This deal was played in the first final session of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs, with Yichoo Chen as South, playing with Jinjie Hu.

Against three spades doubled West led the heart king, to the two, 10 and six. Next came the heart jack to the nine, eight and three. This play suggested West did not have the club king-jack, or he would have led his low club to force East to win and play a club. What next?

At the table, West switched in uninspired fashion to the club queen. Chen took full advantage. He won in dummy and led a spade to the eight, nine and jack. Then he took the club continuation in his hand and advanced the spade queen to pin West’s 10. The intra-finesse brought home nine tricks, but the defense could have done better.

West knew that East did not have a singleton diamond – he would have overtaken the heart jack to play one – but he couldn’t have the club king either – or he would have initially discouraged in hearts. The heart 10 followed by the heart eight ought to suggest a diamond switch. At trick three, West can lead a club if he has the king-queen but here he should lead the diamond ace and another diamond, giving his partner a ruff if declarer tackles trumps as he did at the table.

Incidentally, if East follows with the spade 10 at his first turn at trick four, declarer might go wrong in the play.

Today's deal from the Life Master Pairs at the fall nationals in Phoenix last year saw South playing a delicate heart contract. As declarer discovered, if you play five hearts on a club lead your task is straightforward. You win the trick cheaply and draw trumps ending in dummy, before leading a club towards your tenace. East must split his intermediates again, and you can win and drive out the club king. That way you establish a discard for your diamond loser painlessly. Thus you can hold your losers to one trick in hearts and clubs.

But consider what might happen on the lead of the spade jack. East can see no future in spades, so he should overtake the jack and shift to a diamond. That makes it clear to declarer that West has the diamond king (or else East would leave West on play for the diamond shift), and therefore presumably East has the club king to make up his opening bid.

The critical play comes at trick two. You must duck the diamond in hand — so that only one defender can win the second diamond. Win the diamond ace, then cross to the heart ace to ruff a spade, and come over to the heart king to ruff a second spade.

Now you finesse in clubs and cash the ace, finding the 4-1 break, and finally exit with a diamond to West for the ruff and discard. Whether he returns a diamond or spade, your club loser goes away.

This week's deals all come from the Fall Nationals held at Phoenix this time last year. Currently this year's event is taking place in Providence, Rhode Island. You may be able to follow the action live later this week on Vugraph at www.bridgebase.com.

Since the point eluded quite a few pairs in the Blue Ribbon finals, let’s look at the contract of six hearts by South on the auction shown.

Using Keycard Blackwood South can locate first the missing keycards, then ask for the trump queen, planning to stay in five if partner does not come through for him.

There is no defense to the slam to trouble declarer, but at the table, playing pairs, West might sensibly lead the club ace, for fear that it will get away if declarer has the diamond queen instead of the jack.

After the club ace lead and a trump shift, it may seem that declarer will have to rely on the diamond or the spade finesse, but he can do better. Declarer wins the trump shift in hand and cashes one diamond, then comes to hand with a second trump, and leads the diamond jack toward the king. He plans to put up the king and pitch his diamond loser on the club king unless the diamond queen appears. Of course when the diamond queen does put in an appearance from East, declarer can simply draw the outstanding trump and claim the rest.

In one of the qualifying sessions of the European Open Mixed Teams in San Remo, there were several exciting contracts on this deal.

At one table North overcalled three no-trumps at her first turn, and East chose to lead the heart queen rather than her partner’s suit. Declarer Marion Michielsen won in hand and made the great play of the diamond jack from her hand. West won and switched to a top club, but Marion ducked, won the club continuation and could choose between setting up her ninth trick in hearts or diamonds. Had West ducked the diamond jack, then ace and another heart would have established the ninth trick.

At our featured table, where Huub Bertens was declarer, North raised to four hearts, and East made an aggressive penalty double. Warned of the bad break, the Dutch declarer found a way home. He won the club lead but cashed only one trump before playing a spade to his queen. This was followed by a diamond to the jack and ace, East returning another diamond. Declarer won, played a spade to his jack and ran the diamond nine. Next came two more spades, discarding a club, which brought declarer’s total to eight. When he played a club from the dummy he was sure to make two more trump tricks, for +790.

Incidentally I would follow Bob Hamman’s rule when considering North’s rebid: if you are considering several options and one of them is three no-trumps, that is what you should choose.

When this deal came up at my rubber bridge club, I observed that the world seems to be made up of bridge players who like to talk, and those who like to think, and that the two groups seem to have hardly any overlap.

I was West, and with my usual collection (in a similar position Terence Reese remarked that this was about a jack more than his usual hand) led the spade 10 against six no-trumps. When dummy came down South was visibly upset with his partner, and berated him for driving to slam and not merely issuing an invitation.

He won the spade in dummy and tried the diamond jack from the board. My partner took the trick with the ace, as South followed low, and returned a spade. Declarer won in dummy, led a diamond to his nine, and found the good news and bad news simultaneously. When I discarded, he could no longer cross back to dummy to take another diamond finesse, and had to concede one down.

Curiously, if South leads any diamond but the eight from dummy at trick two, he deserves to go down! For example if he leads a low diamond to his hand then he will go back to dummy and play the diamond jack, but East wins and leaves declarer with a diamond loser. By contrast, starting with the eight forces East to cover with the ace. Now declarer can return to dummy and lead the diamond jack, and East’s goose is cooked.

Today's deal from a world championships semi-final saw a game swing to England, even though declarer could have improved on his line.

At both tables West led his singleton spade against four hearts. This went to East’s king and both Wests ruffed East’s spade return. Each of them then continued with the club ace, followed by the club queen, and both declarers won and cashed the heart ace, West playing the 10.

Now the paths diverged. The German declarer decided to play West for an original trump holding of 10-7 doubleton, perhaps thinking that he might not have led a singleton with a near certain trump trick. So he attempted to cross to dummy’s spade ace, preparatory to running the heart jack, allowing West to ruff in. Declarer subsequently misguessed diamonds and went two down.

For England Nick Sandqvist cashed both top heart honors immediately. Knowing that West had four major-suit cards compared with East’s eight, he guessed diamonds correctly, and wrapped up his game.

Well done, but can you see how declarer could have turned a guess into a certainty?

After the trump queen fell, declarer should have crossed to the heart jack, cashed the spade ace and ruffed a club. Now he plays his remaining trump. If West holds on to his master club he must come down to two diamonds. At that point, the diamond ace and king will drop the queen, whoever holds it.

South got as far as realizing that he had two possible lines of play on this deal, but he backed the wrong horse, and came a cropper.

West opened one diamond and, rating his hand as worth only one bid, East raised to two diamonds rather than show his spades. South overcalled with four spades, all passed, and West led the diamond king. Declarer ruffed, cashed the spade ace and continued with the king and another spade. East won and switched to the club queen. South held off for one round, but won the club continuation.

Now declarer could either rely on the hearts breaking 3-3, which would allow him to discard a club on the fourth round of hearts, or he could play West for four hearts and four clubs. In the latter case the winning line would be to concede a second trump trick. Since the defenders would not be able to cash their club winner, he could eventually squeeze West in hearts and clubs. In practice, South decided to rely on the even heart break, and so ended with only nine tricks.

In retrospect, there was a clear case for leading the fourth trump and playing for the squeeze. It wins whenever West holds four clubs and either three or four hearts. To lead hearts immediately gains only when both hearts and clubs divide 3-3. But if this was so, West would have started with seven diamonds. In that case East, with only three diamonds, would surely have responded one spade initially.

It is always great fun to win tricks as cheaply as possible, but today's deal is one of many examples where we ought to be prepared to sacrifice a quick trick to facilitate our problems with entries.

When you play three no-trump as South on a spade lead from West, the natural play is to put up the queen and drive out the diamond ace. However, if diamonds are 3-1 and East or West can hold up his ace for two rounds, then continues the attack on spades, you have only eight top winners. In essence, you have no realistic chance of a ninth trick unless the opponents’ spades are 4-4.

The point is that you no longer have a diamond left to reach dummy’s goodies. Your chances of being allowed to sneak an entry to dummy before the defense cash out are slim indeed.

Contrast what happens if you refrain from playing a spade honor at trick one from dummy, but instead take your spade ace and clear the diamonds in three rounds. East wins, as before, but cannot set up the spades for the defense without allowing you an entry to dummy via the spade honors, which are still in place there. You would then have nine winners (five diamonds and two tricks in each of the black suits.) East does best to shift to clubs, but you win and overtake the heart jack with the king, to ensure a different route to at least nine tricks one way or another.

Bidding after partner's overcall is one of the few areas of bidding in which there are two perfectly rational approaches to be taken. One school uses new-suit responses by an unpassed hand as forcing for one round. Players in this school would bid two spades with the South cards. Where this treatment is not in use, South must start with a cue-bid to show strength and can then bid spades to set up a force.

Against four spades West led the diamond king then the ace, and shifted accurately to the club four. Without looking at the East and West cards, how would you set about the play so as to minimize the risk to your game?

A plan to guard against all bad breaks is to win the club at trick three, cash the heart ace and king, then ruff a heart in dummy, return to your hand with a diamond ruff, and ruff the last heart. This leaves declarer with all trumps, and the spots are such that he will have at most one loser, the queen.

This line involves no jeopardy, since on the bidding, the auction tells you that East will be unable to overruff hearts. Meanwhile, if West ruffs the second heart, declarer can overruff in dummy and play winning clubs — West, with at most five diamonds, cannot also be in a position to ruff an early club.

Note that if declarer cashes only one high heart before taking the ruffs in dummy, the 4-1 trump break prevents declarer from ever scoring the remaining high heart.