This is the last board this week from a past Yeh Bros Cup event. Reaching slam is not so hard; making it is another matter, but here are the lines chosen by a couple of successful declarers.

Bauke Muller of the Netherlands played six spades on the lead of the club four (third from an even number, low from an odd number). He won and drew trump, ending in hand, then took a diamond finesse. When the defenders continued the attack on clubs, West let go the club two – confirming an original four-card suit. Now declarer played three rounds of hearts, ruffing the third, then ruffed a club. In the three-card ending he knew East had begun with precisely three spades, two hearts and four clubs so it was marked to finesse against the diamond 10. Had West tried to conceal the club distribution, the count might have been far harder to confirm.

Paul Hackett of England also played slam here, from the North seat, on a trump lead. He won in hand and went to the club ace to take a losing diamond finesse. Back came a trump (yes, a club makes declarer’s task harder) so Hackett won and played three rounds of hearts ruffing in dummy. Then he played the last trump and took the diamond jack, and led a diamond to the ace. Now the last trump executed a double squeeze: with East guarding diamonds and West guarding hearts, neither player could keep the clubs; so trick 13 was scored by the club eight.

At the Yeh Bros Cup the match between the Sweden and Italy teams produced a splendid example of card-reading plus playing for the best chance to make an unlikely game. Antonio Sementa was the declarer here in an extremely delicate minor-suit game.

Presumably Sementa’s double of the spade-showing one heart showed hearts and a minor. It seems best to play the double and cuebid here as each showing a specific minor along with the unbid major, in this case hearts. Giorgio Duboin drove to game when confident he was facing short spades, and Sementa had to play five diamonds on a spade lead.

He took an uncharacteristically long time to play to trick two, but came to the right conclusion that East’s decision to compete to three spades marked him with extra shape. Since Sementa needed trumps to split, it was right for declarer to play him to hold heart length, because if he had club length Sementa would be left with three fairly sure losers. By contrast, if East had short clubs, the club and heart finesses might both work.

Eventually, declarer led a trump to dummy to run the heart queen. Nystrom won and also took his time before playing ace and another diamond. Declarer won in hand, passed the club jack, covered all round, finessed in hearts, set up the hearts, ruffed a spade back to hand, and finally took the second club finesse for 11 tricks. This was a fine example of placing the cards where they needed to be, to find a route to success.

In this deal from the Yeh Bros Cup, on which North-South declared four hearts, the normal but unsuccessful line was to lead a heart to the jack then play heart ace and another heart, which failed today.

Agustin Madala played four hearts and received a diamond lead to the king, a spade shift to the ace, and a second diamond. He rose with the ace, pitched his diamond on the top spade, finessed the heart jack, then played a club to dummy. Next came a diamond ruff on which East discarded a club, a second top club, and the master spade to pitch his last club. Now came a second diamond ruff as East pitched his last spade.

Declarer could then safely exit with the heart jack, to endplay East in trumps, knowing that if East won and had a spade to lead he would be able to ruff low and not be over-ruffed.

East should have pitched a spade on the third diamond, retaining his losing club. Declarer would have led the fourth diamond from dummy on which a club discard or low ruff by East would be hopeless. But East might have given declarer a losing option by ruffing high.

Declarer has to overruff and then has to read whether to exit with a high or low trump, depending on whether East’s remaining heart honor is bare, or if the nine is falling. I think declarer should play West for the bare nine, assuming that West has not false-carded earlier in trumps.

Today’s deal from the Yeh Bros qualifying saw the meeting of two squads who were on the verge of qualifying, and a missed opportunity for one of them.

In one room Jack Zhao showed the minors as East and bought an exceptionally poor dummy in three clubs doubled. The defenders took pity on him and never played trumps at all, allowing a diamond ruff in dummy. Still, minus 300 was not a great position for East-West with four spades so awkward.

Zejun Zhuang received the lead of the diamond 10 and ducked it to East’s queen. Back came a club and he won in dummy, led a low trump to the queen and ace, and guessed well when he next led a heart to the nine and king. A second club came back, so he won in hand and played a third club, planning to pitch a diamond and cross-ruff.

Alas for declarer, when West could ruff in, declarer was left with an inevitable trump and diamond loser. At trick six, had declarer taken a second heart finesse, by running the eight, covered by West, he would have been much better placed. He next leads out the spade jack then 10, which West must duck or declarer can draw trump and cash the club winner then take a third heart finesse. When both trumps are ducked, declarer changes tack and plays the diamond ace, ruffs a heart to hand and leads the club queen to pitch dummy’s diamond, leaving West with just the master trump.

In the Yeh Bros Cup, this was the last board of a very close semi-final between the two undefeated teams.

Consider what you would expect to happen at a normal table. South will open one club, West will double, and East will happily respond one diamond. West now bids one spade, and there the matter rests; it will all be about overtricks. No need for drama.

Ah, but what if South opens a Precision one diamond ? Now after West’s double what do you do as East? You probably bid one heart now in fear and trembling; try and stop low now with the East-West cards. That was what happened to Joe Grue; he did bid one heart, and ended up in three hearts. Since he could never reach his hand to take a heart finesse the defenders scored their four plain tricks and could lead the 13th club to promote the heart nine.

In our featured room Meckstroth also opened one diamond and Bjorn Fallenius as West also doubled. Eric Rodwell passed as North, and Peter Fredin produced the sort of call that makes him such good reporting material. He passed one diamond doubled, gambling that Meckstroth would never sit for it even with moderate diamond length.

It worked like a charm. Meckstroth escaped from his best contract, and eventually declared two clubs, doubled and down 800. Even on best declarer play in one diamond Meckstroth would surely have gone down 200 – so Fredin’s pass was right in both theory and practice.

Since the Yeh Bros Invitation teams is about to start in Shanghai, this week’s deals all come from past Yeh Bros Cup events. This deal is simply an exercise in percentages. How should you play the diamond suit for one loser in that contract?

Both tables in the match I was watching bid to the diamond slam here, in one case after a strong club and contested auction, in the other on an uncontested sequence. What are the three sensible options here? The first, selected by both Souths, is to run the diamond queen, planning a second finesse if appropriate. This loses when West has both honors – and therefore pays off to an original East holding of: void, either of the two small singletons and the small doubleton. The second line is to cash the ace; this loses when East began with a void or all four cards, or K-J third.

Better than either of these two lines is to run the eight from your hand, planning to finesse against East for the king, should the eight lose to the jack. This line of play loses when East has jack-singleton, or to jack-doubleton (assuming that West ducks stoically from his doubleton king — don’t we all?) and you misguess, but does not lose out to either void. Accordingly this is the best line, and it works today.

If you have a 5-4 as opposed to the 6-3 fit, playing the ace no longer loses to a void in East, but psychologically running the eight is still the best play.

For many years the three major US tournaments, the Vanderbilt, Spingold, and Reisinger were used as qualifying events for the US trials, so the fields effectively consisted only of American players. When the trials opened up to everyone, about 20 years ago, foreign players started to come in greater numbers to the US national tournaments.

As the events got stronger (they are basically the equivalent of world championships now) foreign winners started to emerge. But it took until 2008 for a Polish team to win the Vanderbilt, and their performance was even more impressive when you consider that they played throughout as a team of four.

But, of course, when you play every board, you will not get everything right. Krzysztof Martens showed me this deal to indicate how tiredness can get the better of everybody. Four hearts is not a great spot — especially on a spade lead. Martens took his spade ace and played on diamonds by taking the finesse. East ruffed the third round, so Martens overruffed and played a club to the king, which held the trick. Then a heart towards the king left the defenders no chance.

The defenders could and should have prevailed by winning the club ace and under-leading in spades to allow the lead of the fourth diamond, ruffed with the heart ace. That promotes the heart queen to the setting trick. And declarer could and should have countered that by discarding his spade on the third diamond.

While the world junior championships were being played in Bali in 1995, a tournament to celebrate Indonesia’s 50th anniversary was being run simultaneously. Today’s problem meant the difference between qualifying for the finals or going home, so it turned out to be an expensive slip for South.

South handled his very powerful hand sensibly enough in the auction, but North might have passed three spades, reasoning that the club king was not likely to be pulling its full weight. Indeed, the final contract looks next to impossible, even after the lead of the diamond ace.

However, at trick two, after a lot of thought, West switched to the club ace, then played the heart nine, to East’s queen and declarer’s ace. What next? The line chosen at the table by declarer was to draw four rounds of trump and try the heart 10, but East ducked that and declarer had no chance now. He had to lose one further trick in each red suit.

Can you spot the winning line? It is not so bizarre; West’s auction and opening lead suggest he has seven clubs and the bare diamond ace. You need to win the first heart and play West to be 4-1-1-7. You can test the theory by playing three top trump, and then throwing West in by leading your low trump, to force him to play a club for you. Now you have an entry to dummy to take the diamond finesse, and eventually a second parking place for your losing hearts.

When this deal came up at a club duplicate the field was divided between those recording nine tricks in three no-trump, and those who fared somewhat less well.

The auction almost always took this form, and West was blessed with an easy lead of the heart jack. The unsuccessful declarers led a diamond to one of dummy’s honors. East won the trick and returned a heart, and got in with the club king to play a third heart. Now West had a sure entry in the form of the club ace, plus two hearts to cash.

By contrast, the successful declarers won the opening lead and played the diamond queen from their hand. Some Easts took the trick to return a heart, but declarer could win, then duck a diamond, and come to five tricks in the majors and four diamonds.

The more cautious defenders ducked the diamond queen. Now declarer could change tack, realizing the futility of trying to set up more than one further trick in diamonds. He played on clubs, and East won the first club and played back a heart. But declarer, with one diamond trick in the bag, simply drove out the club ace, and had his five major-suit tricks, three clubs, and one diamond winner, for nine tricks.

You could argue that the defenders who led a low diamond from hand at trick two were unlucky, since against anything but the 4-0 diamond break their play would not cost. I say fortune favors the prepared mind.