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.

As South you have become declarer in six hearts on the lead of the club queen. Your three notrump call was conventional, indicating suitability for slam, but no extra values. (With a dead minimum you would sign off in four hearts, with extras you would cuebid yourself). This gadget is known as ‘non-serious three notrump’. For more information check here.

How do you play your slam on the lead of the club queen? The only danger will come if your RHO holds all four trumps, so you must start by playing a low trump towards the dummy, if West follows suit you could insert the jack, but it looks equally good to go up with the king, and if East discards you can come back to hand and lead up to the heart jack. Barring a highly unlikely ruff, you are home.

However if West shows out on the first heart, go up with the king, ruff a club, cash your three top spades, then play a diamond to the jack, ruff a club, and take the diamond king before playing a diamond to the ace. When you lead dummy’s last club, East is down to just three trumps and must ruff in. You underruff, and run East’s forced trump continuation round to dummy’s jack to land your slam.

For this line to succeed you need East in addition to his four hearts to hold three cards in each of the other suits, or precisely a 3=4=4=2 pattern.

Today’s deal sees two declarers working hard to find a clue; but one worked harder than the other, and was suitably rewarded.

Both tables reached the notrump slam, against which West led the club queen. The first declarer took the club lead and cashed the spade ace and king. He saw only small cards from West, but the two and 10 from East. Since West appeared to be long in both spades and clubs, he played him for short diamonds and led to the diamond ace. Unlucky!

At the second table declarer won the club lead in dummy and continued with a spade to the ace, followed by the spade four towards dummy’s jack. East won his queen and returned a club to South’s king. The top three hearts came next and when both East and West followed throughout, South took his remaining top spade and saw West discard. Now South thought the balance of probability was that if anyone had a diamond void it would be East. Otherwise West would have begun life with a relatively rare initial distribution pattern of 11 cards in hearts and clubs. So he broached diamonds by leading the diamond king, and could now finesse West for the queen with certainty. Slam made.

Note that had the spade queen sat doubleton in either hand, declarer could have afforded to misguess in diamonds; but the trade-off of a possible overtrick to improve the chances of making the contract seemed like an excellent bargain.

In today’s deal declarer produces an endplay almost from nowhere in four spades.

After the lead of the diamond jack, South is threatened with four losers in hearts and clubs. He wins the diamond ace, takes the king and ruffs a diamond high. After cashing the spade ace and crossing to dummy’s spade queen, he leads the diamond seven. When East follows suit, declarer ruffs, then plays two more rounds of trumps, reducing everyone to five cards.

West is known to have begun with 2=5=3=3 or 2=6=3=2 shape (assuming that he would bid again with seven or eight hearts). The odds favor the former pattern, so declarer plays for that distribution. On the last trump West has to come down to ace-doubleton in either hearts or clubs. It looks normal to throw a heart, since if he pitches a club South can lead a low club to the queen, then duck one on the way back. Suppose West sees the endplay coming, and reduces to A-9 of hearts and A-8-4 of clubs.

Now South can find the neat play of a low heart from his hand, to put East on lead; a club back (best) is ducked to dummy’s queen. Then a second heart to the king and ace endplays West to lead away from the club ace at trick 12.

Incidentally, if it had been East who had discarded on the fourth diamond, declarer would simply have thrown a club, forcing West to win and lead away from one of his aces, to give South his 10th trick.

During the 1960s the Italian Blue Team seemed invincible. Today’s deal comes from the final of a Bermuda Bowl, and as usual in those days, their opponents were the Americans, and it was Giorgio Belladonna who stole the limelight.

Belladonna sensibly treated his hand as worth a drive to game, and since he thought he knew what he wanted trump to be, he rebid four hearts at his second turn. West led the club king, and declarer won in hand, perforce. There were nine obvious tricks and a number of possibilities for the 10th. He started by leading a low diamond and ducking in dummy – good technique, keeping control in the suit with the chance of taking a diamond ruff on the table. East scotched this possibility by playing ace and another trump.

Reduced now to trying another tack, South won the second trump, drew the last trump, and ducked a spade all round – perhaps the suit would break 3-3? It did not, but there was now a new danger for the defenders. Two top spades and a spade ruff would establish the spade eight as a winner.

To counter this, East was compelled to lead a diamond to drive out dummy’s side entry. A good try, but unfortunately not good enough for the defense, as East was now in control of both of the pointed suits. Belladonna now played off his remaining trumps and, at the end, East had to unguard either the diamond or the spades. Whichever suit he discarded would set up winners for declarer.

The reasons for ducking a trick are many and various. Let’s see a deal from the finals of a pair game at a recent US Summer Nationals. It was misplayed by almost every declarer who encountered it. Can you do better – you may care to consider it as a single-dummy problem by covering up the East and West cards.

Having been pushed to three spades, how should you play this contract on the lead of the club queen? Let us assume from East’s take-out double that the most likely lie of the defenders’ cards involves a 4-1 trump break, onside. If so, you have eight easy tricks but no comfortable route to reduce your trumps, a necessary move to achieve the trump coup to allow you to score that extra trump trick in dummy.

The right line (which combines deception and technique) is to duck the first club smoothly. There is no way the defenders will be able to work out what is going on in this suit – is there? Win the expected club continuation, and play a third club to pitch a diamond from dummy. Now lead a spade to the 10 for the immediate finesse, then play a diamond to the ace and take a diamond ruff. After a spade to the ace, as East discards, dummy is down to three trumps. You can now ruff a diamond and exit with a heart. The defenders can cash three rounds of that suit, but must then lead a plain card, and allow the spade K-J to take the last two tricks.