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.

Today’s hand, from the final of the Mixed Teams at the 2011 Open European Championships, sees a difference in evaluation.

At the first table South opened a strong no-trump and North passed. Admittedly it was not the best eight-count you have ever seen, but this being teams, where a vulnerable game has high significance, trying for game was hardly unreasonable.

In the other room Sylvie Willard reached game on the auction shown, against which West led a spade. (Had West attacked in diamonds, the game would have failed.)

Willard won in dummy, came to hand with the club ace, and lost no time in pitching two of dummy’s diamonds on her master spades. Then came a diamond to the king and ace. East returned the heart five, looking to cut down on ruffs, and Willard won with the ace and played a club, East winning. South rose with the king on the heart five return, then set about the crossruff. The defenders could only come to the jack of trumps, and that was plus 620 to the eventual winners of the event.

Even after the spade lead, there was still a defense. When in with the club king, East must return a diamond rather than a trump. This is ruffed in dummy, but now, when a club is played, East ruffs in. If South overruffs, the next diamond can be trumped by West’s queen – with the jack still to come for the defense. And if South discards, East plays a diamond. Now West’s queen scores the setting trick.

The rule of 11 is a subject we all know about in theory but sometimes fail to apply in practice. Let’s see how a hand where the players at the table failed to make the most of their opportunities.

When this board came up at the Dyspeptics Club, West led the heart six against three no-trump, and declarer had no choice but to win the ace, as East followed low, He crossed to hand in diamonds and ran the club queen. East won his king and jack of hearts, then looked around for inspiration, but found none. Declarer claimed his nine tricks a moment later, and East went on the attack, asking West why he had not overtaken the heart jack. Declarer showed him his heart 10 and commented that he would have taken 10 tricks had the defense gone that way.

Then, to twist the knife, he commented sympathetically that it had been a hard defense to get right. Just as he hoped, East asked him sharply what he meant, and South told him that he needed to unblock the heart jack under the ace. The rule of 11 tells East that there are five cards higher than the six in the three hands other than the leader, and East can see three of them. If declarer has the queen or the 10-9, East’s defense doesn’t matter; if West has the Q-10 all defenses work. But if, as happened today, West has the Q-9, the unblock is essential, to allow East to lead through declarer’s remaining 10-8 on the third round.

There is a school of thought that says that one should lead singletons against suit contracts whenever one has the option to do so. I do not buy into that (although given my success on opening lead you could argue that any strategy I follow other than my own would be an improvement).

Today’s deal was an indication of how even when you do get a ruff, there may be a better strategy than leading the singleton. In one room West led his singleton diamond and received his ruff, East returning his middle diamond in an attempt to show no strong preference for clubs or hearts. West cashed his club ace and exited with a heart. Declarer won in hand and guessed well when he laid down his spade ace, and had no further problems with taking the rest and making his game.

In the other room West looked at his likely trump trick and decided that an attacking lead was more appropriate. Despite the fact that his partner had not raised hearts, West led the heart jack to the first trick, and found the perfect layout to justify his optimism. Declarer ducked the lead, won the second heart and crossed to dummy with a heart ruff to take the spade finesse. Now West cashed his club ace and shifted to a diamond, to take his ruff for two down.

For the record, a trump lead when holding ace-doubleton of spades or king-third would have been far more attractive.