Suppose that you were playing today’s deal in four hearts and that West led spades, his partner’s suit. It might feel natural to put up dummy’s jack or 10, mightn’t it? That is what South did, and it cost him his contract.

South might have preempted to four hearts at his first turn, but he followed a slower route to the same contract. When West dutifully led the spade six, declarer put on the jack from dummy and East did very well by refusing to cover. South could not afford to lead a second round of spades immediately for fear of the ruff, so he started on trump. When three rounds of hearts revealed the bad news, he played another heart to put West in with the jack. West correctly switched to a club; declarer won on the table, ruffed a club, then cashed his last trump in the hope of an end-play. However, East pitched his diamond king to keep the diamond jack as an exit-card and the defense eventually came to a spade trick.

Note the difference if declarer plays dummy’s spade seven at the first trick. This is covered with the nine, but when in dummy later with the club ace, South can run the spade jack. Whether this is covered or not, he has four spade tricks and his contract. The hand is a curious example of declarer having to take two finesses in a suit (both known to be right) where the order in which they have to be taken is critical, but yet not at all obvious.

Today’s deal features Doug Doub, who took something of a flyer in the auction, then had to justify his confidence in his own play – which he did to perfection.

Against the spade slam West led the club king, and correctly decided that South had no more clubs – or he would never have jumped to slam. So West intelligently shifted to the diamond jack, breaking up communications for a possible minor-suit squeeze on himself later on.

Deducing from the overcall that East was more likely to have trump length than his partner, Doub carefully unblocked in trump by playing the spade jack to the king. Then he ran the trump eight, West showing out.

Doub now saw that there would be no problem in coming to the slam if hearts broke 3-2. Trump could be drawn via the finesse; the heart king would be cashed, then the heart jack would be overtaken and declarer could discard his losing diamonds on the hearts. But this line would fail if hearts were 4-1.

Doub found an answer to cover all the bases: a trump coup on East. For this to succeed, declarer had to reduce his trump length, then run his winners ending in dummy. So without drawing any more trump, Doub ruffed a club in hand – and was now down to two trumps in hand. Next came the heart king, then the jack, intending to overtake that card if West followed.

When West showed out, Doub ruffed a diamond, then led hearts; and East could fold his cards, since his trump trick would evaporate.

In today’s deal you are East, defending five clubs. You might well disagree with North’s third call. Looking for a spade fit was somewhat optimistic; he should have closed his eyes and bid three no-trump, hoping to protect his hearts and expecting to be able to run one or both minors without letting West on lead. Be that as it may, you have to defend to five clubs on partner’s incisive heart lead. Dummy plays the jack, and you are in the hot seat.

The size of the spot-card led tells you that your partner has five hearts at most, so declarer’s shape can be precisely deduced as 0-2-5-6. You must therefore cash your two heart winners before the rats get at them. What next?

You may feel like you are well placed to score one or both of your minor-suit kings. But imagine you exit with a diamond. Declarer finesses, ruffs out the diamonds, then finesses in clubs, and it is game over. The same applies on the exit of a low or high spade, while a small club allows declarer to make the same plays in a different order.

It may seem artificial, but there is one perfectly logical defense to set the game, 100 percent of the time, assuming your inferences about declarer’s handpattern are correct. Simply exit with the club king. Declarer must win in hand and can only reach dummy with a trump. Now he must lose a diamond, since you have killed his opportunity to ruff a diamond on the board.

In today’s deal North elects not to use Stayman after hearing the two no-trump opening because of his balanced shape. After a diamond lead against three no-trump South must try to develop tricks in both hearts and clubs. He can reach dummy only once, with the diamond ace. The question is whether to use the entry for a heart or club finesse.

If South uses the diamond entry to dummy for a club finesse, he has an even chance to gain a club trick. If the finesse succeeds, he will win two club tricks instead of only one. But if South, instead, tries a heart finesse, he may gain nothing at all. The point is that a single finesse in hearts may produce nothing for South that he cannot get by leading the suit from his own hand.

For example, if East has a doubly-guarded heart king, the finesse will work, but East will still score his king sooner or later. It is only if East has the doubleton heart king that the finesse gains immediately; and even then South is only up to eight tricks, since his fourth heart will not be high.

South has no way of knowing which finesse will work, so his play is a matter of guesswork. But it is pointless to try for something that won’t be of material assistance. Best is to use dummy’s entry for a club finesse; when it holds, play ace then queen of hearts. Win the diamond return and duck a club, to make the game whenever either hearts or clubs break favorably.

The USA Trials are frequently held on a double-elimination format. The undefeated team becomes USA1, while the team who emerges from the once-defeated pool plays the losing finalists for the right to be USA2. Today’s recent deal comes from the final battle for the USA2 spot. For the winners, Jeff Meckstroth is generally considered to be one of the top declarer players in the world, but this deal saw him outplayed.

Against four spades West led the diamond jack. Meckstroth won dummy’s ace and immediately played a club to his jack and West’s ace. West continued with the club 10 ducked all round, then switched to a heart, establishing the fourth defensive trick for his side.

In the other room Mike Kamil, as declarer, had been given a little help because West had overcalled two hearts. He won the diamond lead, drew two rounds of trumps, cashed his other top diamond, and played ace and another heart. When East won his queen (and it would not have helped him to unblock), he had to choose between giving a ruff and discard and opening up the clubs.

This line had nothing to lose. If trumps had not broken 2-2, then declarer could still have played a club from the dummy, making the contract when East had either both honors or one honor doubleton.

With trumps 2-2, when declarer exits with a heart, he knows that if the defenders can safely play a third heart, he has still preserved all his options for playing clubs for two losers.

Today’s deal comes from the winners of the Brighton Senior pairs, which included one of my journalistic contacts, Brian Senior.

As Brian admitted, he had been lucky here. Firstly, the North-South methods meant that Senior could get in a spade overcall to attract the most threatening opening lead, and secondly, declarer’s technique was found wanting. In three no-trump declarer won the spade lead in dummy to play a club to the jack and ace and Geoff Wolfarth as West cleared the spades. When declarer lost the heart finesse Senior had spades to cash for down one; down one represented 75 percent of the matchpoints for East-West.

After the spade overcall, declarer must attack East’s potential late entry first. If East has the club ace as well as the heart king, the contract appears to be doomed unless declarer can manufacture an endplay, but on the actual layout it can be made by knocking out the heart king before the spades have been established. As you plan to play on both hearts and clubs eventually, arrange to take the heart finesse before playing on clubs. That means winning the first spade with the king as before, but then crossing to hand with the diamond ace to run the heart jack.

This approach makes the contract on the actual lie of the cards, while if the heart king and club ace were switched, declarer would score two heart tricks without losing the lead. He could then play on clubs, and succeed whenever that suit divides evenly.

In today’s deal, when North hears his partner open one heart he uses the forcing no-trump then jumps in hearts. This shows invitational values, in a hand unsuitable for an immediate jump to three hearts.

Typically this suggests 10 to 12 points; with less, North would make a simple raise. With more, North would make a two-over-one bid or use the Jacoby two no-trump.

In four hearts on a top diamond lead South can see that he will probably lose one diamond and as many as three spades. All will be well if East has the spade ace, but South should not rely on an even-money chance. If the club king is onside he has significant additional chance against the three-three or four-two break in clubs. (They break this way more than five times in six.)

South must go after clubs before drawing trump, since dummy’s hearts represent critical entries to the board. After finessing in clubs, cashing the club ace and ruffing a club, the heart nine is an entry to dummy to permit South to ruff a second low club, and the heart ace gets him to dummy in time to cash the last club.

South eventually discards a loser on dummy’s last club and then leads a spade towards the king. If East has the spade ace, South will make an overtrick. The ace, as it turns out, is wrong, so South would have failed in his game if he had not managed to develop the clubs efficiently – and if trumps had been drawn prematurely, the clubs would not have been established.

In today’s deal from the NEC Cup at Yokohama there is a choice of games between three no-trump and four spades. Four spades looks better, and is indeed makeable – but there are some subtle wrinkles in the play.

After a club lead, found at most tables, it seems declarer can succeed by leading a trump to the jack. In the match involving the Hackett team, the eventual winners, both tables played four spades on a club lead. Gunnar Hallberg won the club lead in hand, then unblocked clubs to lead a spade to the king. (In general terms this seems a sensible approach, since leading a spade to the jack and ace would not guarantee you were out of the woods, while if the spade king held declarer could almost claim 10 tricks.) Not today though, since after the spade king lost to the ace, a diamond shift would have set the game. However, West passively exited in trumps, and Hallberg had regained control, and made his game.

At the other table his teammate Brian Senior as West led a club to the jack and king, and back came a club to the ace. Now declarer guessed to lead a spade to the jack. When Senior ducked smoothly, declarer elected to lead out two more rounds of clubs, pitching diamonds from dummy. This was not absurd, but it let East ruff in with his bare spade queen. The defenders still had two trump tricks and a diamond to come, for down one.