Today's deal from the quarter-final of a recent world championships saw South with the same problem of what to do after hearing their partner open one club, then balance with a double of their right hand opponent's call of four hearts.

Had they known how balanced their partner was, they might have preferred to defend and collect plus 300, but we all have 20/20 hindsight, and at the table it looked right to bid four spades.

After West led a heart, East cashed the ace and king. What should East have done next? Quite a few defenders played a third heart to weaken declarer’s trumps. South pitched a diamond from hand, and ruffed in the dummy. Then he played the trump ace and 10, and East won with the king and played a fourth heart. Alas for the defenders, South simply ruffed and drew the last two trumps. Next, by starting clubs with a top honor from dummy, declarer could cater for either opponent holding four clubs, and ensure their game.

When Anne Rosen of the eventually victorious English women’s team was in the same position, she saw that declarer could not be defeated if she had five spades, so she focused her attention on setting the hand if South had just four spades.

Anxious to protect her potential tricks in spades and diamonds, she exited with a low trump at trick three. All declarer could do was win and play ace and another trump. But now Rosen could win and continue hearts, waiting to make the diamond king at the end for down one.

Not all bridge administrators and tournament directors are good players, but there are exceptions. One of the most prominent is Jose Damiani, who rose through the ranks of the French bridge establishment to become president, first of the European Bridge League, and then of the World Bridge Federation, for a combined total of two decades. Jose was a top class player in France, and although he rarely plays seriously nowadays, he was capable of competing at the very top level. Here he is at work on defense.

The opponents were not playing 2/1 so could grind to a halt in two no-trumps; but even that modest level proved too high. At the table Damiani knowing that he possessed all his side’s defensive assets, chose a low spade as his opening salvo. There were two simple ways that this could work; he might find his partner with the spade nine (or even the eight). Or declarer might misread the position and waste an honor from dummy.

So it proved: Declarer chose to fly up with the ace and play a club, ducked, and a second club. Damiani won and went back to the well when he played a second low spade. Declarer now had a legitimate problem, since he was not happy about losing the lead cheaply, and having the defenders shift to hearts. Hoping to drop an honor from East, he rose with the king, and now had to go down when East showed out.

In today's deal a slip was made that resulted in the difference between a vulnerable slam coming home or going down. Read on and see if you can attribute the blame appropriately.

West, who had opened the bidding with one diamond, led the diamond ace followed by the queen against six spades. Put yourself in declarer’s position, and cover up the East and West hands to give yourself the problem he faced.

Assume you win the king and ruff a diamond, East following. Now comes the heart finesse, the heart ace and a heart ruff. All is going swimmingly so far. You play a spade to dummy and West’s diamond discard gives you pause for thought, but, undaunted, you ruff another heart, East discarding a club.

Of course the 4-0 trump break means you can’t draw trumps, but at the table South was confident that West had started life with 0-4-5-4 shape, leaving East to hold 4-3-3-3 pattern. So South simply cashed the club ace, ruffed a club, then was ready to claim, expecting to make the rest on a cross-ruff. Unfortunately, declarer’s count of the hand was not quite right. East overruffed the club – result, misery!

Can you see where declarer went wrong? Although the mistake was hard to spot, South should have played the club ace and taken a club ruff before leading the fourth heart, thus preventing East from making that killing club discard. South could then take the spade ace, find the bad trump break, and crossruff the rest.

Today's deal comes from an inter-state match in Australia, and features a wide-awake play by the defense.

The final contract was three no-trumps, when South made an extremely practical call at his first turn to speak. On lead, Ron Klinger tried the club jack, and dummy’s queen won as East followed with a discouraging eight, playing upside-down signals. Declarer tried a spade to the king and ace, and Klinger exited passively with the spade nine, taken by declarer’s jack. A low heart from hand came next. Klinger rose with the heart king and played a third spade, taken by the queen.

Now came the critical moment, when declarer led dummy’s diamond two, planning to duck the trick to West, and come home with four diamond tricks, and five top side-suit winners. But sitting East, Bruce Neill was aware of the possibilities, and he could see that if declarer had the diamond ace and jack, South would be planning to take the avoidance play by inserting the jack, so that his own queen would be dead.

Accordingly he needed his partner to hold the diamond jack, so he flew up with the diamond queen, insuring that he could regain the lead later, and play a club through. This way declarer could come to no more than eight tricks.

Of course had Klinger started with the doubleton diamond jack he would have dropped the jack under declarer’s ace, to make sure East could subsequently get on play in diamonds.

The time to pause and plan the play of the hand is when the opening lead is made. This was something South omitted to do, on this hand from a club match-pointed pairs duplicate, and he paid the penalty.

After North had transferred to hearts and offered the choice of games, there was a case for South to convert to four hearts, because of the blockage in hearts, but the decision to pass was not unreasonable.

West led the spade 10 and South, hardly pausing to take stock of dummy’s assets, made the knee-jerk reaction of rising with dummy’s queen. On this trick East intelligently played low. He saw that even if West had led away from the ace, North was always likely to come to a spade trick. However, if South had the ace, by withholding the king, East could deny declarer a later entry to dummy.

Declarer continued by cashing his heart ace and king, and when the queen failed to drop, played a diamond to dummy’s king to lead the heart jack. After East had taken the queen, dummy held two winning hearts, but lacked an entry to access them.

See the difference if South plays low from dummy on the initial spade lead. He wins with the ace in hand, cashes his two top hearts then, as before, enters dummy in diamonds to knock out the heart queen. But now declarer can force an entry to dummy in spades to cash the established hearts.

Last year Tim Bourke of Australia teamed up with Jason Corfield to construct a fascinating book, "The Art of Declarer Play". This consists of tough problems, together with a primer of how to think like an expert.

Here is a deal from the book. Against four spades West leads the diamond king and continues with a low diamond to the ace, for a switch to a heart. You rise with the heart ace; your move.

If West has two clubs and one spade, you can unblock your club honors before leading a spade to the ace. Then, after discarding your heart losers on the club ace-jack, you go back to spades.

However, if West has two spades and one club West would ruff the second round of clubs then, cash the heart king, and give East a heart ruff. (In this case you should simply draw trumps, since you only need to take three club tricks.)

Which line should you play? Neither – the best if surprising line of play is to immediately run the spade nine or 10 from hand! If West follows small, you duck the trick into the safe hand. Now you can win the return, cash the spade king and then play the club king-queen. This play also succeeds when West is void in trumps.

If West covers the spade 10 with an honor, you take dummy’s ace and finesse East for the remaining trump honor. You lose to West’s holding of Q-J doubleton of spades, but make the rest of the time.

In England the Houses of Lords and Commons have an annual bridge match scored on total points. Recently the closest finish in the series 34-year history saw the Lords winning by just 110 points.

This deal might have swung the balance, since the correct play was missed at every table. But would you have done better? Plan the play in three no-trump by South on the lead of the spade queen.

It looked natural to win the lead in hand and clear the diamonds. East could win the fourth diamond and continue the attack on spades. Declarer ducked, then won the spade continuation, and could now cash the long diamond and take a heart finesse.

That was the eighth trick, but since declarer could not take another heart finesse there was no way home. Can you see how declarer should have done better?

Declarer was correct to go after diamonds initially. However, when West shows out on the second round, declarer knows he cannot avoid a diamond loser and that entries to dummy for the heart finesse are at a premium.

Instead of allowing the diamond queen to win, South should flout convention and overtake it with dummy’s ace. After a successful heart finesse, declarer plays another diamond. As before, East wins and continues spades but now declarer wins, then cashes the master diamonds and repeats the heart finesse. When East’s heart king falls, declarer emerges with no fewer than 10 tricks.

The Spring Foursomes takes place over a single weekend bridge every spring in England. Most of the best British teams and an increasing overseas contingent take part in a double-elimination, format. This is a normal knock-out but one where you have to lose twice in order to be out of the main competition.

Today’s deal is from the first round of a recent event, where West chose an unfortunate low club lead against four hearts. Declarer now led a sneaky low diamond towards the king, hoping that it would hold, and that dummy’s other diamond could be discarded on a club. However, West rose with the diamond ace to play a second club, and declarer won dummy’s king.

Next came a trump to the 10 and ace, followed by another trump. West won his queen and was faced with the critical decision on the deal. When he compounded his earlier error by continuing with a third round of clubs, declarer took the club ace, discarding dummy’s diamond king, then ruffed a club in dummy.

Now, knowing West had long hearts and long clubs, he simply needed to work out how many spades West had. When he cashed one top spade and saw the queen appear (yes this would have been a fine false-card from queen-doubleton) he reverted to trumps. West could do no better than win his king and then give declarer access to his hand. That let declarer draw trumps, cash his minor-suit winners, and take trick 13 with a top spade.

Yesterday's deal from Augie Boehm's excellent new memoir, Big Deal, saw a successful bluff. Today's deal shows Boehm also using poker skills, but this time drawing the right conclusion from the 'tell' that only an expert can detect.

At the table the auction went as shown, but Boehm sensed that East had flickered before passing, and inferred that he must have been contemplating doubling three no-trump, to call for the lead of dummy’s first-bid suit, hearts. This conclusion was one Boehm drew at his own risk — if he was wrong he would have had no recourse.

At the table West led a low spade, and Boehm captured East’s king with his ace. To make the contract, Boehm apparently required East to be dealt queen-third in diamonds and West three small diamonds — no better than one chance in six. The normal line of play would be to lead to the king and finesse the jack on the way back.

But now remember East’s ‘tell’. He was surely favorite to hold both top hearts, as he would scarcely consider doubling three no-trump with less. The spade king was already known, and if he had also been dealt the diamond queen he would have opened the bidding. Thus Boehm posited West with the diamond queen. Reasoning this way, Boehm decided on a backward finesse — leading the diamond jack and planning to run it, finessing against the diamond 10 in East if necessary. In fact when West did not cover the jack, Boehm let the jack ride; result, happiness!