In today’s deal, the answer to the question of whether you trust East or West more may well affect your line of play on the deal.

Declaring three no-trump you receive the lead of the spade five. First (easy) question: which spade do you play from dummy?

The correct answer is that declarer must play low from dummy to ensure himself a spade stopper. Should he play the king, he may lose his stopper if East can win and return the suit to his partner’s Q-10. So you play low and East wins the spade ace, then returns the spade six. You are forced to win dummy’s king as West follows with the seven. What now?

Finding the club queen dropping in two rounds is necessary but not sufficient. Which red suit should you play at trick three? If spades are 4-4, go after hearts, if 5-3, take the diamond finesse, then use the club seven as the entry to repeat the finesse.

The answer is to play on diamonds, not hearts, because of the spade spots played at trick two. The key issue is that that the missing spade five and two suggest spades were originally 5-3 not 4-4. Had West followed with the spade two at trick two he would have given the game away, wouldn’t he? And note that had East managed to return his LOW spade from his remaining doubleton, you might well have gone wrong. It was far easier for West to lie than East.

The time to plan as declarer is at trick one, when dummy appears, and not in the post mortem. All too often declarer plays on auto-pilot at the start of the deal, and by the time he realizes his mistake, it is too late.

In today’s deal the contract was the same at both tables, reached via an identical auction. When South opened one heart, North raised to two, suggesting constructive values, since he had not gone through the forcing no-trump. That was enough to convince South to rebid four hearts.

The lead at both tables was the spade nine. At one table, in a knee-jerk reaction, South played dummy’s queen, which held. The contract was now dead in the water; because West had the diamond ace, declarer ended up with four minor-suit losers.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the way to 10 tricks involves losing a spade, even though the king is onside. There are six heart tricks, plus the two black aces. Therefore two more spade tricks will bring the total to 10.

That being so, as the second declarer showed, it is essential to play the spade four from dummy at the first trick. Win with the ace, draw trump leaving the ace in dummy for a later entry, then play a second spade. East wins with the king and switches to the diamond queen. But now, after the defense take two diamonds, South can win the club switch, enter dummy with the heart ace, and discard the two losing clubs from hand on the established spades.

Today’s deal comes from an online site. Oren Kriegel of the US Juniors posted the hand, indicating that the winning line had been missed at the table.

Against the doubled slam West cashed the diamond ace (on which declarer unblocked the queen) and led a spade.

Declarer was now in with a chance to make; had West played either red suit at trick two it would have given declarer no hope. Declarer ruffed the spade, cashed the club king to get the bad news, and next played a heart to the king, ruffed a second spade, then cashed his two remaining clubs.

Now he needed to get to dummy to draw the last trump. The winning line is to overtake the diamond 10 with the jack in order to lead out the club ace. On this trick declarer discards his blocking diamond king. The effect of all this overtaking and unblocking play in the diamond suit is to leave dummy with the master nine, but West now guards the fourth round of the suit.

However, as the last trump is led out West comes under pressure in the four-card ending: declarer has ace-queen fourth of hearts left, while dummy has a losing spade, a small heart, and the 9-6 of diamonds. What does West keep? Whether he pitches a heart or unguards diamonds, declarer has the rest.

The reason a spade shift at trick two was fatal to the defense was that it gave declarer another entry to dummy to reduce his own trumps and play the dummy-reversal.

When the opponents open, the bidding the range for a one no-trump overcall goes up to a bad 18. However, in today’s deal South upgraded his hand to being worth an initial double followed by a call of one no-trump, for which the range is a good 18 to 20 HCP. That persuaded North to drive to game. His jump to three hearts suggested precisely four hearts – with a longer suit he would have bid hearts before introducing his diamonds.

Against three no-trump West led the club two, ducked round to East’s king. The club three was returned — correctly, since otherwise declarer would have established the diamonds and made two spades, a heart, four diamonds and a club. This play had the effect of dislodging dummy’s entry to the diamonds.

On winning the club ace, declarer placed his opponents’ clubs as 4-3. Of course he could make nine tricks if East had at most a doubleton diamond king, but was there anything better? There was, as declarer demonstrated.

His first move was to play a heart to the 10 and queen, which marked East with both red kings. West exited with a club, which was taken by declarer’s queen. South now continued with a low diamond to the nine, which East had to duck or the suit would be set up. Declarer next ran the diamond queen and, after it held, he took a second heart finesse. He ended up taking two spade tricks, two hearts, three diamonds and two clubs for his contract.

If you were North at the helm in three no-trump, the best play on a spade lead might be to win and take the heart finesse rather than ducking. Even if the heart finesse lost, you might still come home against 6-1 spades, and if you ducked the first spade a club shift would probably doom you.

But that is not the problem today. As South you get to declare four hearts, and West dutifully leads the spade king. You hop up with the ace and lead the heart 10, optimistically hoping for a cover. Next comes a heart to the queen, but though the finesse succeeds, you still do not have 10 tricks, since the club ace rates to be offside. The auction has suggested that, given East’s overcall, he is slightly more likely to have the club ace than West.

However, you should still survive by running five trumps, keeping two spades, two clubs and three diamonds in dummy. Then lead the diamond king and a diamond to the ace. As you lead the last diamond from dummy, East will have had to reveal something about his shape; if you believe he has come down to one club and three spades, ruff the diamond and lead a club to dummy, collecting a spade trick at the end. If he comes down to two spades and two clubs, exit with a spade to the jack, hoping that East will have to lead away from his club ace at trick 12.

Today’s deal comes from a recent knock-out teams event played at the 10-day Brighton Summer Congress, one of England’s premier events.

South, Steve Raine, played in four spades, and West led the club queen, the suit his partner had opened. When dummy went down it all appeared to be plain sailing to declarer. So long as trumps broke 3-2 there would be one loser in each of the side suits.

On ruffing the club continuation, two top spades were cashed, declarer getting the bad news of the 4-1 trump break. At first glance it appears that the contract must now fail, but declarer turned his attention to a trump coup – where he could try to single in his small trump separately. Accordingly Raine continued with the diamond ace, then another diamond to the eight and king. East helpfully returned a club, which South ruffed, and he next played a heart to the ace and ruffed his last club.

At this point declarer played a heart to the king, then a diamond from the dummy. This left East with no winning option: if he discarded, South would ruff with the spade nine for his 10th trick. And if he ruffed in, declarer would pitch his losing heart and take the rest.

Incidentally, declarer had been assisted in his task by inaccurate defense. East could have beaten declarer by returning a heart when on lead, as now declarer cannot shorten his trump sufficiently. If declarer has the heart jack, there is no defense to the game.

It is odd how even experienced players get a fixed idea about a hand and, in pursuing their plan relentlessly, miss something obvious that has turned up.

South opened four clubs – known as Namyats (Stayman backwards!) or South African Texas, the call showing a strong opening bid of four hearts, but without the all-round strength to open with a two-bid. By arrangement it showed either a solid suit, or a one-loser suit with an outside ace.

This made it easy for the partners to exchange cue-bids on the way to six hearts, against which West led the diamond king. At first glance it seemed the slam would depend on the spade finesse but, with three entries to dummy, declarer soon saw the extra chance of the club king coming down in three rounds.

South played off the club ace, crossed to the heart seven, and ruffed a club. The fall of West’s jack looked promising and, after crossing to the trump king declarer ruffed another club. There was no joy there, and, when the spade finesse failed, so did the slam.

What was it South missed? On the first two rounds of clubs West had played the 10 and jack. This left dummy’s queen and nine as equals. Therefore, instead of ruffing the third club, declarer should simply discard his losing diamond on the club queen. If West has the club king he is welcome to it, for now South’s losing spade goes away on the established club.

The Brighton Congress in the UK lasts for 10 days every August, and like a US Nationals has something for everyone. The Swiss Pairs and Swiss Teams take up one weekend each. But there is also a Seniors Congress, for pairs and teams as well a “Really Easy Congress” for tournament novices, not to mention a host of other enjoyable singlesession events. And for those for whom two sessions a day are not enough, there are the Midnight Owls Speedball pairs and teams.

In today’s deal after a pass from South, West opened the bidding with one diamond, over which North made a take-out double. South now cuebid two diamonds though arguably his balanced shape suggested a simple invitational call of two hearts would have been enough. West’s three diamonds was passed back to South, who now bid a forcing three hearts, and North raised to four hearts.

West led a top diamond, which declarer ruffed in dummy. He was faced with some awkward communication problems at trick two, since he needed to get the clubs going, but had to concede at least one club trick in the process.

He solved his problems by leading a low club from dummy at trick two, away from the ace and queen. West won with the jack then switched to the spade king. Declarer simply allowed this to hold and West was stuck. A diamond would have accomplished nothing, so he continued with the club king, losing to dummy’s ace. When trump were drawn declarer had four club tricks, five trumps and a spade.