Today’s deal from a team game saw one South bring home his game, and expect some congratulations from his teammates. He was rather disappointed with the follow-up.

He had declared four hearts after an uninformative auction, and won the diamond lead in hand to take the heart finesse. He won the diamond return to draw the last trump then lead a spade to the queen and ace. The defenders exited passively with a second spade, and forced South to ruff the third spade. Now declarer had a guess for the club queen. South led the club jack from hand and when West followed low impassively he went up with the ace and successfully led to his club 10.

When declarer came back to score up the board he had hopes for a swing, but the board was flat. When he asked his teammates how declarer had guessed the club queen, the response was “He didn’t”. Can you see what his teammate was getting at?

After winning the second diamond, South crossed to hand with a third trump, cashed the diamond winner to pitch a spade, then exited in spades. The defenders could take their two spade winners but then had to lead clubs for declarer and solve his guess for him.

This approach of eliminating the side-suits and forcing the opponents to lead the danger suit or give a ruff-sluff is sometimes referred to as an elimination play, and is an important technique to acquire.

Though the point of today’s deal may not appear to be a complex one, a remarkable number of declarers missed the point of this hand from a club duplicate. After two passes East had opened the bidding with one club. Now South’s hand might qualify for an intermediate jump overcall, or a heavy one-level overcall. I’m not a fan of doubling then bidding hearts, but whatever route you chose, the likely final contract was four hearts.

Those declarers who escaped a club lead had no problems, but the play was more challenging when West started with the queen and another club. East won the second club and led another, which declarer was forced to ruff high.

Although it was a good idea to draw trumps now, it turned out to be dangerous to lead low towards dummy’s heart 10. You can see what would happen – East would win with his ace and lead a fourth round of clubs. This would promote his partner’s nine of trumps into the setting trick.

The more thoughtful declarers took the precaution of crossing to dummy by leading a low diamond to the queen before tackling trumps by leading the three from dummy. Now East’s ace fell on empty air and then there was no further problem in drawing the rest of the trumps. Dummy’s heart 10 was still in place to protect against a fourth round of clubs. This is an unusual safety play, one that, as we can see, could easily have been overlooked in the heat of the moment.

For today’s rather subtle deal put yourself in the East seat. After reading through the full analysis of the deal, you may feel like the problem is one that you might have expected to solve. First of all, though, let’s see what actually happened at the table.

West led the spade 10 against three no-trump. Declarer played low from dummy and East won his king and exited in spades. Declarer won the ace in dummy and advanced the club king. After some thought, East allowed the king to hold, then won the second club and got off play with a heart. Declarer won this in hand and drove out the club queen, and claimed 10 tricks.

After winning the spade king East could and maybe should have defeated the game by shifting to the diamond jack, giving up his ‘natural’ tricks in diamonds in exchange for establishing the third and fourth round of the suit.

Declarer might still be able to overcome this by cashing all his heart and spade winners, then leading ace and another diamond. East would be in, and forced to lead away from the club ace at trick 12. But if declarer follows the more logical approach of taking an early club finesse, then East will set up five winners for the defense before declarer comes to nine tricks.

And finally, declarer might consider rising with the spade ace at trick one to play on clubs and gain a critical tempo. But this could have been fatal on a different day.

Today’s deal comes from the match between Indonesia and Australia in the 1980 Olympiad and Dick Cummings was the hero.

In the closed room Indonesia had stopped in partscore but Dick promoted himself to the heart game. After a top diamond lead Cummings ruffed and made the practical play of the heart ace from hand.

He continued with the heart jack, and East won his heart queen and avoided shortening declarer’s trumps by playing a second diamond. Instead he led a spade to the jack and ace. Cummings therefore shortened his trumps himself by ruffing a diamond, then cashed the king and queen of spades.

Instead of taking the club finesse, Cummings realized that he needed nothing more than that East should have one club. He therefore carefully led a club to the ace and tried the spade 10. If East ruffed this high or low it would be suicidal, so he discarded a club, as did declarer. Cummings now ruffed dummy’s last diamond, and at this point exited from hand with his last club. South’s last two cards were the heart 9-7, securely poised over the king-eight, and that guaranteed him one more trick.

As you can see, if East had held the doubleton club king, taking the club finesse would have allowed the defense to prevail in the six-card ending by winning the king and returning the suit; now the timing is all wrong for the trump coup.

This hand epitomizes the strategy identified by Rixi Markus; “Bid boldly, play safe”.

Today’s deal came up in a Grand National Qualifier, and was submitted anonymously by one of the defenders, who didn’t want to embarrass the unlucky declarer.

In one room North-South had stayed out of slam. They took 11 tricks on an unexciting line by simply cashing off the top spades, a couple of diamonds, all the hearts and then playing a third trump. West got off play with the fourth heart, and the defenders collected a club at the end.

In the other room, North-South reached slam on the auction shown. After a diamond lead the correct approach for declarer is to win the ace and take both top trumps to find the bad news. Now a heart to dummy for a diamond ruff allows declarer to cash two more top hearts, then ruff another diamond.

If West overruffs he will have to lead a club away from the king, so he discards, and he must pitch a club not the 13th heart. Declarer now takes the club finesse and ruffs dummy’s fourth diamond, forcing West to make a second and fatal play.

He has three choices: He can overruff and be endplayed to lead clubs or give a ruff-sluff. He can pitch a heart, and then be endplayed with a trump to lead clubs; or he can pitch clubs and bare his club king, letting declarer cash two club winners. This last option is best, though, as declarer might misread the ending by playing West for an original 3=3=2=5 pattern.

Today’s four spade contract may appear to hinge on the heart finesse. But while the heart finesse is necessary, be warned that it is not sufficient.

At the table the defenders cashed their three top clubs, then shifted to diamonds. Declarer won the diamond ace, led a spade to the queen, then drew trump ending in hand and advanced the heart queen. West covered, and declarer tried to cash out the hearts. When they failed to break, he could not avoid losing trick 13, no matter which hand he finished up in.

Once West turns up with trump length, it is rather more likely that he has short than long hearts, including the king. The right line is to lead a heart to the jack at trick five, then lead out the spade queen. Next, overtake the trump jack with the king. When West turns up with spade length, lead to the heart jack and draw the last trump, then rely on hearts breaking 3-3. As it is, though, the sight of the heart king on the second round of the suit allows you to cross to the spade ace, unblock the heart queen, and go to dummy’s trump 10 to cash the heart ace.

Had West turned up with short trumps, you might well have led out the heart queen on the second round of the suit, subsequently playing East for a doubleton eight or nine of hearts, rather than trying for the 3-3 heart break.

When a contract seems to depend on a reasonable break in a long suit, you should always consider what other chances you might have if the key suit doesn’t behave.

In today’s deal South was constrained to open one diamond. Thereafter he tried to apply the brakes, but North had the bit between his teeth, and would not let his partner out below six notrump, against which West led the spade king. The contract was certainly reasonable, but South didn’t give it his best shot.

After winning the spade in hand, South returned the spade jack and threw a diamond from dummy. West led a third spade and this time dummy discarded a heart. Declarer next tried the king and another club, but when West showed out he was in deep trouble, since he had discarded potential winners from dummy. He ended up a trick short.

Try the effect of leading your low club to the ace at trick two. The next club lead exposes the position and now, when South leads the spade jack from hand, he knows to discard a club from dummy. With the heart finesse right, there are all sorts of additional chances for the 12th trick, either from the diamond breaking, as they do here, or from a squeeze on either opponent, since there are threats in all four suits.

Furthermore, if the clubs had proved to be 3-2, declarer could still have set up his 12th trick from the spades, with no need to rely on either red suit.

Today’s deal from a recent Cavendish pairs emphasizes that bridge can sometimes resemble one of those Russian dolls where you keep peeling off the layers to find something interesting and unexpected below.

Let’s look at a simple story first. Against three no-trump as West, Ton Bakkeren took two top spades, then shifted to the club two when his partner pitched a discouraging heart. Declarer took Huub Bertens’ nine with the ace but eventually had to play another spade, and ended up with only seven tricks when the club finesse lost.

This turned out to be a major swing for East-West, the eventual tournament winners, even though many Wests found the right defense of shifting to a club — but that was far from the end of the story.

As East, how should you defend if your partner shifts to a low club, and declarer plays low from dummy, then ducks your club nine? Since partner is marked with the three top spades, you know declarer has the club ace. Might you not be tempted to go passive and exit with a heart? That was the way Steve Landen played as declarer. When the defense duly shifted to hearts, he knocked out the spade queen and claimed nine tricks.

But that is still not the whole story. Say that as West you know declarer has four diamonds and four spades. If you are going to play a club, why not shift to the club jack at trick three? That was the defense Bob Hamman found, and now declarer had no chance.

In today’s deal the question marks in the diagrammed hand represent the queen and ace of hearts. It will be your task to identify the correct play in the trump suit when declaring four hearts.

You reach the heart game after East has opened one club, and has competed to three clubs. The defenders lead and continue clubs; you ruff the second one, West showing a doubleton. Now a spade to the king and a trump to East’s three and your….?

Here if East had the doubleton heart ace he should have risen with the ace and played a third club for the trump promotion. Unless you have a good reason to assume to the contrary, you should probably believe that your opponents would be good enough to find this defense. Presumably the best reason for their not following this line of defense was because East did not have the heart ace in the first place. So play a trump to the jack – a play that also caters for most of the 3-1 breaks too.

Of course your approach may vary depending on which of the opponents is threatening the overruff. You can imagine that on a different day it might be the case that if West gets on lead with the heart ace he could lead a suit to allow East to overruff dummy. In that scenario you might well lead a trump to the king, since playing a trump to the jack and ace would still lead to defeat for you.