Arguably, it is easier to learn from other people's mistakes than from your own. Have a look at what happened here to South; but before you criticize him, consider whether you are entitled to cast the first stone.

At the table South did not compete to three spades, refusing to be pushed just because of his decent spades. But when his partner doubled, announcing the balance of power, he wisely decided not to defend, and found himself in game a moment later.

So far so good. But after the lead of a heart to the ace, East continued with the heart queen which declarer covered and West ruffed. When the club shift came and both minor-suit finesses failed, South was down one. He could feel justifiably aggrieved at the bad luck he had run into in all three of the side-suits.

South was undeniably unlucky. But he had the fate of the contract in his own hands.

All declarer had to do was duck the second heart rather than cover the queen. The spot-card led had made the 7-1 break somewhat more likely than usual, after all. West would not be able to afford to ruff the trick or declarer has a home for dummy’s club loser, so he discards a club. The next heart is ruffed and overruffed. But now South simply draws trump and passes the diamond jack, not caring if it loses since he now has a home for dummy’s club loser on the fourth diamond.

When South at the Dyspeptics Club is accused of being the best cardholder alive, he tends to respond complacently that he simply gets more out of his cards. This breathtaking inaccuracy of this rather naïve statement drives his regular colleagues to distraction — which might indeed be his reason for making the claim.

Today’s deal was just such an example. Given his usual rock-crusher, South failed to make the most of his opportunities. In six no-trump he won the spade lead to unblock clubs, then crossed to the diamond ace to pitch his heart losers on the king and jack of clubs. When the 5-2 club break came to light, it belatedly occurred to him that he needed to keep East off lead for the duration of the hand. So he led the diamond nine, intending to let it run. Alas for him, East had both the diamond jack and 10, and when the suit failed to break, down went the slam.

When South started to protest his misfortune, East stuck the dagger in by pretending to console him that the winning line would have been hard for a player of his caliber to spot. Do you see his point?

Declarer must cash the club ace and queen, then lead a diamond to the nine. East wins and shifts to a heart, but declarer goes up with the ace, crosses to the diamond ace to take his discards, and can come back to his hand in spades, whereupon his hand will be high.

I imagine that South was regretting his two-spade overcall after his partner, having found him with two of the five keycards and the trump queen, catapulted to the grand slam. What are your thoughts on the lead of the heart two?

One idea is to try to ruff two diamonds in the dummy. So, you win the heart lead, cash the diamond ace, cross to a trump and ruff a diamond. Now ruff a heart, ruff a diamond, and draw trumps. However, on this line, there is no parking place for your fourth club, so you will need a 3-3 club break, which is distinctly against the odds.

A much better plan is to ruff four hearts in your hand with your four high trumps. Win the opening lead and ruff a heart high, West discarding a club. Now play a club to dummy (before West discards any more clubs) and ruff another heart high, followed by a diamond to the ace and another high heart ruff. Then play a spade to dummy and ruff the last heart high, before crossing to dummy with a diamond ruff to draw trump and cash the clubs. Well played — but was there a better defense?

There is rarely any point in leading a singleton against a grand slam except to try to cut declarer’s communications. I am not an advocate for the advice that you should always lead a trump against a grand slam, but here it is the lead that beats the contract.

Today's deal saw North-South fall on their feet after misusing a common convention. When playing Standard American it is now popular to use the simple raise of a minor by an unpassed hand as forcing for one round, guaranteeing at least invitational values. A jump raise to three of a minor becomes preemptive (somewhere between weak and invitational, depending on vulnerability).

When North stretched to produce an inverted raise, and then raised hearts he had suggested a far better hand than he actually held. That partly (if not entirely) explains South’s precipitous jump to slam.

Needing either two finesses, or one finesse and an even break in hearts, South took care to explore the possibilities for an endplay. After the trump lead declarer won in hand, and cashed the spade ace, then a second high trump. Next came the heart king, the heart jack was finessed, a spade ruffed, and dummy re-entered with the heart ace for another spade ruff.

At this point South was down to one heart, one trump and three clubs, while dummy had two trumps and three clubs. It might have looked easy to ruff the heart and play on clubs, but had he done so, South’s luck would have run out. Instead South advanced the fourth heart. When West produced the queen, a club discard from dummy left the defender on lead. West now had to lead into declarer’s club tenace or furnish a ruff and discard — and either way, North’s second club loser had vanished.

In today's deal declarer finds a way to compress his four losers into three.

West’s two-heart opening was in the modern aggressive style, showing five hearts and a four-card minor.

South should no doubt have passed his partner in three no-trump, but he corrected to four spades because of his singleton club. It looked as if he had done the wrong thing when four spades appeared to have four certain losers, while three no-trump had much better chances. But declarer made up for his bidding with a neat play.

West led his singleton diamond, which went to the nine and ace. Declarer played off the spade ace and king, then a third spade (discarding one card from each side-suit) to East’s 10. East cashed the spade queen, dummy throwing another diamond, and played a low diamond to dummy’s now-bare king.

Declarer won, thoughtfully cashed the club ace, then led the club 10, without cashing the club king, which would have been fatal. When East covered, South ruffed in hand. In the five-card ending, he had two hearts, two diamonds, and a trump in his hand, while dummy had the K-9 of clubs and K-9-7 of hearts. When declarer cashed his last trump, West had to come down to either two hearts (when declarer would pitch a club from dummy and play the heart queen from hand to set up hearts) or else to just one club, when declarer would pitch a heart from dummy and lead to the heart king.

I am grateful to Ron Klinger for this hand — a co-winner of the Brilliancy Prize at the Australian Summer Festival of Bridge. The declarer was Terry Brown.

South won the lead of the diamond king and made an excellent start when he played a small heart from hand to West’s ace. West exited with a small club, taken by South’s ace. When his play of the spade ace dropped the jack, and the queen was won by West’s king, West returned a second club and Brown now had a count of West’s distribution from both the bidding and the play thus far, and, more importantly, of East’s. Since East still held Q-10-8 in trumps, there appeared to be two inevitable trump losers. Therefore, for the contact to succeed, declarer had to play to reduce his trump length to that of East.

So Brown finessed the club jack and ruffed a diamond to hand. Dummy was re-entered with the spade 10, and another diamond trumped back to hand. Having now reduced his trumps to the required length, Brown played a trump to dummy’s jack and East’s queen.

In the three-card ending, East could do no better than exit with his club (a trump would be no better) to dummy’s king, South discarding his fourth spade. Now, whichever card Brown led from dummy could be ruffed by East and overruffed by South; a perfect example of a trump coup.

Sometimes you can see that if you play your hand in a certain way, your opponent is bound to succeed. In such an instance the only option may then be to do something different and hope that he or she will go wrong.

Look at the defense of the following hand from East’s point of view, covering up the West and South hands for the moment.

Against four hearts, West led a spade (yes, a club would have been better, but one can hardly criticize his actual choice). East won with the ace and switched to the club king, won by declarer, who cashed the spade king to discard a club before playing a diamond to dummy’s queen. It was clear to East that if he won the diamond king, declarer would be certain to succeed, since on the bidding he was marked with the heart ace. So East ducked the diamond queen smoothly, and declarer now played a heart to his jack, won by West’s queen.

West next played the spade queen, which declarer ruffed in the dummy. It is easy to see that declarer could now succeed by cashing the diamond ace and ruffing a diamond high before drawing trump ending in dummy and claiming the remainder of the tricks. However, declarer was convinced that West held the diamond king, so instead he drew trump first, and then took another diamond finesse. East won, and the defenders cashed the rest for three down.

Against your contract of three no-trump, West leads the spade four and East plays the 10. What is your best chance?

At the table South saw no reason to do anything but play on hearts. He led a heart to his king and West’s ace. That player cleared spades, and declarer tested diamonds. When they didn’t break, he had only seven top winners. So he knocked out the club ace, and West cashed his spade winners for down one.

Declarer had taken an overly simplistic approach to the hand. A better way to consider the deal is to realize that if diamonds break 3-3, you can succeed by knocking out the club ace, but if they are 4-2, you need to sneak a trick through in hearts first.

Win the opening lead and cross to a diamond (better to play to the ace rather than the queen) to play a heart toward the dummy. An expert defender might possibly work out to fly up with his ace, but not everyone is an expert. If your heart queen holds the trick, you are home. You switch your attention to clubs and can insure three tricks in each minor to go with the guaranteed three major-suit winners. That makes nine tricks.

Meanwhile, if West wins his heart ace at trick three, you are no worse off than before. You will win the spade return, and with three heart tricks in the bag, you just need the diamond break to make your game.

Today's deal comes from a Swiss Team event earlier this year. For the winning team, the North-South pair bid to four hearts, and West led the spade three to dummy's queen. In desperation, declarer played a low diamond toward his jack, and that went to West's ace when East did not put up his queen. After a club to the king and ace, East returned a spade. When the diamond king dropped East's queen, South turned to trumps and made his contract, losing only one heart, one diamond and one club.

In the other room, on the given auction, North underbid slightly with his three-heart call, ending the auction. Jeff Aker as West inferred that his partner had to have values, but had not overcalled at the one-level (which he might have done with spade values) so he made the first good move for the defenders when he led a low club.

Victor King (East) won with his ace and thoughtfully led back a low club. Declarer naturally put in the nine, and ruffed West’s 10. Then he played dummy’s heart queen, and when it held, he led a low diamond from the dummy. King put up his queen, knowing declarer couldn’t have the ace, then cashed the heart ace and played another heart to dummy’s jack.

When declarer ran dummy’s diamond king, discarding a club from his hand, West won with his ace and led a club to his partner’s queen for down one. Plus 620 and plus 100 gave the winners a huge swing on the board.