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.

In today’s hand some of my readers may not look past the fact that they themselves would not bid to slam missing a cashing ace and the trump king, and not realize that it is not enough to be lucky. Sometimes one must also be good.

When the deal came up in the early stages of a national championships, the expert team who held the North-South cards stopped in five hearts after a keycard auction.

However the less-favored team bid to slam on the auction shown, when South either thought it would be beneath his dignity to ask for aces, or decided to play for a swing.

The opening lead was the spade queen, ducked all round. The spade jack was covered by dummy’s king, and South demonstrated that his team was not just present to make up the numbers when he ruffed with the heart queen. Then he led a diamond to the ace, ran the heart eight successfully, and followed up with the heart 10, underplaying this with his nine. Now it was a simple matter to repeat the heart finesse and draw trump. Declarer could dispose of his fourth-round diamond loser on dummy’s clubs, and waltz home with 12 tricks.

Note that if declarer ruffs the spade with either a low trump or with the nine, he can no longer cope nearly so easily with the 4-1 trump break. The contract will come down to needing clubs or diamonds to split 3-3, since declarer will have to burn an entry to dummy to repeat the heart finesse.

South’s overcall of one notrump might not have been everybody’s choice, but he decided that his balanced hand was most suitable to show via the simple no-trump overcall rather than by a takeout double. This is a reasonable principle when balanced, (though whether one should, for example, conceal a five-card major is less clear).

North now had a straightforward raise to game, and West decided to lead a club, since he thought his partner rated to have real clubs for a third-seat opener. This is also a sound idea: when in third seat with a marginal opener, try to bid a suit you want partner to lead, even if that might be a four-card major.

It looks natural to play low from dummy at trick one, but East would have won with the club queen and would immediately have shifted to hearts. The defenders would then have been in position to win a club, a diamond, and three hearts.

This would all have been very unlucky, but the location of the club honors was known at trick one from the spot-card chosen by West. South was fully on the ball, and had no reason to expose himself to ill fortune, since he had a sure-trick line at his disposal. He could afford to win the first trick with dummy’s club ace and immediately knock out the diamond ace. This assured him of four diamond tricks in addition to the three spades, one heart, and one club which were always there for the taking. The club seven in dummy represented a fourth round stopper.

When South hears his partner invite game, suggesting either four hearts, or three trump in an unbalanced hand, he may have close to a minimum in high cards, but his extras in shape and controls are enough for him to go on to game.

West might sensibly lead either a spade or a diamond (an aggressive West might even put the club queen on the table). But after the lead of the diamond three, South has no reason not to finesse. East wins his king and returns a diamond to dummy’s ace. South now tries the top hearts; no luck there.

South now apparently needs the spade ace onside; but he must also be careful to ruff his club losers before giving up the lead. (Else West might draw another round of trump, leaving only one heart in dummy for two possible losing clubs).

When South cashes the top clubs, West follows suit with the queen and 10. South’s remaining clubs are suddenly high, and that gives South an extra chance for his contract.

However, if South next leads out the club nine, West will surely ruff in, to lead a spade through dummy’s king, and defeat the contract. Instead, South deceptively advances the club seven. West may now take his eye off the ball and discard instead of ruffing. If so, declarer can discard a spade from dummy, and then lead his remaining club to discard a second spade from dummy. That way he limits his spade losers to one, whoever has the ace.

Many of my readers are regular rubber bridge players, but those who dip their toes into the world of duplicate tournaments are often confused as to how strategies change when playing teams or pairs.

Today’s deal emphasizes the difference in approaches. You declare three no-trump on a hand where your 27-count would have been even nicer at Rubber Bridge. Your partner wisely decided not to look for a suit game after you showed the values for game in your own hand.

You win the lead of the spade queen (East contributing the 10) with the king, and unblock your two top clubs. Next you lead a low diamond toward dummy’s jack; if the suit splits 3-3 you can do whatever you like, but if the suit breaks 4-2, you need to hope the queen is onside.

West rises with the diamond queen, then leads the spade jack to set up that suit. You win in hand, and cross to the dummy with the diamond jack to cash the club winner. After East shows out on the third club, there would be no issues at teams. You would make sure of your game by leading to the heart ace. This guarantees 10 tricks without risking the contract, and you would actually emerge with 11 tricks.

But at pairs, might you not assume you were in the normal contract, and that West had such short hearts that the finesse was odds-on to win? I’m sure your partner would be appropriately sympathetic when your finesse lost to the singleton king, and you went down three.

Today’s deal shows how an expert can make the most of his assets, by appreciating the full value of his spot cards. This deal came up on the second day of a major pair game in the US. It was common for North-South to play in no-trump here, and South typically ended as declarer in three no-trump, against which West might have been tempted to lead a heart, having bid spades but not having received any cooperation from East.

However, where I was defending, my spade lead let declarer win in dummy. A club to the queen held, and now when hearts failed to break declarer could set up a second diamond winner, but that was only his eighth trick.

Defeating three no-trump scored our side well, but not spectacularly so, since the NorthSouth cards are not easy to bid to a sensible spot. But having reached three no-trump, I thought our opponents should have found the winning line. After winning the spade ace at trick one, declarer should lead the club king at trick two, smothering his own queen, and ensuring he can establish clubs with the help of the two entries to dummy that remain.

The key difference between taking the club king and leading low to the queen is that declarer remains in dummy if the opponents duck their ace in the first case, but not in the second. That saves an entry to the board – which happens to be critical today, when the club jack does not fall in two rounds.