When you feel confident that your side has a game on, but the opponents bid on to sacrifice in a suit that outranks yours, you have to resist the temptation to go chasing rainbows. If the best you can do is defeat their game, then make sure you go plus, rather than ruing what might have been.

In today’s deal West led the heart five against four spades doubled, and on winning with the ace, East returned a trump. He had failed to take into account the threat posed by dummy’s clubs. Even if South did not have the club queen, declarer would surely discard his losing diamonds on clubs if given the opportunity.

The only chance for the defense appears to be to establish two diamond winners before East’s club ace is knocked out. For that to work, West must hold the diamond jack. So, a low diamond at trick two may be desperate, but it looks to be the only chance, and when West turns up with the jack, the game fails.

The blame was not all East’s, though. West knew there was at most one heart trick coming for the defense. Since he had no re-entry, why not lead the heart king, taking a peek at dummy to gauge where next to attack? Had he done so, East would have followed with the heart queen, suit preference for the higher-ranked minor, and the deal would have been over.

When this four-spade deal came up at the Dyspeptics Club, all four players joined in a post-mortem that was (as usual) distinguished by considerably more heat than light.

After winning the heart opening lead, East had shifted to a low club at trick two. Declarer drew trumps and gave up a diamond, after which the defenders took one heart but then played a second club, allowing declarer to make his game.

North accused South of being an idiot. South told North that East should have found the fatal shift to a trump at trick two. Meanwhile, East was trying to explain to West why he could never have worked out that South would play this way when holding three losing hearts. West said East knew South well enough never to make such an assumption. Who was right? Can declarer make his game against best defense?

As to whether East could ever have worked out how to defend, the answer might have been easier for him if West were playing ‘third-and-lowest’ leads. Even then, the heart three might have been from 9-6-3-2 if South concealed the two. Still, West’s signal on the first club should have made it clear to East who had the club king.

But to sum up: Best defense after the heart lead is a trump shift. Declarer wins with the spade ace and ducks a diamond. Now, as long as diamonds are 3-2 and spades no worse than 4-2, declarer cannot be defeated.

Today's deal comes from Patrick Jourdain's "Problem Corner," published by Master Point Press, an excellent collection of problem hands. The author sets the challenge here: How should West play six diamonds on a spade lead?

One perfectly sensible approach is to draw trumps and rely on clubs breaking (protecting yourself against the unlikely eventuality of West’s having the length by starting clubs with a lead to dummy’s ace). If clubs do not break, you can fall back on the heart finesse — a line that gives you close to a 95 percent chance of success since West is relatively unlikely to have six spades and four clubs. Moreover, if he does, the heart finesse is almost sure to work. However, this line would fail against the lie of the cards today.

This is admittedly truly unlucky, but you can do better. Win the spade lead and make sure of the contract by drawing the trump, then eliminating the majors with a ruff in each hand. Now you can lead a low club from either hand, and when the next player plays low, put in the eight (or nine as the case may be). If on the first club a defender follows high, win that trick and duck the next club by leading to the spot-card in the other hand.

In either case, the defenders are helpless. Either the clubs will break, or whichever player wins the trick will be endplayed.

In today's deal what should East do if North jumps to three spades at his first turn to speak? As three spades will go down at least one trick, the winning action for the defenders is undoubtedly to double — but only if your partner passes it out. If partner interprets the double as takeout, as he probably should, this will lead to a decent 5-3 fit in clubs rather than a shaky 4-3 fit in a red suit. Four clubs should be defeated on correct defense, but any other four-level contract by East-West will fare considerably worse. Plus 100 for East-West on this deal was worth a healthy matchpoint score, while plus 50 would have earned them a score of just above average.

However, where Geir Helgemo and Nathalie Frey were defending three spades doubled (North having made the tactical error of raising to two spades initially, then competing to three spades over three diamonds), Frey as West led a trump. When declarer drew three rounds of trump, she pitched clubs. Declarer now led a club to the queen and king, and Helgemo accurately shifted to hearts. The defenders cashed out the hearts, then played two more rounds of clubs. This forced declarer to lead diamonds for himself and go down 300.

Had the defenders continued clubs before leading hearts, declarer would have ruffed the third round of clubs and exited in hearts. That would have forced the defenders eventually to lead diamonds, eliminating declarer’s loser in that suit.

In today's deal South rates to play four hearts, and West has a comfortable lead of the diamond jack. Over to you as declarer: How should you be thinking about the deal after the defenders continue diamonds, allowing you to win the second trick in your hand? And how would your strategy vary depending on whether you are playing teams (or rubber bridge) as opposed to pairs?

Let’s take the simplest of situations. At teams or rubber scoring, South knows he can afford to lose two trump tricks but not three. Looking for the best safety play is therefore indicated. If trumps divide 2-2 or 3-1, there will be no problem. Neither will all four hearts in East prove troublesome. But the possibility of all four trumps being held by West must not be ignored. Declarer’s first trump lead therefore must be the nine, eight or seven toward dummy’s ace, ducking if West follows with the six. These tactics hold West to two trump tricks and insure the success of the contract.

At matchpoints the situation is far more complex since if the whole field plays in four hearts, failing to make the overtrick will be extremely expensive. My best guess would be to win the second diamond and cross to the spade ace to lead a low heart from dummy. If East follows suit with anything but the king, you will cover his card, combining absolute safety with a decent gambling chance to make the overtrick.

Sometimes even the most promising hand proves to be a disappointment. In the Spring Foursomes, English international Sally Brock held the East hand.. Although no one likes to make a takeout double without holding the spade suit, here, with 22 high-card points, she did not see a sensible choice. When South's four spade bid came around to her, again, she didn't see any alternative to doubling.

Against four spades, West led the heart nine, which declarer won, took a spade finesse, and rattled off lots of trump. However, in the five-card ending (after all the trumps), dummy was squeezed before East was. Try as he could, declarer could take no more than nine tricks.

But suppose declarer ducks the first heart. Best defense is to switch to the diamond king (now declarer cannot both ruff his diamonds good and take the spade finesse), but that is very hard to find. Suppose, instead, East passively returns another heart.

Now declarer wins, takes the trump finesse, and plays off all his trumps. The last four cards in his hand are one heart, one diamond and two clubs. Dummy holds two diamonds and two clubs. What does East do? She has to keep a heart and two diamonds, so keeps only one club. Then declarer will simply play a club, establishing a winner in that suit, which he can reach via the diamond ace.

Hugh Kelsey represented Scotland 12 times in Camrose matches (the home countries open international series) and won every major Scottish bridge title, as well as the Gold Cup, England's strongest team event, twice. Originally a teacher, he tried rubber-planting and novel writing before finding his true metier as a bridge writer — authoring or co-authoring about 50 books. The deal featured below is taken from "The Tough Game."

In a fictional Gold Cup final, you were originally shown only the North and West hands. North had opened the bidding with one diamond; South had responded one spade, and after extracting spade preference, South had gone on to game.

West led the heart jack against four spades and, after two rounds of the suit had clarified the position, East had the problem of organizing a fourth trick for the defense. The danger of playing passively (for example, exiting with a trump) lay in declarer being able to establish dummy’s diamonds. Nor would the ace and another club be sufficient, for then declarer would be able to bring in his clubs and would not need the diamonds.

Sherlock Holmes’ line is on point, about settling for the unlikely when you have eliminated the impossible. At trick three you must rely on partner’s low club at trick two, indicating a club honor. So at trick three return a low club, in the hope that partner can win and return a club. Now, whatever he tries, declarer is a trick short.

Today's deal, from a Danish Teams' Championship, strikes me as a good example of how it may not be sufficient to find the best play. You also need to make the play in good tempo so as to make your opponents' lives harder.

With little practical information being conveyed to the opponents, South ended in the unattractive contract of six hearts. When West led the spade jack against the slam, declarer saw serious problems ahead. One spade discard on the diamond king — even if it proved to be a trick — would not help, and even if the ruffing finesse in clubs was right (with East holding the king), there was only one quick entry to dummy.

At some tables, in the same contract, declarer won in hand and tried a diamond. With the ace badly placed, South had no practical chances, and had to lose a spade as well as a diamond.

Only one declarer succeeded in the slam. He appreciated that, to use the clubs, dummy would need two entries, so he allowed West’s spade jack to win the first trick. Clearly a diamond switch would have beaten the contract out of hand, but West, who was not clairvoyant, continued spades at trick two.

Now it was all over. South won, drew trump, cashed the club ace, and led the spade nine to the king. The club queen was covered and ruffed, and dummy was re-entered with the spade eight, allowing South to discard his losing diamond on the winning club.

Today's deal is not just about understanding the percentage table at bridge, but is also about how to apply your knowledge — and equally when to ignore the mathematics and use your bridge instincts instead.

When you declare three no-trump, you receive the club queen lead. On winning the trick, you realize you have precisely one tempo in reserve before the opponents can set up the clubs, then run the suit. Should you go after diamonds, spades, or hearts?

If you know your percentages, you will be aware that the chance of setting up diamonds for one loser (by finding the suit 2-2) is fractionally better than that of bringing in the spades for four tricks by finding that suit 3-3.

Just for the record, both chances are slightly better than one in three. However, that is not the point. Declarer can go after spades without losing the lead, but the same is not true for diamonds. So declarer should win the opening lead and immediately test the spades. When they prove to be 3-3, he plays on hearts, coming to nine tricks without risk, via six tricks in the majors and three in the minors. If the spades are 4-2 (or worse), declarer can change tack. He can play on diamonds, hoping for a 2-2 division. If his luck changes, then he takes three tricks in spades and six winners in the minors, to reach his target by another route.