Today's deal has nothing too subtle in it. All you need to do is to concentrate on your opponent's carding.

When West leads the club three against your contract of three no-trump, you win East’s nine with your queen. You play a heart to dummy’s queen and East’s ace, and East continues with the club jack. Plan the play.

East has kindly told you the exact layout of the club suit. If you think about it, you know West is likely to have four clubs, and East’s first two plays in the suit mean he must have the J-10-9, mustn’t he?

You should win the club to leave the suit blocked, and play a second heart. West will win and can play a low club to East’s 10. But since there is no longer any communication for the two defensive hands, you can later take a spade finesse into the safe, East, hand for your ninth trick. If you made the mistake of ducking the club jack, you will go down when East continues the suit.

Of course, one deal doesn’t prove anything, but there is certainly a case that one might make for steering clear of leading from a four-card suit headed by a single honor. Both diamonds and clubs are unattractive combinations to lead from — not that anything else is that much better, though I might well opt for the doubleton spade as more passive.

The Dyspeptics Club recently contacted the Guinness Book of World Records to enter South as the luckiest man in the world, based on the number of honor cards he averages per deal. But as North bitterly remarked, the high-cards he is dealt fall by the wayside, since he never seems to make the contracts that require more than a modicum of care. And today's deal was especially painful, since if one cannot focus one's attention in a grand slam, when can one do so?

After the lead of the diamond king to the ace, South cashed the spade ace, drew trump with the aid of the finesse, and tried to make something of the minor suits. Alas, when clubs were not 3-3 and East could retain control of the diamond suit, the contract had to go down one.

South was extremely unlucky to run into a 4-0 trump break, but since that was his only concern in the deal, he should have taken steps at trick two to cope with a 4-0 break with East having the length.

The correct play is to win the diamond ace, take a diamond ruff, and only then to play a spade to the ace. Now take a second diamond ruff, lead a heart to the king, play a spade to the 10, then unblock the spade king, lead a club to the ace, cash the spade queen, and claim. You make four trumps in dummy and two ruffs in hand, three hearts, three clubs and a diamond.

As South, one of my correspondents received the lead of the spade queen against three no-trump in a multiple team event. Do you win or duck? Decide before reading further.

Our first declarer thought for a moment before playing low from the board. East overtook with the king and returned a spade. Declarer won in dummy, perforce, and crossed to hand to take the club finesse, but when it lost, East played a heart through, sending the contract down two.

At the next table, declarer thought for a long time before winning the spade ace at the first trick in an attempt to block the suit. East decided to play low, playing for the layout in spades to look approximately like it did. Declarer came to hand and tried the club finesse, but when it lost, East unblocked his spade king. The heart switch led to two down again.

At table three, my correspondent also won the opening lead, and East correctly refrained from unblocking. Here declarer made the correct move at trick two when he led a heart to his king and West’s ace. West won and reverted to spades, but there was no entry to the long suit, so declarer came home with his game.

But note that if West had ducked his heart ace, declarer would have gone down, whether he played on hearts or clubs. After a second heart, West would set up the suit for his partner, while East still had the club king for an entry.

An early card-play lesson given to beginners is "play the high honors from the short hand first, so as not to block the suit." So a novice might have looked askance at declarer's handling of this six-heart contract, on receipt of a club lead.

South could count on 11 tricks, and courtesy of his diamond holding, appreciated that his best chance of a 12th trick lay in the diamond suit, so long as the missing diamond honors were divided between the defenders; or if West held both the queen and jack.

But he saw another problem: the diamonds might become blocked, with the defenders switching to dislodge the spade ace before diamonds could be untangled. So, seeing the need to keep a late club entry in dummy, declarer won the lead in hand with the club ace. As the only other entries to hand were in trumps, South led the diamond 10 at trick two. East won with the queen and found the spade switch.

Winning in dummy, declarer proceeded to draw trump in four rounds, pitching a spade from North, then advanced the diamond nine. Hoping that East held the diamond eight, West covered with the jack. But on winning with the king, declarer was able to return to his diamond eight, play a club to dummy’s queen, then discard his losing spade on the diamond ace.

All that remained was for declarer to ruff a spade with his last trump and cash the club king for 12 tricks.

Today's deal comes from a recent match in the 2014 Grand National Teams heats, to determine which team would represent each district in the knockout teams at the Las Vegas nationals last August.

Both tables reached six spades on relatively blind auctions, and both Wests did well to lead diamonds, setting up a potential winner for their side if they could regain the lead.

Both declarers tackled trumps in predictably unsuccessful fashion by cashing the ace and king. When the trump loser came to light, the key to the deal was to dispose of the diamonds from the South hand on dummy’s club and heart winners.

One declarer followed the uninspired line of playing on hearts first, the suit he had far fewer cards in. West ruffed the third and cashed his diamond for down one. The second declarer recognized the point of the deal. He saw that he needed West to have at least three clubs, so he might as well play clubs before hearts — just in case the defender had his actual pattern of two hearts and four clubs. Had the clubs broken 3-3, South would then have tried to cash the three heart winners before the fourth club. As it was, when East showed out on the third club, it was safe to take the fourth club first, and only then to play on hearts. By the time West could ruff in, the second diamond had already been discarded.

These days the Jacoby two-no-trump response is a common way to set partner's major-suit as trump, and to find out whether opener has extra values, or extra trumps, or side-suit shortage. The situation is more complicated when the opponents butt in, though. Opener needs to be able to show shortage or control in the opponents' suit — or even to be able to penalize them for their temerity.

In today’s auction, when the opponents intervened over North’s Jacoby two-no-trump, South took the opportunity to show a second suit. North construed this as a decent five-card holding and did not have the mechanism available to check on the quality of the side-suit, so took a shot at the grand slam. Then it was up to South to justify his partner’s optimism.

The heart two was led and ruffed. Declarer cashed the spade ace, king, and queen. Now it would have been natural to assume that the overcaller was short in a specific side-suit, but South saw there was no rush to commit himself.

Next came the diamond ace and king, and a heart ruff to hand and a diamond ruff in dummy. This was the critical play, as it revealed that East had started with only a doubleton diamond, and thus precisely a 1-7-2-3 shape.

It was now an easy matter to cash the club king and then to finesse against East’s club queen. Note: that if declarer discards his diamond loser on the heart ace, he never finds out the critical piece of information.

Larry Cohen, of the "Law of Total Tricks" fame, publishes a free monthly newsletter on the internet, which is well worth checking out. That's where I found today's deal.

First, let’s start by taking the East hand. After two passes, South opens one diamond, and West overcalls with a weak two hearts. When North makes a negative double, it is over to you.

As partner has advertised at least six hearts and you have four, Cohen recommends that you bid four hearts — the level of the combined trump holding, putting maximum pressure on South.

Despite your best efforts, South bids four spades. Time to change seats — now you are South declaring that contract. West leads the heart king, won in dummy. What now? Diamonds need be set up before trumps are drawn. So lead a diamond to the ace and play another diamond to put East on lead.

Back comes a heart, and the crux of the hand has been reached. You need to ruff a diamond in dummy to set up that suit, and if you ruff this heart in hand, you will lose control against a 4-1 trump break. As there is an inevitable club loser, why not lose it now? Instead of ruffing, discard the club six.

A third heart can now be ruffed in dummy. Lead a club to hand for another diamond ruff high, draw trump, taking the 4-1 break in stride, and the South hand is now high.

This hand is from the world championships held in Bali last September, where Italy won the Bermuda Bowl, defeating China in the quarterfinals.

When Chuangcheng Ju declared three no-trump, Antonio Sementa led the diamond king. Dummy’s ace won, as East showed an even number of diamonds. At trick two West captured the club king with his ace.

West could see that cashing his diamonds would give South his ninth trick, so he shifted deviously to his low spade. When declarer finessed, the roof fell in. Giorgio Duboin took the trick and returned a diamond, letting Sementa cash out for down two.

In the other room East had responded two spades at his first turn — weak and natural. Again, the defenders led a top diamond, won the club ace, and shifted to a spade (this time the 10) at trick three.

Norberto Bocchi now knew to win the spade ace and run all his club winners. When the last club was played, East could discard a spade safely enough, and South could shed another diamond. But what was West to do? If he threw a heart, declarer would play the heart ace to drop the king. If he threw a diamond, declarer could play the spade jack and take two more tricks with the heart ace and spade queen. And if West threw his spade, declarer could exit with his diamond, end-playing West to cash his diamonds, but then to lead a heart away from his king at trick 12.