Plenty of players swear by leading middle from three or four small cards. They believe that the ambiguity on count is outweighed by the knowledge of the presence of an honor making third hand’s defense easier. I don’t agree – though second highest from four small at no-trump does make sense.

I believe third and lowest leads, coupled with occasionally leading high from small-card holdings is more helpful to partner overall. Note that it is not only third hand but also declarer who may benefit from the informative lead. Consider today’s deal, for example.

In one room in a team game the defenders led and continued clubs against four spades. Declarer ended up losing two hearts and two clubs. In the other room when a fourth-highest club two was led to the ace, South dropped the king. Why? Given that West was marked with three or four clubs, including the queen (he would have led a higher card without it), declarer’s best chance was to discard his heart losers on dummy’s diamonds. For that to work he needed not only additional entries to dummy but also for East to have the diamond ace.

East shifted to a low heart, and declarer played low from hand. West won the heart king and had only losing options left. He chose to return a heart, and declarer was home when he played low from dummy to force the queen.

But had West played the club queen and another club, declarer would have been in dummy. He could then have taken the ruffing finesse in diamonds against East while dummy still had a trump entry.

Christmas always makes me nostalgic for times past. So I am irresistibly drawn to consider the life of Omar Sharif, who died this year. As well as being a fine actor, he knew his way around the game, and he was unceasingly available to the World Bridge Federation in the role of a glamorous figurehead for bridge.

Here he is playing the part of the hero (a role he was not unfamiliar with). Against three spades West led a top diamond and switched to a trump to East’s ace, aiming to prevent Sharif as South scoring any diamond ruffs in dummy. Back came the spade two. How would you have played the contract?

See what happens if you cross to a top heart to finesse in clubs. West wins with the club king and returns another heart, knocking out the last entry to dummy while the club suit is blocked. If you try a diamond to the jack next, West will be able to win and lead another trump, leaving you with just eight tricks.

Although East might have held the club king, Omar saw that there was no need to finesse in clubs. Instead he led the club queen from his hand (better than playing ace then queen of clubs, in case there was a ruff coming to the defense). West won with the club king and played a third trump, but the contract could not be beaten. Declarer simply unblocked the club honors from his hand, then crossed to dummy with a heart to discard a diamond loser on the club 10.

Today’s hand does not look like an exciting one; you’d expect whether it was teams or pairs to have 10 top tricks, losing a trump and a heart. The club finesse would determine whether you made an overtrick or not. But the unexpected 6-1 heart break puts you to the test.

After the lead of the heart queen to dummy’s ace, declarer can lead trump from dummy, or more deviously come to hand with his club ace and try to steal a trump trick, by leading the jack, just in case he can catch West napping. However, the result will be the same. West will take his trump ace and lead a second top heart, forcing dummy to play the king and East to ruff.

Let’s follow through the play when East returns a diamond. Declarer wins in hand, draws the last trump, cashes his remaining diamond winner, and then crosses to dummy with a trump to ruff dummy’s third diamond.

At this point declarer has a complete count of the deal. West is counted out for two trumps, six hearts and at least three diamonds. Therefore he has at most two clubs. Consequently, declarer cashes the club ace and king, and then decides which of his opponents he wants to torment the most.

He plays a heart if he likes West less than East, or a club if his inclinations are the other way around. Whoever wins the trick will be endplayed to give a ruff-sluff, and the remaining loser can be discarded from one hand or the other.

A highly competitive auction saw East-West do well to push South to the three-level. After the lead of a top club, declarer was forced to make a somewhat unusual play to prevent East from getting on lead for the killing diamond shift.

Declarer ducked the opening lead of the club queen, then ducked the continuation of the club jack, because he did not want East on play; this second duck prevented East from ever gaining the lead in clubs.

South won the third round of clubs with the ace, then played the heart king. West won his ace and took his diamond ace, knowing declarer’s diamonds would disappear on dummy’s hearts if he did not. That left declarer needing to negotiate spades, and when he led to the king and back toward his hand, he was spared the guess.

Well played by declarer, but can you see how the defenders could have done better? The fault was West’s at trick two. When he continued with the club jack, he denied possession of the 10, so East could not overtake his partner’s honor. Had West played the club 10 at the second trick, East could safely have overtaken. Declarer must now win the club ace and go after hearts, by leading the king as before. West could now have won the heart ace and played a low club to his partner’s nine to create the entry for the diamond shift. That lets the defenders cash out for down one.

Today’s deal comes from the Brighton Teams in the UK, from a couple of years ago.

At one of the tables in a team game South opened four hearts, silencing West, so there was no reason for declarer to suppose any opponent was more likely than the other to hold the heart length. After ruffing the second spade at trick two, declarer crossed to a club and led a heart from the dummy, hoping to cater for the possibility of East’s holding the singleton heart ace. Now a vital entry had gone from the dummy; but even so, it was now critical for East-West not to play spades again. When West correctly shifted to clubs, declarer could not avoid losing a further trump trick, and eventually a diamond as well.

In the other room on the sequence shown South ended up in four hearts after West had overcalled in spades. West started with two rounds of spades, the second of which was ruffed by declarer. Not blessed with second sight, declarer led the heart king from hand, won by West’s ace.

West now switched to a club. South won in hand, and cashed the heart queen, finding the bad news. He then cashed the other top club from his hand, crossed to dummy’s club king and ruffed another spade. This was followed by a diamond to dummy’s ace and another spade ruff. Finally declarer exited with a diamond, and waited to score both the heart jack and nine at tricks 12 and 13.

History buffs will be familiar with John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury to King Henry VII. His role included collecting taxes from London merchants.

Should the merchant follow a luxurious lifestyle, Morton would argue that he could well afford to pay up. But if he lived frugally, Morton would infer that his thrift indicated he had plenty of money saved up. This trap is known as Morton’s Fork, and one can also encounter this maneuver at the bridge table.

South’s rebid of one no-trump showed extras, in the context of a weak no-trump base. North could have checked back for a fit in the majors, but South’s second call denied four hearts or four spades, allowing North to close up shop with a call of three no-trump.

When West led a spade, South won in hand, played a diamond to dummy’s ace then another diamond toward his hand. Had East had gone in with his king, declarer would eventually have made his game. But East held off, and now South set about clubs. When West came on lead with the queen, he shifted to hearts. The defenders were able to cash three hearts and the diamond king for one down.

See the difference if, declarer crosses to the club and leads a low diamond away from the ace. Now East is impaled on Morton’s Fork. If he flies up with the king, declarer has his nine tricks. And if the king is withheld, declarer can set up a club for his ninth trick, with the diamond king not yet established as a defensive winner.

Today’s deal features an unusual theme, in a hand where you are declaring a diamond slam on an auction where West is marked with the heart king from his initial preempt.

The defenders lead clubs, the two going round to your ace. you next cash the diamond ace and queen. When you lead a spade to your queen, one of your best chances for the contract appears to have vanished when West wins the king and exits with a trump. The chance of clubs breaking 3-3 has still not gone up in smoke, but the opening lead makes that remote. A better chance might be to try and exert pressure on one opponent or the other in the ending. Can you see how you might do that?

The answer is to win the third trump in hand and to try to catch East in a heart-club squeeze. To transfer the menace in hearts to him, lead the heart queen, covered by the king and ace. Now comes the spade ace, and a spade ruff. Then you lead a club to your queen.

You are now in position to run the trumps, and after three spades, one heart, five diamonds and two clubs, you are down to a two-card ending with the heart 10 and a club in hand and the doubleton club king in dummy. At this point you squeeze East in clubs and hearts. He must pitch his heart jack to keep the clubs guarded, hoping his partner has the heart 10, but now you can cash that card at trick 12.

The ever-increasing average age of the tournament bridge player is a much-discussed cause for concern, so it is always a pleasure to report on a good play by a young player. Today’s deal is from a recent World University championships.

Declarer was Tzu-Lin Wu, of Chinese Taipei, who managed to justify his ambitious bidding (his four heart bid was a successful effort to try to avoid a heart lead).

West led the spade jack against six diamonds. Can you see any hope for the contract? Declarer created an intriguing mirage when he covered the jack with dummy’s queen. This went to the king and ace.

South then crossed to dummy with a diamond and played a heart to his jack and West’s ace. Put yourself in the West seat, and think what you would do now. Not unreasonably, West tried to cash the spade 10; wouldn’t you? Of course now declarer had a winner in dummy in the form of the spade nine to take care of the heart loser, and the slam was home.

This year the World Youth Open Championships took place in Croatia, with the US having a modest attendance. But I was particularly pleased to see that at Chicago this summer a team consisting of four juniors and Steve Zolotow of Las Vegas put together a convincing win in the 0-5000 Spingold.

I’m hoping this squad should go on to bigger and better things in the under-25 events, and we also have a highly promising under-21 squad too, which won the silver medal at the 2014 world championships.

In today’s deal it was a pity that South’s card play did not measure up to the optimism of his partner’s bidding. In the contract of six spades, declarer’s focus should have been on the relative solidity of his side’s trump spots.

At the table declarer won the heart lead in hand and immediately took the spade finesse successfully. (Had the finesse lost, declarer would likely have fallen into the right line, on a heart return.) But the spade finesse won, and declarer followed up with the spade ace. The writing was on the wall when East showed out, but declarer soldiered on by cashing dummy’s last trump, after which he turned to clubs.

So long as West held at least three clubs declarer would still have been in business – but, annoyingly, West did not. The third round of clubs was ruffed, South discarding a heart, but West’s heart queen was the setting trick.

It would not have helped if South had started on clubs at trick four before dummy was denuded of spades, for West could have ruffed this low, then returned a heart, to promote the spade queen.

In order to preserve his entries and not force himself, best is to ruff a heart high at trick two, return to hand in a minor, then ruff the last heart, again with a high trump. Now the spade eight is overtaken with the jack, and whether West wins his queen or not, trump can safely be drawn. The defense score only the spade queen, since dummy’s clubs will take care of South’s third round diamond loser.