At the Senior World Championships in Bali last September, the Scots qualified for the knockout stages in their first-ever world championship appearance. But they came off second best in this deal against Belgium, where Guy Polet was up to the challenge in four spades doubled.

The opening lead was a heart to the jack and ace, ruffed by declarer. Polet next led a diamond to the ace and a club to the queen and king. West then played the queen of diamonds around to South’s king. South now advanced a low club from hand, and West, after some thought, played low, letting East in. He returned the heart 10 to the king in dummy, declarer discarding a club. Declarer had lost two clubs so far, and knew he had one more loser in diamonds. He was faced with the need to pick up spades for no losers.

At this point, declarer had to choose between finding the singleton king of spades with East or the singleton jack with West. Given East’s double of four spades, it was not really a guess at all. Polet led the spade queen from the dummy, and when the jack fell, he was home. He could repeat the finesse against the spade king, draw the last trump, then give up a diamond. The diamond 10 was the game-going trick.

Exciting stuff — particularly when you learn that in the other room the hand was passed out! Just for the record, Scotland won the match anyway, despite the loss here.

This week's deals all come from the 2013 world championships in Bali, held exactly a year ago. Linda Cartner of the New Zealand Women's team had to defend perfectly to defeat the Indonesian women's contract of five hearts doubled in this deal from their round-robin match.

Glenis Palmer’s two-spade opening was weak, showing five spades and a four-card or longer minor, and Indonesia’s Lusje Bojoh had something to spare for her overcall of four hearts. Not surprisingly, when Cartner competed in four spades, Bojoh took the push to five hearts, promptly doubled by Cartner. The lead was the spade king, and declarer ruffed and took six rounds of hearts. In the six-card ending, Cartner came down to her master spade, both her diamond honors, and king-third of clubs. Meanwhile, dummy kept three clubs, a diamond and two spades. Declarer next played the club queen, and Cartner found the killing defense of ducking. If she wins, declarer can get to dummy’s long club and loses only one trick in each minor. Bojoh continued with ace and a third club, but Cartner could win and play the spade ace. Declarer had to ruff and lead away from the diamond king for one down, plus 100 to New Zealand.

Cartner had to come down to these exact six cards in the ending. If she throws a second club, she can no longer duck the club queen, while if she keeps three diamonds and no spade, she will have to lead diamonds for declarer after winning the third club.

Today's deal seems to be a simple enough declarer-play problem, but there are hidden depths that make the problem more challenging than it first appears.

South has no good way to make a slam-try below the level of game. Doubling, then jumping to four spades, sounds like a moose. However, North has no reason to contemplate moving beyond game, which is just as well today.

When dummy comes down on the lead of the heart queen, South should assume that he has 10 tricks unless trumps do not break, but he needs to plan what to do in case of bad splits. He wins the heart ace, then plays the spade ace andking to reveal the bad news. Now the secret is to find a way to turn the unpromising prospects in the North or South hand into an extra trick.

First South cashes one top club (in case East has Q-J-third of clubs and forgets to drop an honor), then plays a diamond. West wins the ace and exits with a second top heart. Declarer must win and continue with the club king, followed by the club three. When East wins, he can do no better than force South with his remaining club winner. After ruffing the fourth club, South plays his remaining top spade and another spade to endplay East. That player has only diamonds left, and so declarer’s heart loser disappears on dummy’s diamond king.

The White House Junior International is held every spring, attracting players from all around the world. Four years ago almost 150 juniors, including those from as far afield as Australia, Japan and the USA, arrived in Amsterdam for the event. Juniors tend to bid the spots off the cards, so for example the semifinals saw three of the four teams arrive in six hearts. All the declarers were successful, so their card-play proved that their confidence was not misplaced.

The bidding at one table was as shown in the diagram. West led the club ace, then switched to a low spade. Not surprisingly, the spade jack held the lead. How should South try to bring home 12 tricks now? Declarer had to negotiate trumps, but while that would be necessary, it would not be sufficient. South worked out what he needed when he played off the heart ace and took a successful trump finesse. The heart king drew the last defensive trump, then another spade finesse was followed by the spade ace for a diamond discard. Dummy’s remaining heart was overtaken in hand and the last heart cashed, West discarding a diamond and a club. But finally the club king squeezed West in diamonds and spades and the slam came home.

The key to the hand was the trump finesse. For the slam to succeed, West needed to hold at least three diamonds, and so be susceptible to a squeeze — which in turn implied he could be assumed to have short hearts.

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.