In today’s deal declarer appears to have an embarrassment of aces and kings, but the route home in three no-trump is less straightforward than it might initially appear. And the play would be considerably more complicated at pairs, where overtricks are, if not worth their weight in gold, certainly selling at a premium.

Against the no-trump game West leads a top spade, and since South does not want to see the defenders shifting to clubs, he wins the first trick and ducks a diamond to East.

That player wins and presses on with spades, and when South ducks, West plays a third spade. Now declarer knows that spades are 4-3, he can duck the next diamond to protect himself against the admittedly unlikely 4-1 diamond break. Today that care is justified! At matchpoint pairs it is far from clear that you would give up on the overtricks; it is far more likely that diamonds break (or are long in the hand with short spades) than that today’s distribution needs to be protected against. At teams or rubber, making the contract is paramount and one can let the overtricks look after themselves.

If spades had turned out to be 5-2, declarer would win the third spade and lead a low diamond towards dummy. West would follow suit, and declarer would have to rely on diamonds breaking, since he could not afford to duck the diamond and see West win the trick and cash out. When the diamonds do not break, he would have no realistic chance of success.

In today’s deal you are faced with a dilemma that often occurs at pairs: should you go active or passive on defense? There are just enough clues here to work out the answer – see if you can do so.

After a straightforward auction in which North produced a nonforcing raise and South suggested either a little extra, or maybe just a dose of optimism, partner leads the spade 10 to your queen. You then cash the ace, declarer following suit with the jack and partner playing the seven. What now?

Ignore declarer’s false-card in spades. Partner’s lead of the 10 guarantees shortness; so declarer has three spades and at least five hearts. For the defense to succeed, you need to come to a trick in each minor. The minimum that you need to set the contract is for your partner to hold at least two of the missing high honors in clubs and diamonds – try it for yourself and you will see that declarer always has 10 tricks if he has the club ace or king, together with the diamond king.

Assuming that partner would have led a club if he held the ace-king, you must switch to a diamond, hoping partner has both the diamond king and club ace. If partner has a top trump and the club king, a club shift may be necessary – less likely I think. If you exit passively with a third spade or a club, declarer will build dummy’s clubs into a discard for his diamond loser, and will come to six hearts, a ruff, and three tricks in the minors.

This deal emphasizes that there is a time and a place for rules at bridge, but there is no substitute for using your intelligence at the table. Relying too much on bridge maxims like ‘third-hand high’ can be fatal.

When this deal came up in a pairs tournament, the standard auction was for South to play three no-trump after an uninformative auction. After a diamond lead by West, declarer could win in hand and play a club. When East won the trick, unless his partnership were playing the Smith Echo so that West could strongly suggest to East that he switch the attack, it was hard for East to find the spade shift.

But the hand also proved a problem when West led a spade to the first trick, South inserting the nine from dummy. After the lead of the spade six, East can tell from the bidding his partner does not have both top spades. Declarer has opened a strong notrump, while East and South have 20 HCP between them. So West cannot have more than 5 HCP.

Also from the rule of 11, South has at most one card higher than the spade six. If East plays the spade queen to trick one, declarer makes three no-trump easily, since the spade jack in dummy represents a second spade stopper.

But if East plays low, the defense will take five tricks whenever West has the spade ace. And note that if the ace and king were the other way round, declarer would have two spade tricks whatever the defenders did.

Defending to three hearts, West cashes two top spades then plays a spade to his partner’s ace. East shifts to a trump, won by declarer in dummy, who crosses to hand with a trump, to find the 3-1 break.

Now declarer needs to protect against West having both minor-suit kings. He takes the club finesse, cashes the club ace, pitching a diamond, and ruffs a club, then draws the outstanding trumps by crossing to dummy with a trump.

At this point nine cards have been played and declarer is down to three diamonds and a trump in each hand. Meanwhile both defenders still have their original diamond holding and one club.

Since the black suits have been eliminated, the defenders now have to be very careful when declarer leads a low diamond from dummy. If East plays low (or even if he puts in the eight) declarer follows with his small diamond. West must win the trick and then either concede a ruff and discard or lead away from his diamond king into declarer’s diamond acequeen; either way, South has nine tricks.

The defense fares better if East covers the diamond four with the jack. South plays the queen and West will win the king; now his remaining diamond spots will be good for a trick.

Note that even had trumps been 2-2, the entry position would have been very awkward to strip out the clubs. On the auction, the club finesse may be the right play, even when trumps divide evenly.

And yes, a diamond shift at trick four would have been fatal.

Today’s deal strikes me as complex, because you seem to have a quite a few equivalent lines available here, and no clear direction in which to go. The hardest hands are those where there are either no good lines or too many competing attractions.

Declaring six spades you must take the lead of the spade 10 in hand, rather than in dummy. Next you take the heart ace-king, and must throw a diamond. Now the entry position requires you to play a low diamond next. As it happens you cannot guess correctly. But let us say you put in the 10, losing to East’s jack. That player can do no better than return a second trump.

You win the trump in hand with the spade king, and now ruff a heart to dummy. Then you can return to hand with the diamond ace. A diamond ruff followed by a club ruff allows you to draw the last trump with the spade queen, and claim the balance.

Had the defenders forced declarer by leading clubs at every turn, declarer brings home 12 tricks with the aid of a dummy reversal. He ruffs the opening lead, cashes two hearts, discarding a diamond from dummy, then ducks a diamond as before. He can ruff the next club and draw two rounds of trump, then ruff a heart to dummy to establish the hearts. Next he draws the last trump, while pitching his last diamond from hand, and the South hand is now high.

In today’s deal from a pairs game I know that South’s three diamond opening would not get the approval of purists – it is arguable that the hand is not really good enough vulnerable, and holding two three-card majors is dangerous because a possible major-suit game in a 5-3 fit may well be missed. But as the opponents were vulnerable, South had hopes of talking them out of a game, or perhaps prompting them into an indiscretion. Also, the weak majors with all the values in diamonds argued for taking the risk of missing a higher scoring contract. In response, North’s five diamond bid was well judged (a call of three no-trump would have received the fate it deserved).

West found the attacking lead of the heart three. It seemed right to finesse and the queen held, and now South played the club king, covered by the ace, and ruffed. How would you take it from there?

Curiously, the winning line just involves taking the diamond finesse! At trick three play a diamond to the ace, cash the club queen and ruff a club. Now play a heart to the ace, ruff a club, then another spade to the ace and ruff a club. That is where the diamond finesse comes in: with West unable to overruff, you have scored the first nine tricks. You are left with the diamond K-J and all you need to do now is exit with a major-suit card, and wait for the last two tricks.

Co-operation in defense should be one of the great pleasures of this game. On this deal, however, it was declarer who enjoyed East-West’s efforts when they combined to help him to get rid of three potential losers, all in the space of one trick!

West led the club seven against four hearts (there is a case for leading a top trump) and, after taking his two top clubs, East felt something dramatic was required. Could his partner hold something like K10x or Q9xx in trumps? Then the winning defense would be to lead a third round of clubs, promoting a second trump trick for West (who would either score a trick immediately with his heart intermediate or via a refusal to overruff if South ruffed high).

Accordingly East led another club. Declarer discarded the diamond five from hand, West ruffed with the heart nine, and dummy’s losing spade went away. South was now home and dry. After ruffing a spade on the table and drawing trumps, he had the rest of the tricks.

Of course, East’s play could have been right if the cards had lain as he visualized, but the real mistake was made by West. If he simply discards on the third round of clubs, declarer is still one trick short.

It is something of an optical illusion, but the trump trick is a sure one, whether you ruff in or not; while if you do use up your trump trick, you let declarer discard a loser and have gained nothing in the process.

Today’s deal comes from the San Remo Mixed Teams. Jeff Meckstroth would have many people’s vote for the title of ‘Best Declarer Player in the World’. Would you have played as he did on today’s deal?

Both tables in an international match reached three diamonds here. Where the American team was defending, West led the club king, ducked, and continued with the club queen, won by declarer who now played a low spade. He was hoping to force an entry to dummy with the spade queen in order to be able to take the diamond finesse. However, West went in with the spade king, played a club to East’s jack and East cashed one top heart before playing a fourth round of clubs to force a trick for West’s diamond king.

At the table where Meckstroth was declarer, West led a low heart to East’s king and East returned a spade to the king, for another spade. Notice that Meckstroth could have won in dummy and taken a diamond finesse, but instead he overtook it with the spade queen with the ace, and laid down the diamond ace, dropping West’s king.

Why did he do this? East had passed on the first round of the auction and was already marked with the heart ace and king. Presumably he had a club honor or else West would have preferred a club lead (I imagine declarer thought East was favorite to have started life with a higher honor than the jack). Ergo, West must hold the diamond king.

With four-card trump support, do you always respond to a major suit transfer request at the lowest level, or do you break the transfer? Here North-South here took a simple route to game after a transfer break, and declarer won the spade queen with dummy’s ace, then drew trumps.

The contract appears to hinge on finding the club queen onside, but South found an extra chance when he immediately tried a low diamond towards dummy. As no honor appeared from West, declarer tried the effect of inserting the eight. When the eight forced East’s king, declarer was home. A low spade from East to West’s 10 was followed by the club 10. South won, then led the diamond queen to knock out the defense’s diamond ace. At that point South had established two winners in his hand, on which to discard dummy’s losing clubs.

Declarer’s diamond play looks illogical, as if he were creating an extra loser for himself, but in practice his maneuver was relatively unlikely to cost, since he was going to have two top losers in the diamond suit anyway, whatever he did. Had the diamond eight lost to the nine, South would still have lost only two diamond tricks, and there was always the club finesse in reserve.

Notice that East could not have both high diamonds as well as the club queen – if he did, given that he also held the spade king, he would surely have opened. So leading to the diamond eight was very unlikely to give up on a legitimate play for the contract.