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.

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.