The play in four spades is not complicated here, but declarer needed to focus on the critical issue. When the deal took place at the table, in a team game, the deal was flat, with both declarers flubbing their lines.

In one room, after a diamond lead, South tried to cash two top diamonds and ruff a diamond low. East overruffed and returned a trump, leaving South with three red-suit losers.

In the other room South ruffed the third diamond high. East pitched the club king, and when declarer played the club ace, East ruffed in and played back a trump, and declarer was again left with no chance to make his game.

The key here is how to play a cross-ruff to eliminate as many chances as you can that the defenders might ruff in or overruff you. It is often vital to cash your side suits winners, in case a defender can discard and then be able to ruff away one of the winners.

So win the diamond ace and cash the club ace immediately, then take the second top diamond and ruff a diamond high. Ruff a club to hand, then trump your fourth diamond with the spade eight. East can overruff, but declarer takes three plain winners, six trumps in hand and one diamond ruff in dummy.

It may not be likely that one defender has a singleton club and only two diamonds, but if you can protect yourself against an unlikely event, why not do so rather than be dependent on the kindness of strangers?

One of the more curious experiences I have had in scoring up recently came on a hand from a team game from a Las Vegas regional tournament. I sat East, and defended four hearts, after having been tempted to take the sacrifice in four spades, which would probably have escaped for down one.

When my partner led the diamond queen I could infer that he had enough spade length to make that lead unattractive. Though I could not see a legitimate way to defeat the hand, I elected to duck the first trick. When declarer played on trump I won and cashed my club ace, then underled in diamonds to get my club ruff and defeat the game.

Since declarer could have made the hand by returning a diamond at trick two (a form of Scissors Coup to cut the defenders’ communications) I was quietly confident as we came back to score up. Our teammates announced “minus 50” and though I said nothing at the time, I was a little disappointed. I waited to ask what had happened until the meal-break. South said that the opponents had simply led spades to trick one, then ducked the first trump, won the next and continued leading spades at every turn. Declarer could not manage the triple task of drawing trump, setting up clubs, and establishing the diamond king, without running out of trump!

Sometimes the easiest defenses to find, in theory, are the hardest to discover at the table.

When you have no hope of making your contract by legitimate means, subterfuge just might see you home. On the following hand Denmark’s Thorvald Aagaard probably initially assumed with some justification that the deal belonged to his side. When he opened two clubs and West overcalled four hearts, it was passed back to Aagaard, who bid five diamonds.

Had the North and East hands been interchanged, this would have been a fine contract. As things were, five diamonds was an excellent sacrifice, there always being 11 tricks available in hearts for East-West.

So far so good, but there was better to come. West made his natural lead of a top heart, and when this held, continued with another, on which South discarded his club four!

Look at the problem now from West’s perspective. Had South originally held ace-queen third of spades and a doubleton club ace, a spade lead away from the king now would have handed declarer his contract. Since a third heart by West would present declarer with a ruff and discard, to allow a spade to be discarded from dummy, it seemed that the only option was to shift to a club.

Aagaard seized upon this gratefully. He drew trump in two rounds, cashed his second top club, then entered dummy twice in trumps, overtaking first the three and then the diamond six, first to ruff a club, setting up the suit, and second, to utilize the clubs for two spade discards. Five diamonds, bid and made.

Today’s deal is a defensive problem. Cover up the West and South hands and look at it from East’s point of view at trick one. The composer envisaged a position where partner had the trump ace, not the club ace, amongst his assets, and ingeniously suggested encouraging spades at the first trick. His expectation was that partner would continue with the king and a third spade. Then when declarer wins and plays a heart, partner would win his ace and continue with a fourth spade, to promote the heart queen into the setting trick.

As the player who posed the problem admitted, of course, this defense wouldn’t have worked so well if the club and heart aces were switched – as in the diagram. Partner would have scratched his head and asked why East had just directed him to present declarer with his contract on a plate when he would appear to have had no chance to succeed on a passive defense.

But East’s justification was that even in that situation four hearts would have been makeable, if declarer plays West for the diamond queen. Even if West exits with a heart at trick two, declarer draws trump ending in dummy, and leads a club to the queen, king and ace. He ruffs the club return and runs the trump, coming down to a singleton spade in hand, and squeezes West down to the bare spade ace, to keep his diamond queen guarded. Then South cashes the diamond king and endplays West with a spade to lead diamonds into his tenace.

West led the heart queen against four spades, and East was on the ball when he overtook this and returned a trump. With sure heart winners in hand, and the knowledge that South had at least four hearts, this was the indicated line of defense. When declarer continued in his search for heart ruffs by winning the trump and playing on hearts, East won the trick and led another trump. Declarer won in hand, ruffed a heart, took a heart discard on the diamond ace, and finessed in clubs. Unlucky! The finesse failed and there was still a heart to lose.

As the cards lie, South had missed his chance to make the hand at trick five. Had he taken the club ace and followed up by leading another club, it would have given South his 10th trick in due course. But this line would have failed if East had been able to win with the club king and lead a third round of trump.

The solution that involves less risk is to try the club finesse earlier, at trick three. If it wins, there is no problem for declarer in giving up a heart and ruffing a heart for his 10th trick; if the club finesse loses, West has no more trumps to play as the cards lie (and if the spades are 2-2 the contract is still secure).

As the cards lie today when West takes his club king and returns a diamond, the clubs can be unblocked, a heart eventually ruffed, and the club jack enjoyed for the game-going trick.

When at first sight a contract appears to depend on a finesse – an even money chance – it is worth investigating for ways to improve those odds.

After North’s splinter raise to four diamonds (showing gamegoing values) South asked for aces then looked for a grand slam, by trying to find the club king opposite. He shut up shop in six hearts when North could not cooperate, and West led a spade against the small slam. Declarer rose with the ace, then immediately ruffed a spade. There was a two-fold purpose to this exercise. The first was to begin eliminating the spade suit. The second was to test whether a defender held king, queen and just one other spade, so that a club could be discarded on the spade jack.

No spade honor put in an appearance at trick two, so South continued with a trump to dummy for another spade ruff. Declarer cashed the diamond ace, ruffed the diamond three, then trumped dummy’s last spade.

Having eliminated all the irrelevant cards, declarer now played the diamond queen in the hopes that West held the king. He did, and instinctively played that card. Instead of ruffing the diamond, South discarded a club from dummy and faced his hand.

West was now endplayed into either returning a club into South’s tenace, or giving a ruff and discard, whereupon North’s last losing club could depart. Of course, had East turned up with the diamond king, there would still have been the club finesse to fall back on.

In today’s deal from a team game, one table played in three no-trump after West had shown clubs and a second suit, while the other table reached four spades on an unopposed auction

The South in three no-trump received a top club lead. As he did not want a heart shift, he took the lead and crossed to dummy with a diamond to the ace, East playing the jack, then ran the spade 10, which West ducked. A low spade came next and when East showed out, declarer took the ace and led out the spade jack, prepared to overtake if West ducked. West won and shifted to a heart, but South now claimed his nine top tricks.

In the room where South reached four spades, he too received a top club lead. Declarer won the club lead and started trump in the same way. West won the third trump and, mindful of East’s signal, shifted to a heart. Declarer ducked, and when the defense went back to clubs, he ruffed the third one and drew the last trump, squeezing East in the red suits.

Although at double dummy four spades can never be broken (so long as declarer leads trump from hand at trick two), there was a defense to the line chosen at the table which was so unlikely that I can’t blame West for missing it. He must duck the third spade! Now when he wins a spade or club trick he must play another diamond. This breaks up the timing for the squeeze.

One simple law for declarer is that you should win a trick if you fear a shift. Still, there is always an exception. Walid El Ahmady and Tarek Sadek of Egypt are both highly resourceful declarers, and on this deal from the Cavendish pairs Sadek was able to bring home an impossible game by breaking the rules.

Three no-trump appears to be hopeless here for North-South except on a spade lead. Sadek received the lead of the heart queen.

If declarer wins the first heart for fear of a club shift, then runs six diamonds, East keeps his top clubs and two spades, and has an exit-card in the form of a low heart.

Better is to duck the first heart, win the next, and run diamonds. But in the five-card ending the defense can still just prevail so long as West keeps four clubs, and East discards all his hearts to keep two spades and three clubs.

Sadek went one step better; he ducked both the heart queen and the jack! Now he won the third heart, pitching a spade from dummy, and ran the diamonds. On the last diamond East was down to two spades and three clubs, and had no escape. If he kept two spades and the top clubs he would be thrown in with a club. If he bared his spade king, declarer would have the ninth trick in that suit, and if he discarded a top club, ace and another spade would endplay him to concede the ninth trick in clubs. Very nicely (and bravely) done.

This deal involves a nice point of technique. When it came up in a French pairs event, the best play was not always found. The reporter of the deal was one of the unlucky Easts, as the declarer at his table knew what he was doing. Still, at least he had the consolation of a good story!

Our reporter’s partner led the club king, and after winning with the ace perforce, declarer drew trump. You can see what happens (as it did at several tables) if declarer goes all out for the overtrick and hopes that the spade jack will fall in three rounds. It does not fall, and South ends up by losing two diamond tricks when that suit also fails to behave.

Instead, judging that he was in a good contract, and one that would not be reached by the majority of the field, South looked for the safest line for 12 tricks and decided not to worry unduly about the overtrick.

At trick five South advanced the spade nine and covered with dummy’s 10. If East had taken this, declarer could have claimed 12 tricks immediately. However, after some reflection East avoided that trap and ducked. It did not help: next came a diamond finesse, losing to the queen.

The club return was ruffed and the spade queen overtaken in dummy to allow a diamond to be discarded on the third top spade. When the spade jack did not fall, the lead was on the table for a second, and successful, diamond finesse.