Put yourself in East's shoes here, and cover up the South and West cards to make the problem a fair one. South shows his clubs, then rebids three no-trump when his partner indicates that he has fewer than five HCP. Against this game West leads the heart 10 and declarer takes the trick with the king. Next he plays the ace, king and another club. East takes his club jack while his partner discards two hearts, up the line. How should the defense go from here?

West’s original lead of the heart 10 was ambiguous, but his decision to discard two cards from the suit suggests, perhaps, that he has led from a four-card suit. With five hearts he would surely have pitched a discouraging card from one of the other two suits – and that in turn might indicate he has minor honors in both the other suits. And what of West’s original pattern?

As it is a safe assumption that West would probably have led from a five-card suit on a blind auction of this sort, his discards perhaps suggest that he began with three four-card suits. On this logic, cashing the spade ace is the indicated play, giving the defenders four tricks in the suit and five winners, before declarer can take his nine tricks.

One other possibility for the defense is that East might learn more by ducking the club 10. Now declarer has to come back to hand and reveal more about his hand.

North's bid of three clubs showed a limit-raise or better in spades facing South's five-card major. You lead the club king, for the three, four, and ace. Declarer plays the spade ace and a second spade, partner contributing the five and six. You are on lead; where to go now?

Partner’s play in trump is suit-preference, asking for a shift to the lower (or lowest) of the options. Which minor to play? Well, you surely cannot beat the hand by playing a diamond if partner has three clubs. There is very unlikely to be any way to collect more than a spade, heart and diamond trick since your partner can hardly have more than six points, can he?

On balance, it is far better is to hope that your partner has a singleton club. Play the club queen, and then give partner a ruff, then hope that your partner can come through with enough in the red-suits to beat the hand. (South might have done better to look for three no-trump here, a far safer contract today.) You should also calculate that if everyone follows to the second club, (unlikely, I know) it looks right to play a third club and kill declarer’s discard while hoping for the trump promotion.

Just for the record: this is the sort of hand where the old-fashioned trump echo to request a ruff might appear to make life simpler. But you can still convey the same message, as well as many others, by Suit Preference in trumps.

It is often overlooked in the heat of battle, that when you have to make a discard you should part with a card that cannot possibly be of any use, rather than one that might conceivably take an active part. This deal is a good example of the theme, although the mistake is one that many players might have made.

Defending against four spades East overtook his partner’s lead of the club jack with his queen. When this was allowed to hold, he attacked hearts by leading out the king ace, and a low one. Declarer ruffed high and West, who was sure his hand could play no further part in the deal, parted with a low diamond.

In view of East’s take-out double and West’s discard, the diamond finesse looked a poor bet, so declarer cashed the club ace and ruffed a club, then played off four rounds of trump, discarding two diamonds from dummy. East had to retain the heart king and so parted with a diamond. Now the diamond ace and king left South with the winning five.

In retrospect, maybe West should have seen that if he had held on to all of his diamonds, he would have made the setting trick with his six at the end.

In summary, when discarding, the weak hand should make life easy for the strong hand. But beware of telling partner information he already knows, and also of helping declarer more than your partner. Additionally, keeping winners rather than losers never goes out of style.

John Solodar (a Bermuda bowl winner in 1981) was the hero on this hand from an early round of the Vanderbilt knock-out teams a few years ago. Plan the play in four spades, a spot you have reached on an unopposed auction. The opening lead is the diamond queen. Before you start the play, remember that a little learning is a dangerous thing, and that this hand is full of what Alfred Hitchcock called McGuffins, distractions to lead you away from the real theme of the deal.

The first thing your mind may turn to is the idea of an endplay in the club and/or the diamond suit. The declarer (a many time world champion) in the other room took the diamond ace and tackled trumps early to find that he had a loser. When declarer led a heart from dummy East rose with an honor and played a diamond through South’s 10. Now South’s fate was sealed, since he had to lose a trick in every suit. However, this is actually an incredibly straightforward hand — if you see the point.

Solodar took the diamond ace, cashed the spade ace, played a club to the ace, then led another club to the king and played a third club. East won the trick and cashed a top heart, then shifted back to diamonds. But John simply won, cashed the spade king and played a winning club to discard his diamond loser. 10 tricks made.

Today's deal exemplifies the idea that reading bridge books will improve your technique so as to benefit your performance at the table. Some elements of technique that are really too hard to work out the first time you meet them. See if you agree!

Defending three no-trump you lead the heart three, to the queen, king and ace. Declarer crosses to dummy with the diamond ace, and finesses a diamond to the jack and your queen. You take the heart jack, which collects the two and nine. Over to you.

Declarer has tried to persuade you that he had only two hearts originally, and that your partner started life with five hearts. However, East’s play of the heart two at his second turn should be giving you standard remaining count, thereby suggesting that at the time he made the play of the two your partner had only three hearts left, and thus that it is declarer who has the heart eight.

It looks necessary to take three tricks quickly to set the hand, and your best bet is to find partner with the spade king. So shift to spades now; but that in itself will not suffice; you must shift to the spade jack to surround dummy’s spade queen. Now, whatever declarer does, he has to go down.

Just to clarify: If your partner had started life with K-8-7-5-2 of hearts left he should play the eight or seven at his second turn, and give you the count.

Today's deal from last year's NEC tournament comes from Hinden's successful semi-final match against an Australasian team.

Francis Hinden’s one spade call would surely be a unanimous choice here as South. This argues that since game is nothing special here, maybe the North hand is worth nothing more than a strong invitation?

Be that as it may, Hinden was forced to play four spades on a heart lead, and when she put up the queen, the hand was over. East covered the queen with the king and declarer could scramble two club ruffs in her hand while drawing trumps, but had to lose four red tricks at the end.

Better is to win the first heart in hand while preserving dummy’s queen. Then you can take the club finesse, cash the club ace, ruff a club, cross to the spade king, ruff a second club and take the two master trumps.

In the five-card ending the key is now whether to play West to have opened so light, or for South to have responded one heart with only a four-count. If you can read the location of the high cards, you can succeed now by leading the low diamond from dummy. If East ducks, he will eventually be endplayed with the second diamond to lead hearts. If he rises with the ace, declarer builds his game-going trick either from dummy’s heart or her own diamonds.

At last year's NEC tournament In the round six encounter between Down Under and Hinden both pairs had an opportunity to show off their skills.

Had Graham Osborne opened a weak two spade bid he might have gone quietly plus in that spot. But he opened one spade, and Francis Hinden was obliged to make a try for game. Of course two no-trump was a considerably more testing spot than two spades would have been, after Peter Newell’s lead of the diamond nine. After this lead, Hinden made the first nice play of the deal when she put up the diamond queen from dummy. If West ducks that, Hinden’s plan would have been to unblock the heart suit then play a second diamond toward her king and come home with eight tricks.

Martin Reid therefore won the diamond ace and responded to declarer’s coup with one of his own. He played back the diamond jack at trick two, forcing declarer to win the diamond in her hand, and cutting her off from the heart suit. From that point on declarer had only six winners.

This was a much admired play in the reports of the time. But note that if the spade 10 and two were reversed, declarer would have been able to succeed. She could have won the diamond, unblocked the heart jack, then cashed the club ace and played a spade towards her 10.

So perhaps winning the diamond and playing the club jack at trick two might have covered all the bases equally efficiently?

Today's deal determined who would take the vital eighth qualifying spot in the NEC tournament last year and advance to the knock-out phase.

In one room where declarer was part of a Dutch-Russian team the opening lead of the heart ace did not paralyze declarer, and South made 11 tricks in a canter.

In our featured room clubs were an unbid suit, so Bas Drijver led one, and the defense played two rounds of clubs. Declarer elected to draw a couple of rounds of trump and take a diamond finesse, allowing the defenders to take the club ruff, which left declarer with just nine tricks, and no qualifying place.

Declarer should have come home by simply taking the diamond finesse at trick three. Although the defenders can take a ruff, you get to ruff a diamond low and a diamond high when the suit breaks 4-3 long on your right. When the outstanding trumps are 2-2 you can now draw them all without loss.

Declarer still had a chance after drawing two rounds of trumps. Instead of playing diamonds, cash the two clubs — if West ruffs he will be endplayed. But if he doesn’t ruff what does he discard? If he pitches two hearts you play to ruff a diamond in hand. If he pitches a heart and a diamond to stop threaten an overruff, take the diamond finesse, ruff the heart return, then draw the last trump. When you cash the diamond ace, dummy’s diamond 7-4 will be worth a trick against East’s 9-3!

In today's deal from the NEC tournament last year both Wests led their doubleton diamond against four spades. Both declarers pitched three club losers as West ruffed, then exited with the spade jack. Here the two lines of play diverged slightly.

In both rooms South won, and here the paths changed. One declarer led out the second top spade, and when the queen did not drop he played the heart king to try to arrange a heart ruff in dummy. The other declarer tried the more subtle approach of leading the spade eight from hand first, but East ducked, to deny declarer an entry to dummy with the spade nine. After that trick, declarer also played the heart king to arrange a ruff in dummy, but he too was unable to take more than nine tricks.

At a third table Sue Picus found the way to come to 10 tricks. She too won the diamond lead in dummy and continued with top diamonds, pitching her clubs, as West ruffed the third round and tried the club ace.

Picus ruffed and got out with a heart. West won the heart and continued clubs, so Picus ruffed again, and cashed the spade ace, deciding from the fall of the jack to play West for no more spades. She ruffed a heart, cashed the diamond jack, pitching a heart, then continued diamonds. East could ruff in whenever he wished, but Picus could overruff and ruff another heart in dummy for her 10th trick.