I am always happy to receive deals from my readers (you can email them to me or leave a comment below). Today’s deal features Marty Hirschman and Lynne Schaeffer. In an ACBL pairs game online, after a somewhat optimistic sequence Hirschman came to rest in seven hearts. (Did that six diamond call show or ask for a second round diamond control?)

Hirschman won the spade lead with the ace, drew trump, then cashed two more spade winners. Because East had short hearts, Hirschman decided to lead a club to the 10. So far so good!

Then he cashed the club king, the diamond ace, and took his last two trump winners. In the two-card ending he had reduced down to the diamond queen and a club, with the club ace-jack on the bard. West’s cards were irrelevant, but East could not hold both the diamond king and two clubs. He discarded his diamond king in the hope that his partner had the queen, so Hirschman could take the diamond queen and club ace on the last two tricks.

As an aside: without the diamond queen, how should you play? After drawing trump you should take the club king and then lead up to the club ace-jack. This way you pick up half the 3-3 club breaks (in that case it would be a straight guess as to who has the queen) plus whenever West has the doubleton or singleton club queen. The point is that you cannot make the hand if East has the queen and real club length.

When today’s deal came up in a local duplicate I led a spade to the first trick against three notrump. My opponent put in the jack and captured the queen with the king. Then he led a club to the king and ace. My partner won the trick and returned a spade. Declarer ducked the second spade, so I cleared the suit, but declarer ran his clubs and diamonds, and I claimed the last two tricks with the heart ace and a spade winner. Declarer claimed that he was a little unlucky not to make overtricks, with the heart ace offside and the spade queen poorly placed, and I had to bite my tongue to refrain commenting further. Who do you think earned my displeasure on the deal?

It was hard, though perhaps not impossible for my partner to have ducked the first club. Then, even if he ducks the second club as well, declarer will surely finish with no more than eight tricks, because he has no entry to his hand any more.

And that brings me to my second point of the deal. At trick one declarer had nine top winners: two spades, four diamonds and three clubs. But he has only one sure entry to the clubs, in the form of the spade king. To protect that entry, South must rise with the spade ace at trick one and play the club king from dummy at once. This way nothing will stop him taking at least nine tricks.

In today’s deal put yourself in East’s shoes. West leads the spade king; over to you.

If you were parsimonious you could give partner an “encouraging” spade five, and then blame him afterwards for not reading this as a high spade! If he misreads the position, and cashes a second top spade, the defense is over. West may guess well to exit with a trump, but declarer simply ruffs out the diamonds to establish two discards for his losing clubs and makes 10 tricks.

A helpful partner would make West’s life far easier by following with the spade queen at the first trick, promising the spade jack. The general rule about dropping an honor in these positions is that it is either shortage or a sequence solid from that card down.

That will allow partner to underlead in spades on the second round, so that you can shift to a club through declarer’s club acequeen. That lets you develop four tricks before declarer sets up the diamonds for a club discard. You had better get the defense right to this one, since four spades your way only goes one down!

Perhaps West might have bid on — his hand looks more suitable for offence than defense, and the only reason that the four spade contract goes down is your combined weak club spots. If East’s clubs were just a little better West might have made 10 tricks in spades – and four hearts might still be allowed to sneak home, if you don’t time the defense right.

Some rules are made to be broken – not on every deal, of course, but when the situation demands it. One of those rules is not to ruff your partner’s winner, but as we shall see, it may be the only route to success.

In today’s deal West’s jump to three hearts was preemptive rather than a limit raise. With the stronger hand he would have cuebid rather than jumped in his partner’s suit. East was happy to defend four spades, and in any event he judged correctly that a five-level sacrifice would be too costly.

The heart queen was overtaken by the ace for a shift to the diamond queen. Declarer preserved his entry to dummy by winning the ace and playing on clubs. East saw his partner’s club six, suggesting an even number, so ducked the first club to try to cut declarer’s communications. He won the second club to play the diamond 10 and set up a winner for his side.

Declarer won dummy’s diamond king and tried to cash a club, on which to discard his diamond loser. East ruffed low, forcing South to overruff, and now declarer needed to renter dummy to access the clubs without giving up the lead. The only practical way to achieve his target was to ruff his heart winner in dummy.

Now he led a fourth club, to neutralize East’s trump ace. That player could ruff in with his remaining trump, but South was able to discard his diamond loser and could claim the balance.

The journalist who analyzed today’s deal remarked that his side had taken a cruel beating in the second round of the Spingold Knockout Teams from Las Vegas last summer. This deal, however, was a near miss that felt especially painful.

Put yourself in declarer’s shoes. After a friendly diamond lead – the 10 holding in dummy – you play a club to the jack and king. The spade nine goes to the jack and ace. You now lead a second club: 8, 9, 10, low. So where are the missing high cards?

At the table declarer correctly decided that his RHO had the club ace, and since his LHO had bid with only the diamond queen and the club king, he must have the heart king. So he ran the heart queen, which was allowed to hold the trick.

A diamond to the ace then the heart ace and another heart now endplayed the defenders. At that point the defenders had two tricks in, and when West played a spade, declarer should have ducked in dummy.

Now if East takes his spade king, the only other trick the defenders can score is the club ace. If East ducks his spade king, declarer wins, cashes the diamond king then exits with the diamond jack. That forces West to win the diamond queen. He has a diamond winner to cash but then has to provide a stepping stone to the ninth trick in dummy in the form of the heart jack at trick 13.

In today’s deal from the Las Vegas summer nationals last summer North-South bid to three no-trump after an artificial auction, which has been simplified for the purposes of this column. Put yourself in West’s shoes: you lead the spade seven to partner’s ace. Trick two consists of the spade six, jack, queen, and the heart four from dummy. Over to you!

What happened at the table was that West played a low heart, and declarer won in dummy with the heart jack and ran the heart 10. When he didn’t overtake, West ducked. Now when clubs didn’t break, declarer had no legitimate play for nine tricks.

Had declarer overtaken the second heart, there is a defense (though West indicated that at the table he might well not have found it!) West would have had to duck the second heart, and now if declarer plays a third heart to set up his ninth trick, it squeezes dummy in the process.

So let’s revisit the best possible play and defense. After winning the heart jack, declarer cashes one club, overtakes the second heart and plays a third heart, pitching a club. If West has a club to play, the suit will break. If not, he must give declarer a trick from spades or diamonds.

And finally: if West had worked out declarer’s pattern at trick three, could or should he have found the Deschappelles Coup of shifting to the diamond queen? This devastating play creates an entry by force to the East hand, and defeats the game.

In today’s deal from the Summer Nationals at Las Vegas last July, Glenn Milgrim was at the helm in a very tough contract. Many pairs played spades, or got far too high, but Milgrim reached the only playable game when he pulled in a notch at his second turn, sensing the misfit, and knowing his partner did not require the earth for his first call. He won the diamond lead to play a heart to the jack and queen. Milgrim won the diamond return and cleared clubs, to put East on lead again.

When East returned her low heart, Milgrim won the ace and cashed his fifth club, on which East discarded a spade. She was then endplayed with a heart to her king. Though she tried to get off play with a high spade, Milgrim ducked, and East had to concede the rest to dummy. Had East pitched her heart king on the fifth club, Milgrim would have ducked the first spade to her, and again taken the last two tricks.

There was a defense, though, when East was on lead at trick eight. After winning the fourth round of clubs, East must play the spade king instead of exiting with a heart. Declarer must win, or East can exit with her top heart.

After winning the spade ace, declarer leads a low heart from dummy. East plays low, forcing declarer to win and cash the fifth club. East now discards the heart king, and suddenly West’s hand is high!

Consider this deal as a single-dummy problem from the Summer Nationals at Las Vegas last July. Take the South cards, and cover up the East and West cards, to put yourself in declarer’s position.

After a straightforward auction, you play three no-trump on a friendly heart lead round to the jack. You elect to run the club jack, which holds, then play the club ace and repeat the club finesse. Instead of cashing the fourth club (which might squeeze your own hand) you pass the diamond jack. Finally, a finesse loses. West wins the diamond queen and shifts to the spade seven. You cover the seven with the nine and East plays the 10. Should you win or duck – and what is your overall plan?

At the table, South quite sensibly assumed from the shift to the high spade that West had weak spades and therefore that East had the spade K-10-8, with or without the jack.

So declarer ducked, expecting to leave the defender with the spade king on lead. Of course he played low from hand on East’s spade continuation, sticking with his original view of the lie of the cards. Allen Hawkins, sitting West, playing with Bernie Yomtov, won his spade king to clear the spade suit, and suddenly declarer had eight tricks and no more. Declarer could cross to the heart king to cash his club, but West could pitch a heart, then get in with the diamond ace to cash his long spade.

When this deal arose in one of the pairs tournaments at the summer nationals at Las Vegas last summer, the reporter did not specify the names of the guilty party.

As he said, interesting and amusing things happen when you take on Mr. Magoo. To start with, has he made the call he intended to? Has he sorted his hand properly? One never knows. This was a typical problem he posed his opponents.

Sitting South, you seem to have a very good hand in fourth seat considering the bidding, but you trust partner, not the opponents, and bid what you think you can make. On a low diamond lead, you have your first challenge. Surely West would not underlead the diamond ace-king? You play low and East plays the king. Back comes a diamond to the ace and a third diamond establishes West’s jack.

Now you know the full story – you think. You cash the spade king and spade queen, then play a club to your ace and another to dummy’s king. If the clubs are not good, you play the heart king. West does best to duck, so you lead a heart to the queen, and if West ducks again, throw him in with a diamond to his jack to give you a heart trick at the end.

Nine tricks duly materialize, and Mr. Magoo apologizes shamefacedly to his partner for opening his nine-point hand. “Sorry,” he says, “I thought I had three aces, not two!”