Today’s deal may have a relatively simple theme, but it is one that might elude the non-expert. See what you think.

In today’s auction a light oneheart opening and a Jacoby two no-trump raise (showing four trump and game-forcing values) reveals the club singleton in the South hand. Cue bids show the pointed aces and Roman Key Card Blackwood follows, disclosing no keycards are missing. The five no-trump call is looking for a grand slam, promising all the keycards, but South firmly puts the brakes on.

Against six hearts West leads the diamond nine, best for the defense. Declarer wins the ace, draws two rounds of trumps and then plays the club ace followed by the queen, discarding a diamond. The finesse wins, but in a sense that is immaterial.

Later declarer discards one of his two spades on the club jack-10 and so makes twelve tricks; two spades, six hearts, one diamond and three clubs.

The point of this hand is that although the finesse can be taken either way, there is a difference in the timing and the number of discards for his losing diamonds that declarer can obtain.

As you can see, even if the ruffing club finesse fails and West wins the club king, declarer would still have 12 tricks. Crucially, the losing diamond has already been discarded. However if the direct club finesse is taken, then East might be able to win his king (as here) and cash a diamond winner.

In the McConnell trophy in Montreal the Netherlands women’s team sneaked past their quarter-final opponents, thanks to this deal.

While the Dutch North-South pair had taken 10 tricks in three no-trump, Nicola Smith and Heather Dhondy for England bid to an excellent spot. On any lead but a low club the contract is makeable, but only by setting up the spades at once before drawing two rounds of trumps. It looks to me as if on a spade lead that is a not totally unreasonable line to follow. Instead Dhondy quite logically played the club king and another club. When van der Pas discarded, (ruffing in and playing a spade would have set the hand by force) declarer won and drew two trumps ending in dummy. Now she advanced the spade queen, covered and ruffed and overruffed. Again, the defenders could have done better on this trick than they did.

But now Bep Vriend as West carefully exited with the club jack, ruffed in dummy, and Dhondy trumped a spade back to hand to lead a low heart up. Vriend saw her chance and put in the queen! Had she played low, declarer would have finessed the jack to get the extra entry to dummy to ruff out and enjoy the spades. As it was, declarer was now an entry short to set up the spades, and had to concede a black-suit loser at the end. That meant down one and 12IMPs to the Dutch, a 24IMP turnover on the board in a match England lost by 20IMPs.

In the semi-final of the women’s teams in the 2002 McConnell trophy, both tables declared three no-trump by South. Randi Montin received the challenging lead of the diamond two. She guessed well to play low from dummy and Jet Pasman put in the diamond seven, which was not likely to be the right play. This let Montin score her eight, and declarer now tried to set up the clubs by passing the club queen (though maybe the shortage of entries to hand might suggest the alternative approach of leading to the ace?). When Pasman won and shifted to the spade nine, declarer eventually was able to throw West on lead in diamonds, to build an extra spade trick for dummy and make her game.

Kerri Sanborn also led a diamond, which went to Irina Levitina’s jack. Now on the heart shift van Zwol took the queen and passed the club queen to Levitina. The spade nine went to the jack, queen, and king, and van Zwol cashed the spade ace to find the bad news there.

The critical play came on this trick when Levitina pitched a heart rather than a club. Van Zwol did her best by cashing the diamond ace-king and the club ace, then exiting with a club. But Levitina won that and returned a club, and declarer, down to all hearts, had to play ace and another heart. Levitina had the last two tricks with the heart king and the 13th club. Had East pitched a club on the second spade, she might well have been endplayed with a low heart, to lead that suit back at trick 12 into declarer’s tenace.

On this deal from the McConnell trophy in Montreal in 2002 three no-trump is easy. However, if you are going to play four spades, you would surely want to play it from the North side so you can protect your heart queen…wouldn’t you?

When this happened at one table in the finals, the defense led three rounds of hearts, as happened against Disa Eythorsdottir. On the diamond return at trick four declarer correctly rose with the diamond ace, since whatever she did, she needed the club finesse, but might not need the diamond finesse or might have a squeeze.

Disa next played the spade king and a spade to the ace (leading to the spade eight, playing the Theory of Restricted Choice would have allowed her to make). Next she passed the club jack, as West ducked, of course; then declarer ran the club 10, covered and ruffed by East, who returned a diamond for two down.

In the other room – on the auction shown – Lynn Deas played four spades from the wrong side. The defense led a heart to the jack, then played heart king, heart ace and another heart. This seemed like the obvious defense, since East knew that there was no diamond trick on defense and that there might be a trump promotion. West ruffed the heart with the spade nine, and Deas overruffed, played the spade king and guessed very well to finesse in spades, then passed the club jack.

Once the club jack held, declarer drew the last trump, and tested clubs from the top. When they didn’t break, Deas ruffed a club to hand and ran the diamond queen; contract made.

Today’s deal comes from the finals of the McConnell women’s teams. In one room Judi Radin responded one spade to one heart as North. That got Valerie Westheimer to a reasonable spot, but it warned Kerri Sanborn to lead a club. Westheimer might have drawn one round of trumps, but she actually led the spade 10 to the spade king at trick two, and Irina Levitina won and returned a spade. Westheimer rose with the spade queen – hardly an unreasonable play, was it? Sanborn ruffed and returned a club, and now Westheimer ruffed, and crossed to dummy with the heart ace to take the diamond finesse. When that lost, the hand fell to pieces; she emerged with seven tricks, and can hardly be said to have done too much wrong.

In the other room Rozanne Pollack led her singleton spade against four hearts, of course. East put in the spade jack and declarer, Jill Meyers, won and tried the spade 10. Pollack ruffed and led a trump, and Meyers won and cashed a second heart, finding the bad news. Then she led her last spade; had East ducked this, Meyers would have had to play the diamond ace followed by the diamond queen to ensure her ruff – which she might well have done, given the fact that West clearly had 10 minor-suit cards. But East took the third spade, and the hand was over. In fact Meyers could take the diamond finesse for an overtrick.

In today’s deal from the 2002 McConnell teams semi-finals even three hearts has no play on accurate defense. So when one table stopped low and one bid game, you can guess who picked up the swing, right?

In the match between an American and a Dutch team, East had the first problem, when North passed the one heart opener. I fancy two clubs myself, expecting to bid spades later. And note that not only does the deal belong to East-West in clubs, but you also get partner off to the right lead. However, after the American East doubled, West sold out to two hearts and led a top diamond; now the only issue was the second overtrick.

In the other room where Irina Levitina was declarer on the auction shown, the 10th trick was far more important. The auction suggests that North-South may not have been on entirely firm ground as to whether responding one notrump with the North cards was expected – or maybe as to whether the three heart call was forcing – but note that here too East had passed up her opportunity to get partner off to the right lead. When Wietske van Zwol led a top diamond, Levitina won and drew two rounds of trumps before playing a diamond back. It was very tough for van Zwol to work out to duck – though I suspect it might be the percentage play. When she took her queen, declarer had two homes for her spade losers. Had West ducked, she loses her diamond trick but gets two spade winners in return.

All the deals this week come from the later stages of the women’s teams championships in Montreal. Both Norths doubled a one heart bid, but at one table in the finals Judi Radin as East jumped to three hearts, and Irina Levitina bid three spades, then doubled Valerie Westheimer’s four heart call.

After a spade lead to the ace followed by the club 10 shift, Kerri Sanborn cashed the second spade, then got out with a third spade. Declarer eventually built an entry to dummy to take the losing heart finesse, in a position where there were certainly some indications that leading to the heart king was the right play (the combination of no four spade call from North and the final double by South). Down 500.

In our featured room Disa Eythorsdottir did reach four spades. Jill Meyers led a top club, ducked, and now a top club continuation is best. Meyers gave declarer a chance when she played the diamond ace and another diamond, as Randi Montin encouraged. When Disa won the king and drew all the trumps, she could now get one pitch for her heart loser, but still had to lose two clubs and two diamonds. Down one.

The winning line was to play West for the 2-5-2-4 shape that the defense at the table had perhaps suggested. Go up with the diamond king at trick three, and ruff two hearts in dummy using trumps as a re-entry to your hand. Then draw a second round of trumps and you can now set up the fourth diamond to pitch your losing club, since West has no trumps left.

Today’s deal presented an awkward problem for South after the intervention over two clubs. His pass promised at least semipositive values, since with 0-4 points South would have doubled two spades. Then, facing a takeout double, he cuebid and next jumped to five hearts since he thought he had too much for a simple call of four hearts over four diamonds. So he reached the normal slam in unusual fashion.

After the lead of the spade three to the ace there was no point in trying to ruff a spade in dummy immediately, given the weak trumps in hand and the shortage of entries back to South. Instead it looked right to take the heart king and queen, hoping for the hearts to break. If they had done so, you would draw trump and give up a spade, hoping to be able to work out the ending in the fullness of time.

However, the 4-1 trump break was very bad news. See if you can find a legitimate play for the contract now. In fact the least unlikely chance to play for is to hope West holds four diamonds in addition to his four hearts – certainly not impossible, given East’s overcall.

You must take the diamond king and ace, then lead a diamond to the 10. The diamond queen allows you to throw a club as West continues to follow suit. Then the club ace-king and a club ruff brings the trick total to 11. The heart jack in dummy is the 12th winner.