hearts didn’t split, even the small slam was not cold.

Fortunately for him, Pollack received the Goldilocks lead of the spade jack – a low spade lead would have handed him the contract, while he would have been sunk on any other lead. The spade lead was “just right.”

Pollack cashed the heart king and heart queen, then the diamond ace and king. The second string to his bow was a diamond break. But when that suit also failed to break, he overtook the diamond jack with dummy’s queen, and pitched a club from hand on the heart ace. On the red-suit winners West had been forced to let go one spade and two clubs.

Pollack returned to hand with a club, cashed a second high spade, then played the club king, and threw West in with a third round of clubs. That forced the defender to lead into the spade tenace of the Q-9, for a shared matchpoint top.

The winners of the Smith Life Master Women’s Pairs, Yiji Starr and Pamela Granovetter had an unlucky but enviably brief auction to the grand slam. North responded two hearts to a strong club, showing 5-7 points and a moderate heart suit and South could jump to seven hearts.

Since the spring nationals are now underway in Reno, Nevada, all the deals this week will come from last year’s championships in New Orleans. This deal came up in the Leventritt Senior Pairs, where Sally Wheeler and Buddy Hanby took advantage of an overly talkative opponent and helpful lead.

West had no reason to come into her opponents’ auction, and since her partner was a passed hand, she combined the maximum of danger, coupled with helping declarer draw a shrewd inference about the location of her side’s assets.

Against four spades doubled West led a low heart, ducked by Wheeler. East took the heart ace to shift to the club two, which went to West’s king.

Now came the diamond 10 to the ace. The spade ace drew West’s queen, which revealed the likelihood of the bad trump break. Since Wheeler could infer that her left-hand opponent had diamonds from East’s low club shift at trick two, it was relatively riskfree to try to cash two club winners. She next played the heart king and diamond king, then ruffed a diamond, ruffed a heart and had reached a three-card ending in which she had played one trump and three rounds of each of the other suits, and had taken eight tricks thus far.

When Wheeler played the fourth round of diamonds from dummy, East was down to all trumps. He could ruff low and win the trick, but then had to concede the last two tricks by leading into dummy’s tenace.

Today’s deal is a neat variant of an old theme, and comes from an Australian newspaper nearly 40 years ago.

At one table South won the spade lead in hand and led a diamond, the eight going to the 10 (nicely done by West) jack and king. Now East had just one play to defeat the contract, and he found it when he shifted to the club 10 to smother dummy’s nine. Whether South covered with the jack or not, the defenders could set up their five winners before declarer could get to nine. South’s main remaining hope was to find the heart jack coming down in three rounds, but when it did not do so, he was out of chances.

In the other room declarer took the spade 10 in hand with the king, and also led the diamond eight from hand at trick two. Again, West covered, but this time declarer ducked the diamond 10. What could the defenders do? If East overtook with the king and shifted to clubs, declarer would have won the ace and tested hearts, then pick up the diamond suit for four tricks by finessing against the queen.

At the table West was left on lead and shifted to a club. Declarer took the club queen with the ace, and cashed the three top hearts. Then he played a diamond toward the ace, and another diamond. When it turned out that it was West who had three diamonds, declarer was home and dry.

As a bridge player, there is a time and a place for optimism and pessimism. When declaring the hand, you want to be optimistic if you are in a poor contract: look for a lie of the cards that will allow you to make. Conversely when in a good contract, plan to counter what might go wrong, however unlikely.

The same logic applies to defense; put yourself in West’s shoes today to see what I mean. Having stayed silent at unfavorable vulnerability against a weak no-trump, since partner was a passed hand, you lead a top club and see a depressingly strong dummy.

The natural thing to do is to shift to a diamond, trying to set up a winner for your side, before declarer’s loser in that suit goes away. However, dummy’s values plus South’s weak no-trump, when added to your own values, suggest East does not have a solitary high-card point. He certainly cannot hold the diamond king, so this line of defense can never prevail.

Surely, the only hope to beat the game is to maneuver a trump winner. So play off the club ace and lead a third club. Declarer must use dummy’s spade king to ruff the third club. Declarer now plays a trump to his jack.

When you take this with the ace to play a fourth club, East can ruff in with the spade 10 to promote a defensive trump trick for your nine. And if partner has sacrificed his trump 10 on the first round of the suit, you can always find a new partner…

Everything else being equal, the chance of a finesse for a queen succeeding is one in two – though I admit it often does not feel that way at the table. But the chances of finding an even break in a side-suit, to set it up, are also generally close to 50 percent. More to the point, you can often combine the latter chance with the former, if you make your plays in the right order.

In today’s deal South chose to open with a slightly off-center call of two no-trump. His partner might have transferred to hearts and raised himself to game as a mild slam-try. Instead he set hearts as trump, asked for aces and drove to slam over the response.

West led a trump, and South won in dummy and immediately took the diamond finesse. In with the diamond queen, West was lucky enough to be looking at the spade ace, and had no problem in cashing it, to set the contract.

Playing with the odds, there is a better percentage shot than South’s line. Win the heart lead in dummy and play a spade. West wins and returns another trump, to the ace. Ruff a spade high, draw the last trump, return to hand with the diamond ace in case the queen drops, and ruff another spade. When East and West both follow, the contract is assured. Come back to one of your top minor-suit cards, then ruff another spade ruff to set up the fifth spade for a diamond discard.

Note: if spades don’t break, you can always fall back on the diamond finesse.

The Lords and Commons meet one another in an inter-parliamentary struggle in England every year. The House of Lords won this year’s match, and lead the series 22-19.

Some of the deals they play are set up with a subtle point in the play. Today’s deal first appeared in a large pairs competition and featured a challenge for declarer.

At many tables South opened one club in third seat and West overcalled one spade, a bid which should have influenced declarer’s line of play. As South, how do you play three no-trump after a low spade lead, the six, to East’s jack?

Many declarers quickly took the king, unblocked the heart king and tried to force an entry to table with a diamond. This line failed when East took the king and fired back a spade to leave declarer with five losers. After a one spade overcall it is clear that spades are going to break 5-2 (or even 6-1) and it cannot cost to let the spade jack hold the first trick. If declarer does that, then the game can no longer be defeated. A spade return is won by West’s 10, but that player has nothing he can do. If he abandons spades declarer can always make five hearts, two diamonds and two clubs for his contract. If he cashes the spade ace, declarer again comes to nine tricks by unblocking hearts then leading up to the diamond queen.

The hold-up is clear-cut if West has overcalled one spade; it is less clearly correct if there has been no opposition bidding.

Imagine that you are declaring four hearts on the lead of the diamond jack. You are playing either teams or rubber bridge, where succeeding in your contract is of paramount importance, and the possibility of making an overtrick is of far less significance.

You win the diamond ace, and have to decide what your target is in terms of winners and losers. A simple but unlucky line would be to take a spade finesse. It would lose, back would come the club jack, and you can kiss all hopes of making your contract goodbye, as the cards lie. That would be a little unlucky – since you only went down because of two finesses lost.

Let’s regroup. Maybe it is better to go to dummy with the trump king, take your spade discard, and try a club finesse. Alas for you, West wins and leads three more rounds of clubs, promoting the heart 10 into the setting trick.

What looks best to me is lead a low club from hand at trick two. When West wins and shifts to a spade, you take the ace and discard a spade on the diamond king, then persist in leading clubs. You cannot be prevented from ruffing the fourth club high in dummy, one way or another since East, the man with three trump, has no entry to lead the third round of hearts.

Playing a spade to the ace at trick two in order to grab the discard, then working on clubs, will also work. However, you expose yourself to slightly more jeopardy of a trump promotion if you do this.