Today’s deal from Frank Stewart’s new book “Play Bridge with Me” sees him playing in a local IMP Teams event. Frank opens one diamond, his partner responds one spade and he rebids one no-trump. Partner huddles and jumps to four spades, and everyone passes.

West leads a low heart, to East’s king; how would you plan the play? At the table South took the ace and led the diamond queen, covered by West’s king. South won dummy’s ace and next let the spade queen ride. He ruffed a diamond, cashed the spade ace and led the spade jack. East took the king and returned a heart. When the club finesse lost, that was down one.

South wasn’t happy with his partner’s bidding, North wasn’t happy with his partner’s play. But it is easy to justify the rebid of one no-trump, as opposed to a two-club call, which might easily lose hearts. And the spade queen is almost as good trump support as a small doubleton.

And after all that, four spades was cold. (Only a club opening lead would always defeat it.) After the spade queen wins, South ruffs a diamond and crosses to dummy with the club ace and king, to ruff two more diamonds. With eight tricks in the bag, South exits with a club or heart, and is sure of two more tricks with the spade ace jack.

What is more — though Frank does not say this — South might have found the winning line had he not been grumbling internally about the auction.

All the deals this week come from Frank Stewart’s new book, “Play Bridge with Me,” for which all the profits will be going to local charities.

Stewart opens one spade in second seat and when North responds two clubs (not forcing to game), he rebids two spades then raises an invitational three spades to four.

West leads the heart jack, and Stewart sees that he is off a diamond, a heart, a possible trump, and at least one club trick. Setting up a diamond winner to discard a heart loser from dummy is essential. Declarer cannot afford an early trump finesse, since if East took the king, a heart return would be fatal.

So Stewart wins the opening lead in dummy, saving the heart ace as an entry, and leads a diamond. East takes the second diamond and returns a heart. Stewart wins, cashes the diamond jack, pitching dummy’s last heart. Now he can take the losing trump finesse and win the spade return. The contract now hinges on the club guess. Luckily, there is enough information to eliminate the guess. Can you see why?

East, who passed as dealer, has shown the spade king, heart queen and diamond ace, so West must have the club ace. Stewart can lead a club to the king and lose only three tricks in all, scoring up his game.

As Stewart says, counting the losers, will indicate the necessity of delaying drawing trump in order to set up the critical discard. Going right in clubs is then a simple matter of counting to 13.

One of my good writing and bridge-playing friends is Frank Stewart. Frank has been writing books regularly over the last decade, and donating the profits 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.

This week’s deals come from his book. Here Stewart hears his partner open one club in fourth chair and raise his response of one spade to two. Stewart now sensibly up-values his five-card suit and red-suit controls, and drives directly to game.

On the lead of the heart jack North puts down a 15-count that some would have opened a strong no-trump. Not surprisingly, the contract is excellent, but there is a possible loser in each suit. If the defenders get in, they will lead a second heart, setting up a winner, so it is imperative to establish a discard for the heart loser quickly. Stewart leads a diamond at the second trick, and when West plays low, Stewart observes that if either black-suit finesse wins he will be home.

But given that East didn’t open the bidding and has the heart queen, the right play from dummy must be the king. If East has the ace, declarer will not have a heart discard, but now one of the black-suit finesses will be sure to win, since East would probably have been in the bidding with such a good hand. So playing the diamond king means declarer will make four spades whatever the lie of the cards.

In today’s deal you play four spades, and receive the lead of the heart king to the ace. What are your thoughts?

The spade king is surely with West; and the risk is that you will lose two spades, and two hearts. A simple line, such as playing the spade ace and another spade will lead to West winning his king and persisting with hearts, the fourth round promoting a trump for East. The same danger applies if you play for the intra-finesse (leading low from dummy and covering East’s card, hoping that he began with J-8 or 10-8 doubleton.

One possibility is the specific doubleton J-10 with East. Ace and another trump would work in that instance; but West is more likely to be short in spades than East. You should turn your attention to the idea of negotiating against length in spades with East. That being so, it looks right to duck trick one, hoping East will ruff his partner’s winner on the second round. But West continues with the heart jack, and East pitches a club.

When you win the heart ace you could now play West for a singleton spade king, but better is to play him for precisely the doubleton K-2 or K-8 of spades. Lead the spade nine from hand, with the intention of passing it. If West follows with the eight or two, play low from dummy and let East win the spade 10. You win the club exit and cash the spade ace, then finish drawing trump.

In today’s deal when you make a game-try of three diamonds, North’s call of four clubs is a cuebid in case you have slam interest. Maybe you aren’t worth a drive to slam, but in fact you reach a respectable contract – one that is no worse than the spade break. West leads the diamond jack against the slam. You try the queen, but East covers with the king.

You will have no problem with your contract if trumps break 2-2, so you must start by drawing trump. Lead the spade ace then play to the king, discovering West with three trumps. Plan the play now.

Your only chance is to be able to discard all your diamonds from hand on dummy’s clubs. As you can see, any 3-3 break gives you no chance, and equally, if the man with the long trump has the doubleton club, there will be nothing you can do. So you must try to find a lie of the cards where you can succeed. You need the player with the singleton trump to hold the doubleton queen in clubs.

The best play is therefore to lead a club to your 10, cash the club king, then cross to dummy with a heart. Now you cash the club winners, pitching as many of your losing diamonds as you can.

When West has to follow to four rounds of clubs you can run the whole suit. West can ruff the last one, but that is the defenders’ only trick, since all three of your diamonds have gone away.

Today’s deal features an interesting combination of plays for declarer and the defense.

Everyone knows that it is generally wrong to over-ruff with a useful trump, but just how small can a useful trump be? Consider this hand, from a Junior European Tournament, where the popular contract was four spades by South, which was usually defeated on the heart king lead. However, at most tables, the line of play selected by declarer was an inferior one.

The best play is to win the heart lead with the ace and cash the diamond ace before crossing to dummy with a low spade to the queen. Now comes a low diamond, ruffed with the spade nine. If West overruffs, the rest of the play is very straightforward; so let’s say West declines to overruff. Declarer now continues with the spade king, which West cannot afford to duck (or declarer scores four plain suit winners and six trump tricks).

So West takes his spade ace and continues hearts, forcing dummy to ruff the third round. Declarer now leads a second low diamond and ruffs with his last trump in hand, the four. West must decline to over-ruff with the five, otherwise dummy is now high. When he discards, the hand falls to pieces.

At double-dummy (but not in real life) when declarer leads a diamond from dummy at trick four he must discard from hand! East is left on lead and can do no better than return a club. Declarer wins his ace and leads a spade up, and the defense is helpless.

The final contract of four spades was the same at both tables on this deal from match-play. There were problems in the play, however, and the two declarers tried different approaches, with mixed success.

North got the auction underway with one club, East overcalled one heart, and South contented himself with a quiet one spade. When all North could do was rebid one no-trump, however, South jumped to game in spades and everybody passed. West led the heart jack against four spades and you can see South’s problem: there were plenty of winners, but how could he reach them? One declarer tried the heart queen from dummy at trick one. His idea was that after East had won he might well return a heart. Then the club ace could be discarded and the losing diamonds thrown away once clubs were unblocked. But after East took his king, he unsportingly switched to diamonds. Now there was no escape, and the contract failed.

The second declarer played low from dummy at trick one, with the same plan in mind. East followed with the nine and now one can hardly blame West for leading another heart. South pitched his club ace and was home and dry.

Still, since West knew that East held the heart king, he might have asked himself why did his partner play the nine? Surely to show he held an even number of cards in the suit, which could hardly be four. And maybe a clairvoyant East could even have overtaken with his heart king and switched to diamonds. Maybe not…

Today’s deal features an unusual auction. North’s most likely hand-type for his one club opening was a weak no-trump, and the one heart response was a transfer, showing spades. But the final contract was an entirely normal four spade game, though reached in somewhat unusual fashion.

West cashed his minor-suit winners and exited with a club, ruffed by declarer, ex-Scots star Victor Silverstone. Maybe it would have been correct to have won the club in dummy and taken a first-round spade finesse but at trick five declarer actually cashed the spade ace and received the bad news.

He next played a heart to his jack and advanced the spade nine, which East had to duck. Now Silverstone ruffed another club, went over to the diamond queen, ruffed another club, and crossed back to the heart ace. In the two-card ending, he was in dummy with the spade K-J in his hand poised over East’s Q-7, and could make both the last two tricks.

Do you see how West might have done better? To start with, he should have continued with a diamond at trick four, to remove a dummy entry prematurely rather than helping declarer shorten his trump. And, secondly, when declarer played his low heart towards the dummy, West should have inserted his king — which would have been another opportunity to cut down declarer’s entries to dummy. Equally, had declarer led the heart queen from hand, the winning defense would have been to duck this card, for the same reason.

Today’s deal came up at teams, where the focus is always on making or defeating the contract. It offers some interesting points of technique both at teams and pairs.

At the table, the club queen was led to the ace, against four spades. Declarer should calculate that he must try to hold his combined trump and diamond losers to two. Cashing the top spades will expose you to risk if East has all four trumps. So safest is to win the club and run the spade five if East follows with the three. Then take the top two spades, and next play the diamond king and a diamond to the nine. The two safety plays are necessary if the cards lie as in the diagram.

Incidentally, if East plays the spade eight on the first round of the suit, win the ace then lead a low spade to the seven and 10. You win the club return and lead the spade jack, neutralizing the spade queen.

However, I admit that at pairs I would cash the spade ace at trick two, and go down. One cannot afford to give up on the chances of an overtrick in a normal contract. Once you have two spade losers, you need to play diamonds for no loser. Best is to lead to the jack, rather than play the ace then finesse. This not only guards against singleton queen on the right, it also allows you to cash the king then take a later finesse. This holds your losses to one down if East has any small singleton.