A few years ago Andrew Robson published a thoughtful bridge tip to the effect that if a player who has pre-empted leads his own suit against a trump contract, you should consider playing him to have a singleton trump.

Joey Silver produced an interesting line of play following through on that line of thought. In four spades he saw East overtake the lead of the heart jack with the queen. Now it seems natural to cash the spade queen, then play a second spade toward dummy, and hope to guess well. The odds seem very close between the drop and the finesse. At the other table declarer played to dummy’s ace and went one down.

Silver did better when he ducked the first trick, leaving East on play. He knew this particular East would not have seven hearts, and hoped that East would reveal a little more about his side-suit shape.

Had East shifted to a club, for example, it would have been a fair bet that he had a singleton, and thus not a singleton trump. East might also have been tempted to shift to a diamond if he had a doubleton, allowing Silver to build up a count on the hand. When East actually continued with a second heart, Silver correctly inferred that East had at least three diamonds and at least two clubs. The spade finesse had become the indicated play, so Silver duly played the spade king and a spade to dummy’s 10, scoring up his game.

Accurate declarer play and sharp defense brought a well-deserved vulnerable game swing for one team here.

In one room, against four spades, on the auction shown, West led the club queen, overtaken by the ace, and East returned the heart queen, covered and ruffed. West’s club jack went to declarer’s king, who now played a trump to dummy’s ace and a spade to his king. Then he cashed the heart ace, ruffed a heart, returned to hand with a diamond, ruffed a heart, led another diamond to the king, and ruffed his last heart with dummy’s last trump. Now a diamond from dummy finished East, the defense coming to just one more trick.

In the other room East opened a weak two hearts and South jumped to the final contract of three no-trump. West led the club queen, taken by East’s ace.The club 10 was returned, ducked by South and overtaken by West who cleared the suit.

Declarer was home if he could make four spade tricks. At trick four he advanced the spade seven, intending to duck this to East, the safe hand. But West astutely rose with the queen, which forced declarer to win in dummy, thereby blocking the run of the spade suit. Although declarer could now finesse East for the jack, that would still only give him eight tricks. So South’s only realistic chance was to hope West had begun with the doubleton Q-J of spades, so South played a spade to his king. It wasn’t his lucky day — two down.

They say it is always darkest before the dawn, but the reverse may hold true. Occasionally one finds that just when things look rosiest is when the world is about to fall apart. In today's deal South, declarer in six spades, counted 12 top winners in the form of six trump tricks and six tricks in aces and kings. He assumed that he could pitch his heart on the clubs, then ruff a diamond in dummy after drawing trump.

However, this was on the assumption that trumps were going to break either 2-2 or 3-1. When he laid down the spade ace and found that was not the case, a reappraisal was called for. It might have looked safe to ruff a club in hand, then cross to dummy with a heart to ruff another club, but South could see that one bad break in spades might engender a further bad break in the other major. In the unlikely event that hearts broke 6-0, West could ruff in on the first round of hearts, then cash a diamond winner.

Leaving nothing to chance, South played the club ace, ruffed a club high at trick three, then led a low spade to the seven in dummy. He next ruffed a second club high and led his remaining small trump to dummy’s nine. He could draw the last trump, discarding a diamond from hand, and ended up with 12 tricks the hard way.

Agnes Wesseling of the Netherlands is a familiar face at European tournaments. In today's deal she was playing with her regular Dutch partner, Betty Speelman, in a women's knockout event.

She had reached three no-trump after North’s pre-emptive opening bid, when that player suggested club values and a nonminimum hand at her second turn.

West led the heart five to dummy’s queen and East’s ace. East returned the heart 10, which was ducked, and another heart won by declarer’s king.

Declarer now crossed to dummy’s club queen and played a spade to her 10. She next led a diamond to dummy’s ace. What was East to do? If she didn’t unblock her diamond king, South would have an easy route to success. She would simply take another spade finesse, then cash the spade ace, and concede a spade, establishing four spade tricks, one heart, one diamond and three clubs.

Accordingly, East unblocked the diamond king. Now if declarer had pursued the above line, she would have lost one spade, three hearts and a diamond, since East would have re-opened a line of communication to her partner’s hand, allowing West to cash the long heart.

However, declarer switched tack. She took a spade finesse as before and cashed the ace, but when the suit did not break, she played off her top clubs and exited with a heart. West could win this and cash the diamond queen, but had to concede a diamond to dummy’s jack at trick 13.

It is encouraging to see that many young people are once again turning to bridge, as it is proven that the logical thought processes involved in playing the game carry over to other subjects.

I came across this problem, set by Tommy Gullberg while trawling through some of the bulletins produced at the Nordic Junior Bridge Camp. Why not cover the East-West hands and test your declarer play in three no-trump?

West leads the spade five; the queen is played from dummy (in the hope of retaining an entry to hand) but East covers with the king. How do you play safely to make the game, regardless of the lie of the cards in the East and West hands?

Win East’s king with your ace and play the diamond two to dummy’s nine. The nine holds — the defenders have no intention of voluntarily allowing you access to your hand. Next, lead dummy’s diamond three to your ace. Now play the diamond queen, on which dummy’s spade 10 must be discarded. And if the king has not put in an appearance, carry on with diamonds.

The defenders are now stymied, since they cannot set up their spades without allowing you access to the South hand. So, when in with the diamond king, the defenders change direction and attack in hearts. But in return you also change tack and set about knocking out the club ace and king. This way you will have garnered nine tricks via one spade, three hearts, two diamonds and three clubs.

Suit preference is a powerful tool in the right hands — but every partnership needs to be aware of when that signal conveys attitude and count, and when it is something else.

Today’s deal came in the qualifying rounds of the New York Grand National teams heat. When dummy came down in four hearts, West relaxed, assuming that a dummy this weak could never offer South a chance to make his game.

(Incidentally, there is quite a good case for subverting a response of two clubs after a takeout double as a constructive raise to two hearts; so the sequence at the table would show 4-6 points.)

South won the trump lead in hand and led a club up. West won his ace and got out with a second club. Declarer could pitch his spade loser on the club king, then surrender a diamond for an easy 10 tricks.

By contrast, in the other room, when declarer led a club toward dummy and West won his ace, East dropped the jack under it. That might look dangerous, but East knew that while his side’s spade tricks might get away, declarer would never be able to discard a diamond loser. So long as the defenders cashed their spades now, his side would collect any diamond tricks that they were due. And so it proved.

In today's deal after West opens one heart, South protects with one spade, then jumps to four spades when North cue-bids two hearts to show a good hand. As East, do you want to encourage or discourage on the lead of the heart king?

The point of today’s deal is that defensive signaling is not just about likes and dislikes. Everything has to be viewed in the context of the whole hand.

East must encourage on the opening lead for two reasons. The first is that he fears that a shift to either minor-suit might blow a trick. The second reason is that East can see the possibility that a third round of hearts might promote a trump trick for his side.

Meanwhile, afterthe two top hearts are cashed, the most difficult part of the defense comes at trick three — though I suspect Mrs. Guggenheim might get it right without realizing the subtlety of the position. The point is that West must now cash the diamond ace before the rats get at it. East discourages, of course, and now a third round of hearts will force dummy to ruff and allow East’s spade jack to become the setting trick.

The point is that if West does not take the diamond ace before playing the third heart, declarer ruffs with the spade queen, then cashes the spade king. Now he crosses to hand in clubs and takes the spade ace. He can subsequently run the clubs and dispose of his diamond loser on the fourth club.

On today's deal, even though game cannot be made, it very definitely should be bid. North should assume that if the clubs run, declarer will come close to making his game, while if not, even two no-trump may struggle. With a balanced hand, North should give no thought to playing five clubs. Again, while there are hands where the suit game makes and no-trump does not, there are many more hands where the reverse is true.

What should West lead to the first trick? Violent battles have been fought on this subject; but my least favorite lead is a spade. That rates to give up a trick, often for nothing, and even if you can establish the spade suit, you won’t ensure the defeat of the contract from that suit alone. If you do lead a heart, please lead the eight not the six. This deal is a fine example of how hard East would find it to read MUD (middle from three small cards).

Let’s say you lead the heart eight. Seeing insufficient defensive prospects from that heart suit, and with the menace of the long club suit on the table, East should realize that defensive tricks will need to be taken in a hurry if the contract is to be defeated. Spades offer the only hope. East, therefore, wins the heart ace and shifts to a spade, but, lacking a subsequent quick entry, should lead the jack in the hope that West holds four spades headed by the ace-queen.