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.

This deal comes from the Junior Europeans a few years ago and demonstrates that it is often dangerous to make predictions about anything at this game. For example: just how solid is a solid suit?

In the more sedate room in the match between Israel and Austria the Israeli South declared three no-trump on a heart lead. He finished up with only the six tricks he had started life with — three hearts and three club tricks, no more. He tried to force an entry to hand but the defenders did not continue playing on hearts and cashed out their diamonds and spades.

Far and away declarer’s best shot on the deal was to do what Andreas Gloyer of Austria did, after concealing his clubs in the auction. He ducked the opening heart lead! Then he could win the second heart, lead a club to dummy and a spade to the jack. If he could persuade the defenders to win and continue hearts, as they trustingly did, he could cash his two remaining heart winners to pitch the two blocking clubs from dummy. Now he could come to nine tricks from the hearts and clubs – so long as the club 10 dropped in two rounds.

But note that the effect of this card not falling in two rounds was, as Gloyer discovered, that when a defender cashed the club 10, it squeezed the dummy in spades and diamonds for down four! How embarrassing for this to happen in a suit where you held nine cards and the top four winners!

Whenever you take a long while to play a hand you have to work out whether it is your side or the opponents who are likely to gain most from the time you take.

Today’s deal features an example of a hand where declarer might do well not to give the defenders more time to think than is absolutely necessary.

East-West were playing the weak no-trump, and East was so relieved that he was not going to have to play in two hearts doubled (his sequence of bids having shown both majors), that he was sitting back and not paying a great deal of attention as declarer made his plan at trick one.

Eventually it dawned on East that dummy was a bit stronger than might have been expected. Since West presumably had at least 11 points, East had three and dummy had 20, that left only six for declarer. That wasn’t really enough for a call of two no-trumps.

The most likely explanation was that South had a good source of tricks and the only place they could be was in diamonds. Consequently when declarer won the spade lead and played a diamond from the dummy, East worked out to play the queen, killing the diamond suit and guaranteeing the defeat of the contract.

There was now no way South could come to more than three spades, two hearts, one diamond and two clubs. If East ducks the first diamond, then even if West withholds his king, declarer can utilize the clubs to come to nine tricks.

This table produced a swing in a regional team game. I was dummy at the second table, admiring my partner’s line of play.

At both tables North-South competed to three spades on the lead of the club jack. Where my teammates were defending, declarer ducked the club jack lead but East overtook with the club queen to shift to a diamond. Declarer played low and West won the diamond jack then played the club three. East again won cheaply and shifted back to diamonds, leaving declarer with five losers — two in each minor and the ace of trumps.

In the other room East pardonably failed to overtake the club queen at trick one, which had the effect of giving declarer a lifeline. East won the second club and shifted to a revealing diamond nine, on which South played low. Now West won the diamond jack and exited with a trump to East’s ace. Declarer won the next diamond with the ace and ran his trumps, discarding diamonds and a small heart from dummy. In the process of playing off his spades he squeezed West in the red suits so that when declarer led a heart toward dummy he knew to play off the top hearts, confident that the queen would appear from one defender or the other.

This position is known as a show-up squeeze. West is reduced to two hearts and his master diamond, and East only began life with two hearts, so no one can keep the queen guarded.