Neither North nor South held back on this deal. North’s five diamond call was a cuebid in support of spades, and a further exchange of cuebids saw North at his next turn guarantee first round heart control when he bid six diamonds, since he was looking for a grand slam when South had denied the heart ace. Now South decided the grand slam was unlikely to be worse than a diamond finesse.

West led the heart five against seven spades, and declarer saw that there was no rush to take the diamond finesse. After winning the heart lead in hand, then entering dummy with a top trump, declarer ruffed a club in hand. Now he repeated the process, then cashed the remaining hearts and ran all but one of his trumps. When East turned up with only two cards in the majors, the prospects of a diamond finesse succeeding were poor, but look what happened to East when declarer discarded dummy’s small diamonds on the trumps.

In the four-card ending South had reduced to one trump and three diamonds, while dummy had two clubs and the diamond ace-king. That left East struggling for a discard from his three diamonds to the queen and the club ace-queen. If he threw a club, dummy’s ten could be established with a ruff; when he parted with a diamond, declarer cashed both of dummy’s diamonds. Now South’s diamond jack became a winner, while he still had a trump in hand to reach it.

John Armstrong’s death some six years ago robbed England of one of its finest players. He was in action on today’s hand demonstrating some neat inferential card reading.

The bidding in both rooms to three no-trump saw the lead was the lead of the club two, to the three, jack and king. The first declarer set up his clubs by conceding a trick to West’s 10.That player’s low heart switch went to the ace, and when South played low on the heart return, the defenders could set up hearts and cash the 13th heart when East got in with the spade ace.

In our second room Armstrong drew the right inference from the lead as to West’s distribution. Given that most defenders would prefer to lead a major when Stayman has not been employed, the lead from a broken four-card suit suggested that West might have no second four-card suit. Instead of continuing with clubs and setting up a winner there for the opponents, Armstrong played on diamonds at trick two.

West won the second diamond and shifted to the heart two. East took the ace and returned the three, but since West’s low heart two suggested that West might hold a heart honor, declarer rose with the king, blocking the hearts.

Next he dislodged the spade ace, and although East could play a heart to West’s queen, nothing could now stop declarer from regaining the lead. At that point he could take three clubs, three diamonds, two spades and one heart for his contract.

The European open championships in San Remo saw a couple of British teams collect medals. Today’s deal comes from the de Botton team’s successful quarterfinal encounter against a strong Dutch squad.

The Dutch North-South had failed to reach slam here, but in the other room Artur Malinowski and Janet de Botton played six spades on the auction shown.

Janet de Botton found a successful line of play. She won the diamond ace, cashed dummy’s heart ace and played a heart back towards her king. It would not have done East any good to ruff thin air, so he threw a club, and declarer won her king and exited with a heart. When West won and continued the suit, declarer ruffed high in the dummy, then cashed the spade king and ran the spade 10, finessing East for the jack. When the spade 10 held, she crossed to hand with a club, drew the last trump, and claimed the remainder.

An alternative, and perhaps safer, approach would have been a dummy reversal. Declarer wins the opening lead, cashes the diamond ace and ruffs a diamond, plays a spade to the ace and ruffs a diamond. Then he cashes the spade queen, and plays a club to dummy. Now he ruffs a diamond, leads another club to dummy, and draws the last trump, pitching a heart from hand. He can cash one further heart and club winner, simply conceding a heart at the end.

Fred Gitelman is the chief executive of Bridge Base Online, by far the best way to play bridge online. It offers the opportunity to play or learn bridge and there are several invaluable teaching tools available. Plus you get the chance to watch the top players in the world, live on Vugraph.

He showed me a nice point of technique on the following deal. You might consider it routine but as the score indicated, good technique paid dividends. As South he declared four spades, and with the club finesse succeeding, the play was all about overtricks. On a diamond lead, he had to ruff a diamond in dummy. Now he led the spade four from dummy and when East played low, he went up with the queen.

Lucky or well judged? If spades are 2-2, his play is immaterial but if spades are 3-1, the only singleton he can pick up is the jack – since if West has a singleton ace or king you have three losers whatever you do. Because you cannot influence the majority of distributions, you should play to influence the ones over which you do have control.

Of course if you had an extra trump in dummy (let’s say you had the diamond queen instead of the jack) you can use your two entries to dummy to lead to the spade nine and 10. But as the cards lie this is not possible since you had to burn one of dummy’s trumps to ruff the losing diamond from the South hand.

As declarer there are worse things that could happen to suffering a ruff. Consider today’s deal, which came up in a Swiss Teams match, both declarers reached the contract of four spades. One declarer won the diamond lead and led a low club from hand to West’s nine and dummy’s king. East worked out to hold off, and declarer was now worried enough by the threat of a club ruff to draw all the trump.

Then he led a club to the 10, but East held off again, and now he was left with a club and three red suit losers, since there was no entry to the board.

In the other room the lead was the same. The diamond king went to the ace, and now came a club to the king, ducked again. Next came the spade ace, and a spade to the jack.

But the second declarer judged correctly when he reverted to clubs. West could receive a club ruff, and cash his long diamond, but declarer could win the heart ace and cross to dummy with the spade queen to take dummy’s two club winners, on which he could discard both his heart losers.

This deal reinforces the importance of giving count as a defender when you think your partner needs to know how many cards you have in a suit. Be aware that sometimes count helps declarer more than your partner; deciding which situation you are in is not that easy a task.

In today’s deal West opened two hearts at one table, showing a weak hand with hearts and a minor. North, quite reasonably, chose to overcall three diamonds. East jumped to four hearts and when South passed it out, rather than doubling, that ended the auction. Worse, when North ducked his spade ace, West stole his game.

At the other table, on the auction shown, the defense to four spades did not tax declarer. West led the heart ace and switched to a club. East won the ace and returned a club, and declarer could lose a trick to the spade king before drawing trump and claiming the rest.

It is more difficult if the defenders play on hearts instead. Declarer has only one winning move now, which is to play a low spade from the dummy. Best is for East to duck this, and now declarer must play for the bad trump break and abandon trumps.

It is not good enough simply to try to run diamonds; (if he does, East ruffs and declarer overruffs, crosses to dummy with the trump ace and runs the diamonds, on which East discards all his losers. In the three-card ending dummy must play a black card, whereupon East’s hand will be high.)

Instead, declarer must overtake the diamond king with dummy’s ace and play a club, setting up the trick he needs while he is still in control. He can ruff the next heart in hand and revert to diamonds, after which East can score only his trump trick.

Cardinal Morton was Chancellor and tax-gatherer for King Henry VII. His argument was that if the merchant had an ostentatious lifestyle, he could well afford to contribute generously. However, if he lived frugally, then he must have salted his money away, so the same would apply.

North-South were playing oldfashioned strong jump shifts, and when North showed a very strong balanced hand South found a unsophisticated jump to slam. The contract was far from comfortable (there are only nine top tricks, after all) but South found a way home.

West’s passive spade lead was won in dummy. South played a diamond to hand, then neatly impaled West on the prongs of Morton’s Fork by leading the club seven.

Let us see what happens if West takes the king. On a heart return, South needs to take care. He wins the ace, unblock clubs, crosses to dummy’s second heart winner and then takes the club queen. If the jack does not fall, he crosses back to hand in diamonds, tests hearts, and finally will try to run spades if neither hearts nor clubs have behaved. Today, by virtue of the jacks descending in the rounded suits, declarer comes to three spades, four hearts, two diamonds and three clubs without needing spades to behave.

If West withholds the club king at trick two, declarer puts up the queen and can then set up a fourth trick in spades, eventually taking four tricks in each major and two in each minor.

In today’s deal from a team game you arrive in three notrump, against which West leads the spade seven, East playing the jack. How should you play the contract?

Unless the club ace is doubleton (or singleton), you will score only two club tricks. The defenders will hold up the club ace until the third round, to cut you off from the dummy. You should begin by playing the club queen, overtaking with dummy’s king when West plays the five. As you expected, the defenders will hold up their club ace. What next?

If the club ace is now bare, you can succeed simply by playing another round of clubs. This is somewhat against the odds, (because the four and five have appeared on the first round of the suit – which indicates someone has played a singleton and someone has three clubs) but you do have a better play available.

That chance is to take the heart finesse, which is around a 50-50 shot. At trick three you play a heart to the queen and the finesse wins. You can then continue with a second club to dummy’s eight, ducked again by East to kill that suit. However, since you are in dummy again, you can repeat the heart finesse. Hearts do not break 3-3 but you have nine tricks anyway — two spades, three hearts and two tricks in each of the minor suits.

Nicely done – but let’s hope that the North-South pair of the other team didn’t bid six clubs!

In today’s deal South received a spade raise and then a somewhat optimistic jump to game facing his three-heart call, which was initially just a game try. I have no problem with North’s raise to two spades, but I would not accept the game-try here.

North’s third call persuaded South to take a shot at slam when Blackwood revealed that his side was not missing any keycards. Indeed, slam turned out to be quite playable.

West had a natural lead of the diamond jack; cover up the East and West hands to give yourself a realistic problem, and see if you can do better than the player at the table.

What South actually did was to win the diamond king and draw two rounds of trump, then take a heart ruff in dummy. But now he was locked on the board, and when he tried to cash dummy’s diamonds, the 6-2 break in diamonds was fatal, since East ruffed in, leaving declarer with two spade losers.

The key to the deal is that because of the issue with communications on the hand, you must win the opening lead in dummy. Cash the spade queen then the heart ace-king and ruff a heart low. Now you cash the spade jack, and use the diamond king as your re-entry to hand. Then you can draw trump, and use the club ace as an entry to dummy to throw one of your club losers on the good diamond in dummy.