In today’s deal South could not stand to sell out over the intervention to his partner’s two club opener. When he heard his partner raise four spades to five, this asked for a club control, and with a club void South felt he had to accept the invitation.

When West led the heart queen, declarer counted 11 top tricks. If trumps were 2-1, the 12th trick could come most easily by ruffing a heart in dummy. However, if trumps were 3-0, the route to the slam-going trick would be through establishing dummy’s diamonds.

Once West turned up with three trumps, the risk of an overruff on the third round of diamonds, should West have only a doubleton, was a real one. But declarer could see nothing better. When he played the diamond ace-king and ruffed a diamond, West was able to overruff, leaving declarer with a heart loser. At the table South was justifiably able to bemoan his bad luck.

However, there was an elegant solution South had overlooked. Win the first heart in hand with the king and a play a trump to the queen. When East shows out, declarer leads the club queen from table and discards a diamond on East’s king.

After a diamond return, dummy can win and South can ruff a diamond low in hand, draw trump with the ace and king and a further diamond is ruffed in hand. Finally, the heart ace is the entry to the board to run the remaining diamonds. Declarer ends up taking seven trump tricks, two hearts and three diamonds.

Perhaps it’s my advancing years that make me more conservative, but I am not the greatest fan of weak jump overcalls and responses. I am prepared to accept that at certain vulnerabilities weak jump overcalls make sense, though when vulnerable I prefer to play intermediate jumps. And in an uncontested auction when my partner opens, I like the strong-jump response at the two level, since this gets an awkward hand off my chest in one go.

That said, when the opponents intervene over an opening bid, whether with a double or a bid, there is a place for a weak-jump response. In today’s deal South was playing that a jump to two spades looked something like a minimum weak-two opener, typically with points in the suit. Now North took only a mildly aggressive action when he drove to game.

The defenders attacked hearts, and South was jolted out of his complacency when East took the first trick with the heart ace and shifted to a diamond at the second trick. The danger was obvious: East might win the spade ace and underlead in hearts to his partner, for the diamond ruff that would set the game.

Rather than sit back passively to see if the defenders could find this play, South took the first diamond and played the club ace, king (pitching a heart) and jack of clubs. When East covered with the queen, South simply pitched his third heart. With the defenders’ communications cut, East was helpless to prevent declarer losing just the spade ace from here on in.

In today’s deal South’s two heart bid set up a one-round force but was not game-forcing. North had a relatively minimum balanced hand, but he was top of his range, even if his spade queen didn’t appear to be pulling its full weight. When he jumped to game, South decided that he would risk being off two club tricks, and rather than give information to the opponents, he simply jumped to slam.

When West’s low spade lead went to the queen, king and ace, South could see that his slam was no worse than taking two club finesses. However, he determined that the auction had significantly reduced the chances of this line succeeding. Accordingly, he decided to increase his chances by means of an endplay.

He unblocked the diamond ace, overtook the heart queen with the king, and cashed the two top diamonds, pitching spades, then ruffed a diamond to hand with the trump ace. Next he overtook the heart eight with the nine, ruffed dummy’s spade loser, and had reduced to a five-card ending with four clubs and a trump in hand, while dummy had three clubs and two trump. Even though West still had a trump left, declarer could lead a club to the 10 to leave East on play, and take the rest.

East could return a club, surrendering his side’s second trick in that suit, or if he preferred. he could switch to a spade. South would ruff that, pitching dummy’s losing club. He would then cross to dummy with the club ace to draw the last trump.

In today’s deal, North’s jump to five spades focused on the presence or absence of a diamond control. In moving on, South did well to select spades rather than hearts as trumps, because of his excellent trump intermediates. And that proved to be critical today, since the 4-1 heart break would have sunk the heart slam – and it certainly did not make the spade slam any easier to play.

After the top club lead from West, declarer won the ace, and carefully played only two rounds of trump, using one high honor from each hand. Had spades not split, declarer would have drawn all the trump and relied on hearts breaking. When spades broke, declarer could see that he had a slight extra chance, if West was short in both spades and hearts. He cashed the heart ace and queen, prepared to revert to trump if everyone followed. When West discarded on the second heart, declarer cashed the king and ruffed a heart to hand, then went back to dummy in trumps. He could discard his club loser on the fifth heart, then come back to hand with the diamond ace. Now he could lead up to the diamond queen successfully, for his 12th trick.

This approach, of leaving a trump outstanding while playing on the side-suit to test if it is going to break, is a very useful weapon to add to your arsenal. Particularly when one opponent has overcalled or preempted, the likelihood that he will be relatively short in the two key suits rises significantly.

A fine place for instructive and free bridge material is Larry Cohen’s newsletter. Today’s hand from that source discusses splinter bids.

When you open one spade and hear a four club response, it is forcing to game, promising decent values, with spade-fit and club shortness. Now you can cuebid, or take a chance on finding a heart control opposite by using Blackwood. The four diamond and four heart bids show controls and let you use Blackwood with more confidence, to reach slam. Now all you have to do is make it.

When West leads the heart king against six spades, your preliminary diagnosis should be that there is a fast club loser and a slow heart loser. To succeed in your slam you must set up the diamonds to create a home for your heart loser in hand.

A trump to the ace reveals the 2-0 trump break. Now careful counting is required. A 5-1 diamond break will sink you unless the queen drops. But you can cope with a 4-2 diamond break – if you are careful.

Cash the diamond ace next and follow with a diamond to the king. Ruff a diamond high in hand, and only now do you draw a second round of trump. Lead to dummy’s jack, trump another diamond, and go back to dummy in spades to cash the last diamond and discard your heart.

You can now surrender a club, but crossruff the last two tricks. Had you drawn trump prematurely, you would have run out of spade winners. Try it if you don’t believe me!

Today’s deal is from a matchpoint pair event, where the field was of very varied standard. There were quite a few worldclass professionals, playing with clients, and the clients who sat South had to face an awkward decision in four hearts.

How many declarers do you think actually brought home their game here? At my table I led the club jack to the queen, king and ace, and the contract was now makeable with careful play. However, declarer ruffed a club, crossed to hand with the diamond king and ruffed another club. That was over-ruffed, and from here on in there was no way to avoid the loss of two more clubs and the heart ace for down one.

Declarer had failed to look at the club spots. The eight-sevensix had become equals against my 10-9, so the simplest pan at trick two would have been to ruff the club two in dummy, draw trump and concede two clubs to establish the 10th trick.

However there was one more trap to avoid. If declarer takes the club ruff at once, West can win the heart ace and gives partner a club over-ruff, and declarer is sunk again.

The point is that declarer is only looking for one club ruff — so he can afford to play a trump at trick two. West wins, and has no winning defense. Declarer takes the return, ruffs the club two, then draws trump and sets up the extra club winner for his 10th winner.

And the answer to my question? No declarer brought home four hearts here.

South’s jump to seven notrump in today’s deal was made in the confidence that his partner had the spade king for his initial response. The six diamond reply to the five no-trump ask was for specific kings, so it showed the diamond king while denying the club king.

South did not relax when dummy came down, as he could see that a bad spade break might leave him awkwardly placed. But there was no need to rush things: if spades were splitting at trick one, they would still be breaking kindly for him later on in the deal.

Declarer unblocked his heart winners from dummy, and took one top spade from hand to discover the disturbing news. Then he took the king and ace of spades and his second top club, and ran the hearts.

In the three-card ending, as the last heart winner was led, West had to keep his spade jack so could only keep two minor-suit cards. If he kept two diamonds, then East would immediately be squeezed in the minors. So he came down to the diamond queen and club jack; but now declarer pitched dummy’s spade nine, which has done its job. He could next lead to the diamond king and finesse in diamonds at trick 12, to make his slam.

The underlying technique is known as a guard squeeze, because on the last winner West has to surrender his partial guard in diamonds or abandon control of the club suit. Switch the East and West hands, and the squeeze would not work.

This pairs deal feels like one where the field should reach four hearts by South after a strong notrump opening bid by that player, whether North uses Stayman or a Jacoby transfer.

West has a normal enough lead of the club king, and a thoughtful East should overtake with the ace to return the suit. West ought to work out to win the second club and play a third round of the suit, and now the spotlight shifts to South.

East’s unusual play at the first trick makes it highly likely that he has only two clubs, and that he hopes to overruff the dummy on a third round of clubs. South cannot prevent the loss of the third club, but he can avoid the futile play of contributing a trump from dummy. Instead, he should discard a potentially losing spade from the North hand. Later on, after trump have been drawn, South can discard the remaining spade loser from dummy on the third round of diamonds.

This play of loser-on-loser eliminates the losing spades from the dummy, and South thus has a comfortable route to 10 tricks. But if declarer ruffs trick three in dummy, he will be overruffed. There will be no sensible alternative to the spade finesse after drawing trump, and today South’s luck will be out.

You could argue that going down in four hearts is unlucky. I prefer to think of South’s fate as deserved. It is somehow appropriate that when you follow an inaccurate line of play, the cards do not forgive.