In today's deal the slip that declarer made was an elementary one, but the play seemed so straightforward that many players would relax, expecting to have 10 tricks on top, and would not see the significance of their mistake.

Against four spades West decided to go for a forcing defense by leading the heart ace then queen. It looks normal for South to take this with the king and discard a club from hand, assuming that he would simply lose the two minor-suit aces in the fullness of time.

This was what our declarer did, but he paid for his carelessness by going down. He drew two rounds of trump to find the bad news, then advanced the diamond king, and West won the first diamond (if he ducks, declarer reverts to clubs and survives unscathed) and played a third heart to reduce declarer to trump equality with him. Now declarer tried the club king. When East ducked, declarer played a second club and East won and gave his partner a club ruff. Had declarer drawn trump before playing a second club, the defenders could have run the hearts when in with the club ace.

The correct discard at trick two is a diamond. Declarer then draws trumps and continues by playing on clubs. The defenders can take their ace and force declarer again, but he runs his winners and concedes trick 13 to the diamond ace. In retrospect it is hard to imagine why one would take any other approach…and yet, the mistake is hardly an unreasonable one.

Early last year eight pairs took part in the Belgium open team trials for the European Championships in Opatija, Croatia, which took place last July. The top three pairs would qualify through an exhaustive round robin process over a seven day period, and with one day to go, those top three places seemed decided. However, the third-placed pair (Philippe Coenraets and Steven De Donder) were overtaken at the death by Patrick Bocken and Olivier Neve. This was the decisive board in their individual encounter.

After the lead of the diamond king and ace against Neve’s five clubs (East showing an odd number), West switched to the spade queen. Neve took the ace, and realized that East rated to have seven spades and three diamonds; thus he would have to be short in one of hearts or clubs. Since North-South had nine clubs and seven hearts between them, it was far more likely that East’s shortage was in clubs.

So South cashed just one top club, then played the heart ace and queen, and finessed the heart 10 as East helplessly discarded. Now he could take the heart king to discard a spade, and ruff a spade back to hand. Finally he could take the marked trump finesse for an impressive plus 600. Note that if declarer uses his heart entry to take the early finesse in trumps he can never get back to hand to take the heart finesse.

Defense is a partnership effort, and suit preference is a way for the players to cooperate, by suggesting a line of play to your partner.

Here, for example, as West you lead out the heart king and ace, partner playing the eight followed by the club two (discouraging and suggesting a five-card suit if he is signaling count). It is up to you to plan the defense from this point on when giving your partner the ruff.

A diamond play can never really help your side, can it, since declarer is marked from the auction with all the missing high cards? When South balanced with two spades he showed that he surely has both high diamonds and relatively solid spades. So if you signal for a diamond and partner obediently plays one (which would be right if you had the diamond and spade kings instead of your actual hand) declarer would win in hand and drive out the spade ace, then take the club finesse for his contract. There is nothing that you can do to prevent him from bringing clubs in for the discards he needs.

The correct thing to do is to play the heart three, asking partner to return a club. Then if you continue a club when in with the spade ace, declarer can never make more than two club tricks and you will score any diamond tricks to which your side is entitled. An alternative might be to shift to a club yourself at trick three…unless declarer started with a singleton!

On this board from a recent US Women's trials Kerri Sanborn proved herself up to the task of bringing home a tricky game. Her call of two no-trumps was artificial, designed to sign off in a minor or invite in spades, and when she showed the invitational hand, Juanita Chambers had enough to raise to game.

In the open room, four spades had also been bid, after East-West had bid up to four hearts. It was not doubled, and went two down. However, when Sanborn was declarer, the heart two was led to the ace. Sanborn then carefully played a spade to hand, getting the bad news.

Now life looks very straightforward if you can find the club queen, but that is not so. Sanborn continued with a spade to the 10, then cashed the spade ace and had to take a view on the club position. East’s failure to raise to four hearts implied that she was not 6-5, accordingly she was more likely to hold three clubs.

So Sanborn played an immediate club to the jack, and when it held, she could play off the spade king (discarding a blocking club from dummy, a move that is also critical to making the hand) and be one step ahead of the defense. East-West could take only their spade, heart and diamond tricks. Notice that if declarer plays ace and a second club at an early point in the hand, West gets two ruffs and beats the contract.

At the table West led the heart eight against three no-trump, which went to East's king, declarer playing the jack. Without giving the matter too much thought, East continued with ace and another heart, and declarer won and cashed his last heart, pitching a diamond from dummy, then crossed to the club queen and led a spade towards his jack. East plunged in with the queen and shifted to a diamond; too late. Declarer had nine tricks now when the spades came in. How many mistakes were made here?

When East saw the jack from declarer he should have realized that his partner’s heart lead could not be fourth-highest. Were that so, his partner would have begun life with Q-10-9-8 and he would have led the 10, rather than a low card. So East should have shifted to a diamond – a play that required the least from his partner, in the form of four diamonds to the king. A club shift, by contrast might both need his partner to have good clubs and for declarer to have a singleton spade.

And what about declarer’s play to the first trick? Could he have followed suit with a card that might have been less revealing about his holding? I believe so. Had he followed with the heart 10 at the first trick, East might legitimately have played his partner for Q-J-9-8-x of hearts, when the initial lead of a low heart would have been at least a plausible alternative to a high card.

The Bridge player's 10 Commandments should definitely feature a prohibition on leading your partner into error, together with instructions on how to steer him away from the faulty path.

On the hand above from the Marlboro Bermuda Bowl in 1995 far too many of the defenders in the West seat were in an impious mood. They led a top heart, and on observing their partner’s jack had to continue with a second top heart, in case their partner had started with a singleton.

But what next? The popular decision seemed to be to play a passive heart eight — which might even promote the spade jack into a trump trick if your partner were dealt specifically the doubleton spade queen-10. You can however see the denouement; East trustingly ruffed the third heart, and declarer overruffed and later played the remaining trumps to be 2-2, thus making his contract.

This was short-sighted defense by West; the actual layout in trumps is quite predictable and much more likely than finding East with a very specific doubleton. In addition, if declarer needs one discard only, say for his third club, he can always take it later. It must be better simply to exit with a diamond (which is not doing anything for declarer that he cannot do for himself) and hope to leave declarer to do all his hard work on his own.

The saying "It is better to be lucky than good" was never better exemplified than on this hand from the very first of the qualifying rounds of the Marlboro Bermuda Bowl in Beijing.

Most tables that did not have a weak two in diamonds in their armory took advantage of the vulnerability to open the North hand with a three level preempt. The sensible Souths opted to put their partner into five diamonds, which made in some comfort. The foolish Souths tried to make three no-trumps, and were sunk on a heart lead.

But the strangest result came when Leon Boolkin for South Africa opened a weak two in diamonds. His partner asked for more information, and Boolkin thought by his rebid that he was showing a six card suit to two of the top three honors. However, his partner believed that he was facing a solid suit, hence the jump to slam.

West now decided that against a slam he should look for a passive lead, and determined that a club would be safest. Bernard Donde, having had his first reprieve, noted that he needed to find the club queen doubleton to have any chance of reaching the diamond suit in dummy, and therefore he had no real option in clubs. He played low from dummy at trick one, and a few seconds later the friendly lay-out of the minor suits allowed him to collect plus 990. Meanwhile, his team mates were collecting plus 50 from three no-trumps after a heart lead.

Today's hand occurred in the quarter-finals of the 1995 Marlboro Venice Cup between USAI and USAII. The match was eventually won comfortably enough by USAI, who lost the finals to Germany.

Both tables finished up in the inferior contract of three no-trumps rather than the excellent five diamonds, and received the lead of a spade round to the king.

It is worth giving a moment’s thought to what declarer’s best line is now. Would you rather play a straightforward percentage line, or go for the psychological line? I suppose a lot depends on the quality of your opponents. The unsuccessful declarer for USAII decided to postpone the decision of which minor to play on till the last minute. She cashed four rounds of hearts, on which West, Carol Simon, threw a (discouraging) diamond 10, and an encouraging club two. After a lot of thought, South decided to believe the defenders, and took the diamond finesse, to go two down.

At the other table the declarer was Rosanne Pollack, who could see that if the hearts did not behave, the simple diamond finesse would not be enough; she decided instead to play for the combination shot of laying down the diamond ace at trick two, then taking the top hearts. Finally she took the club finesse and ended up with 11 tricks. I think USA I earned their swing on this board, don’t you?