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.

Today’s deal features a piece of deception that occurs so frequently that we should all have it in our data base. Put yourself in the East seat and plan the defense to three no-trump after the lead of the club queen goes to dummy’s king. Are you ready for all eventualities at trick two?

At the table declarer saw that the straightforward line would be to drive out the diamond ace, win the club return and run the diamonds, hoping for a miracle. It would not be forthcoming. On all normal lies of the cards he would be on track to lose at least three clubs and two aces. So he tried a bit of deception.

He took the opening lead with dummy club king and led the spade jack, hoping to catch East napping. If East plays low, as he did at the table, declarer could hop up with the king, then shift his attention to diamonds. After knocking out the diamond ace, he had nine tricks; a spade, two hearts, four diamonds and two clubs.

Had East risen with the spade ace and continued the attack on clubs, declarer would have stood no chance to succeed. But also note that if declarer’s clubs were A-10-9, unlikely but not impossible, East must win the first spade to continue the attack on clubs.

This idea of protecting partner’s entry or of simply saving a tempo by flying up with an ace is definitely counter-intuitive, but it is a ‘club’ you should keep in your bag.

The three bears have taken to playing with non-family members, after the post mortems at their local club started bringing them into possible violations of Zero Tolerance. But since they were all playing East in the local duplicate, they could compare performances with Goldilocks when they came home from their session.

As befitted his status as leader of the pack, Papa Bear was first to speak. The board that had upset him the most was this one.

Against four spades Papa took his diamond king and ace, then had to consider what to do next. More in hope than expectation he tried a club, and declarer won in dummy and drew trump for a comfortable +620.

Mama Bear was unimpressed; she had played a third diamond at trick three, hoping for a somewhat unlikely trump promotion. South threw a heart and overruffed West’s spade nine with dummy’s jack. However, after cashing the ace of trump, declarer played on clubs, discarding his remaining heart on the fourth one; contract made.

As Baby Bear pointed out, it was possible to go one step further along this chain of analysis. The problem with declarer discarding his heart loser could have been avoided. Baby Bear won the diamond ace, cashed the heart ace then played the diamond king and a third round of diamonds.

When West ruffed in with the spade nine, dummy had to overruff, and now declarer had to lose a trump trick; down one. And note that had West started with a singleton diamond, he could have ruffed his partner’s second diamond winner to give him a heart ruff.

While the ACBL has an active junior bridge program, Silicon Valley Youth Bridge (SiVY Bridge), co-founded by Debbie Rosenberg, is one of the most successful youth bridge programs in the US right now. Recently, SiVY Bridge held two week-long Summer Camps and the SiVY Youth NABC Sponsorship program helped 14 Bay Area kids attend the Youth NABC in Chicago. For more information, check out their website.

The other night one of my correspondents had the pleasure of playing a team match on BBO against two camp participants, brothers Brent and Rory Xiao, aged 14 and 11 respectively. They’ve clearly been excelling in SiVY Bridge (as well as the USBF Junior training program) because they played very well throughout the match. Here declarer Rory Xiao played three no-trump on the lead of the club nine to the ace.

East accurately shifted to a low heart, to the queen. Back came a heart to the king, also ducked. Now came a third heart, won by South with a diamond discard from dummy.

Rory cashed the club kingjack, led a diamond to the ace, then took the club queen, squeezing East out of a spade, since he had to preserve the diamond king and his fourth heart (or declarer would set up a diamond winner). With East down to just three spades, Rory took the spade finesse and cashed out the suit for nine tricks.

Note that if declarer takes the heart ace prematurely, East can defeat the game by discarding a blocking heart on the fourth club.

Frank Stewart regularly donates the profits from his books to local causes. His most recent project, “Play Bridge with Me,” is available from the writer — $23.95 postpaid to the US (signed on request) from PO Box 962 Fayette AL 35555.

In today’s deal Stewart overcalls two hearts in fear and trembling, but it turns out well when his partner raises to four hearts. Everyone passes, and East (wrongly, it transpires) encourages on West’s lead of the spade king. West leads another spade to East’s ace for a third spade, and Stewart decides to ruff with the jack, since East probably has the heart queen for his opening bid.

Since East’s opening bid also marks him with the diamond ace and club king, Stewart leads a trump to the king, dropping East’s queen. Now when declarer leads the diamond seven from dummy, East is caught. If he takes the ace, Stewart can discard a club from dummy on the diamond king later; so he must play low, and declarer’s king wins.

Stewart then draws West’s last trump with dummy’s 10, discards a diamond from hand on the spade queen and leads the diamond queen. East takes the ace but is endplayed. He must lead from the club king or give declarer a ruff-sluff, and so the contract comes home.

The key in the play was not to take an immediate discard on the spade queen. If Stewart throws a diamond prematurely, East can grab the diamond ace and exit safely with a diamond, leaving declarer with a club to lose.

Today’s deal comes from Frank Stewart’s new book, “Play Bridge with Me,” as do all the deals this week.

At the first trick West can work out declarer’s point count. There are 17 HCP missing between East and South. East couldn’t respond to an opening bid, but South couldn’t open the bidding. So South has 12 points, and East has five.

South wins trick one with the club 10 and leads the heart four from hand. Before mechanically following small, you must first think about how you can beat three no-trump. Spades are surely the only hope for the defense.

If East had the heart queen and either the spade king or diamond king, declarer would have finessed in hearts. More likely, East has the spade king-queen or the spade queen and a red king. In either case, an early spade shift is paramount.

(It is too risky for West to duck the first heart. If East has the spade queen and no spade nine, the first spade lead must come from West to be effective.)

So West must rise with the heart ace and shift to the spade 10. Declarer can do no better than cover with dummy’s jack and capture East’s queen. East wins the next heart and leads a spade, and the defenders can cash out.

If West had played low on the first heart, East would take the king, but the spade shift comes too late. Nor would it help East to duck the first heart, since declarer would continue hearts. When West attacks spades, it constitutes South’s ninth trick.

The profits for Frank Stewart’s latest book go directly to local causes. “Play Bridge with Me” is available from the writer $23.95 postpaid to the US (signed on request) from PO Box 962 Fayette AL 35555.

Frank declared this deal from the book in a Sectional Swiss Teams. Against six spades West led the diamond two, East playing the jack, and Stewart ruffed and drew trump, finding East with a singleton. That player discarded two diamonds, as dummy also let go of a diamond.

With 11 top tricks, there are many chances for one more. One option is to take the top hearts and ruff a heart, hoping for a 3-3 break. If hearts broke 4-2, declarer could try a club finesse of the jack. If it won, he could ruff another heart, setting up the fifth heart for 13 tricks. If the club finesse lost, declarer would still get home if the clubs broke 3-3 or perhaps (if East failed to return a club) with a squeeze.

But Stewart did better. At the fifth trick he led a heart, and when West followed low, instead of playing an honor from dummy, he ducked in dummy. He ruffed the diamond return, then took both top hearts and ruffed a heart. Now he crossed to dummy with the club king to take the fifth heart for his 12th trick.

As you can see, the unfriendly lie in hearts and clubs make this the only winning line; and had hearts broken 5-1, declarer would still have been able to fall back on the club finesse of course.