Against four hearts, in an expert game, West led the club queen, and South saw that if diamonds were three-three and hearts three-two, the route to a 10th trick would be straightforward enough. After playing ace, king and another diamond, he could duck a spade return and win the next spade. He would continue by cashing the ace and king of trumps then discarding dummy's last spade on the good diamond. Whether the defender with the good trump ruffed or not, South's last spade would be ruffed in dummy.

But declarer saw there was an additional chance when East had four diamonds too. If he could force an opponent to lead a trump, he might play the suit without the loss of a trick. For that to work, he had to remove the defenders’ exit cards. So, he ruffed a club at trick two, then played ace, king and a third diamond to East’s 10, while West discarded a spade. East returned the spade queen, and South ducked. After taking the spade 10 continuation with the ace, South led a fourth diamond, on which West correctly discarded a second spade.

Declarer ruffed the diamond in dummy, ruffed another club and exited with a spade. East won and did his best when he returned the heart queen but declarer took the trick with the ace and returned a heart to his king.

This was smart play by South, who reasoned that, with two small hearts, West might have ruffed in on the third spade to lead a heart.

There was scope for more than one successful line of play in four hearts on this deal from the Seniors' Pairs in San Remo.

French star Christian Mari reached that spot after West had overcalled two spades. West led the spade king, which declarer won and immediately returned a spade. West now helpfully switched to a diamond. This was won by the jack and declarer now led a low heart to the queen and king, and East returned a trump.

Declarer now cashed the diamond king and ace, and led a spade. East discarded a club and declarer ruffed. Next came the club ace and king and the fourth spade. Whatever East did, Mari was home, the winning trump and winning club falling together on the last trick.

At another table Paul Hackett declared four hearts on an uncontested auction after South had opened one no-trump. Here West led the spade king and Hackett won and finessed in hearts, West playing the 10. Hackett now exited with a spade and West won and switched to a club. Declarer took all his minor-suit winners, including finessing in diamonds, then led a third spade from the dummy. When East discarded, declarer ruffed and exited with a club to West.

At this stage North held the doubleton heart Q-5 plus a spade, while East held K-9-8 in hearts and South A-6-4. West exited with a spade which East ruffed with the eight. South underruffed, and East had to concede the last two tricks.

As Eddie Kantar wrote, if you have any ambition to be an expert defender, count, count, count!

Against four spades West led his singleton heart to the queen and ace. A low diamond was led toward dummy and West hopped up with the ace and shifted to a low club. Declarer won, and pitched a club on the diamond king, then led a heart from dummy. East took his king, then played the spade ace and another spade but South had the rest easily enough.

What happens if East ducks the heart at trick five? West ruffs declarer’s jack and gets out with a trump. East wins the ace and returns a spade, and South can only trump one heart in dummy, thus has to lose the setting trick to the heart king.

Can East find this defense? He knows that South rates to have started life with precisely one diamond and two clubs. If he had more than two clubs, he would surely have finessed the club jack. Equally, West’s lead of the lowest outstanding card in partner’s suit shows real length or a singleton. As West never supported hearts, his partner’s suit, he could hardly have heart support.

The lead therefore rates to be a singleton. If it is a singleton, it is much wiser to let partner ruff the second heart and get out with a trump. Conclusion: experts count; the rest don’t count — in more ways than one.

Today's deal, from the Open Teams in San Remo, really succeeded in sorting out the men from the boys. Cover up the East and West hands before reading on.

The deal was played at many tables but East/West never entered the auction. South opened the bidding with one spade, North made some sort of limit raise to three spades and South went on to game. Plan the play on the lead of the heart jack.

Where the ‘boys’ were declaring, South won the lead and played a trump. But West went in with the ace and switched to the club king and another club, East winning with the ace and delivering West a club ruff for the setting trick. Well defended.

The ‘men’ were more alert to the possible danger. They won the heart ace, crossed to dummy with the diamond ace and discarded a club on the heart king before touching trumps.

According to the Daily Bulletin, the board was played 32 times in the Open Teams, and on 30 occasions the contract was four spades. On 14 occasions the result was down one, but on five of those the opening lead was the club king, so there was nothing declarer could do.

So we can be reasonably confident that at least nine declarers failed to cater for the potential club ruff. Sixteen declarers succeeded, but we don’t know if any of them were also careless but went unpunished.

Almost every bridge player has a decent chance to score their aces and kings when they get the chance. But what distinguishes the better bridge player from his counterpart is the ability to score his small cards at the right time.

For example consider today’s deal, where after East-West have competed in spades, South has to make 12 tricks in diamonds. On winning the lead of the spade king with the ace, declarer should eliminate trumps, to make sure the defenders do not score a trump promotion by a ruff or overruff.

So play a middle trump to dummy’s king, followed by the two of trumps to your ace. Next comes ace and another heart to West’s king, marking the suit as no worse than 4-2.

After ruffing the spade continuation with a middle trump, the heart suit needs two entries to establish a long card and another to enjoy the long heart. As you have kept the precious three of trumps in hand, and the four in dummy, you have one entry to the North hand in the trump suit and two in clubs. 12 tricks made!

For the record, if you switch the club king and 10, you can still make six diamonds after the spade lead. But you have to be VERY careful. At trick two you must lead the low heart from hand. Then you can ruff the spade return, unblock the heart ace, draw two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, and go about establishing hearts as before.

Nobody ever pretended that bridge is a simple game, and all too often what makes it especially complicated is the inability to see the wood for the trees. Very few deals boil down to a simple analysis of requiring a specific number of tricks from one suit -there are all too often complicating factors which require you to play off one suit combination against another.

However, today’s deal is one where, if playing teams or rubber bridge, we can focus on a single theme and not worry too much about the other suits. Playing three no-trump on a top club lead from West, we can win in hand and should concentrate our energies on making nine tricks. With six sure winners outside diamonds, and no obvious danger suit, we simply require to take three diamond tricks. If we only need three tricks in the suit we can afford to lose two tricks, so at trick two we simply duck a diamond. East might do best to overtake his partner’s 10 and shift to a spade. If he does so, we duck his play of a low spade, and cover his 10 with the queen. On regaining the lead we can advance the diamond nine, planning to cover an honor from West, or duck again if West discards on this trick. Whatever happens after that, we can ensure our nine tricks against any lie of the cards.

Note that if you take either the first or second round of diamonds, the contract becomes unmakable.

When ducking an ace it is generally a good idea to have planned the play in advance to make the play effective. Consider this deal, from a rubber bridge game in the United Kingdom.

When West leads the diamond king, declarer wins, cashes the club ace and crosses to dummy with a trump to discard a diamond on the club king. Are you still up with the hand? Declarer now leads the spade 10 from dummy; what should you play after winning the ace?

That is the question most players would ask themselves, and a trump seems obvious enough – but that is too late. Declarer can simply ruff his remaining spade loser in dummy, and has the rest.

Maurice Weissberger was East and he found a much better defense when he ducked his spade ace rather than taking it. As you will see from the full deal, below, when Maurice played low on the spade 10, declarer made the natural play of running it to West’s jack. Back came a second trump and declarer won in dummy, ruffed a diamond to hand, and now took a ruffing finesse against the spade ace to go one down.

Declarer could have made the hand had he hopped up with the spade king initially, but his play catered for every lie of the cards – except the actual one.

In today's deal declarer plays four hearts, after having created a game-forcing auction at the second turn. Maybe South should bid three no-trump at his third turn, but the defenders could take four spades and a club against that game.

Still, four hearts is no picnic. Declarer has to choose which minor suit to go after, once the defenders lead three rounds of spades against four hearts. South ruffs, and could draw trumps and play ace and another diamond, planning to finesse. This requires finding queen-third of diamonds onside, or finding the diamond queen favorably placed, and the doubleton club queen with East. The combined chances for this line is less than one in four.

Playing on clubs first offers a much better chance, since it works most of the time that the club queen is favorably located (though the defenders will sometimes be able to defeat you by ducking the club ace, then taking a ruff).

Best is to ruff the spade high at trick three, then to play the heart nine to the 10 and run the club eight. You can now ruff the fourth spade in dummy rather than in hand, to preserve control of the trump suit. And by running the club eight, hopefully losing to the ace, you plan to regain the lead, draw trumps, then cross back to the diamond king and run the club 10. This retains the lead in dummy to repeat the club finesse as many times as necessary.

This deal came up nearly 50 years ago and, at the time, nobody blamed West too much for his defense, but if the hand were played today, the result might well have been different.

Against three no-trump West led the spade seven to the three, 10 and king. The contract seemed to depend on the diamond finesse, but declarer did well to lead the heart 10 to dummy’s jack and ran the diamond jack to West’s king. From West’s point of view, South might have started with king-queen-third of spades, in which case another spade lead could well give declarer his ninth trick. So West shifted to a club, hoping that his partner held an entry, and now declarer had 10 tricks.

Let us advance in time – firstly, North might well have enquired for four or five card majors by bidding three clubs over two no-trumps – this would have led to a contract of four hearts which, although defeated on best defense, might easily scramble home.

Secondly, this was before the days of Smith Peters, so East could not suggest by his play to the first diamond trick whether or not he liked his partner’s opening lead. Thirdly, technique has improved – against three no-trump East will contribute the jack, not the 10, to the first trick. Then West will know that it is safe to lead another low spade for, from his point of view, either his partner holds the queen or declarer still has the queen and 10.