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.

Today's deal dates back 75 years — it originally appeared in an American magazine in 1938. The deal was set as a puzzle for readers to solve.The contract was six spades, on the lead of the diamond king.

Imagine that you win the diamond lead and run your trumps. You hope that at least one defender if not both will retain their hearts to prevent you from running the suit. Now you can cash your club winners and cut loose with a diamond, hoping that someone will have to give you a winner in dummy at trick 13. But that is hardly a guarantee, and indeed, as the cards lie, as long as West retains two diamonds, the slam will fail.

The solution does not rely on defensive error, and once you have seen the theme, you may kick yourself if you didn’t find it at the table. All you have to do is to duck the diamond king. Now if a second diamond is led, declarer can arrange a diamond ruff in dummy. If West shifts to a trump to kill the ruff, the diamond ace remains in dummy to provide an entry to the heart king after all the trumps have been drawn.

In a sense, ducking the first diamond requires the defenders to do two things at once to defeat the slam — namely, to play a trump and to continue with diamonds. If you win the first diamond, you accomplish one of those things for the defense.

Against four spades West had a comfortable lead of the diamond king, and declarer saw things in a simple light. He won the lead, drew trump ending in dummy, then led a heart to the king and ace. When the hearts split badly, all he could do was grumble at his bad luck; but he had missed a far better line for the contract.

Declarer started well when he won the diamond ace at the first trick. The last thing he wanted to do was allow the defenders a chance to shift to trumps. To eke out 10 tricks, South should realize what he needs to do is insure two tricks for his side in hearts. If East holds the ace, or if the suit breaks evenly, this will be simplicity itself. But the possibility that West held the heart ace together with a bad break in that suit, must be considered.

In such an eventuality, declarer’s 10th trick can come only from a fourth-round ruff in dummy. Therefore, correct technique is to lead hearts at once before touching trump. However, if (as they should) the opponents shift to trump, the spade queen should be retained in dummy to allow a safe ruff of the fourth heart.

By the way, do you think West was blameless here? A good case can be made for passing up the lead of the diamond sequence, and kicking off with a trump instead. Then declarer would have been sunk.

In today's deal from a teams game when West led a traditional fourth-highest club three against three no-trump, it suggested that the clubs would be breaking 4-4. Assuming, then, that there were only going to be three club losers if the defenders gained the lead, one declarer won the third club, crossed to dummy with the spade king, and took the diamond finesse.

This looked like a fair bet — it would bring home the bacon when East had the diamond king, or if there were an even spade break. And had West taken the first diamond, declarer would also have been able to take the heart finesse after testing spades. However, West smoothly ducked the first diamond finesse and took his king when the finesse was repeated. Now there was no entry to the table for a heart finesse.

An alternative line would have been to play the heart ace and queen before using up dummy’s entry. The snag is that the heart queen will surely be allowed to hold the trick. Now when the diamond finesse loses, the defenders may well have five tricks to cash.

However, try the effect, after winning the club ace, of leading the heart queen from hand! What can go wrong? If the queen loses to the king, the hearts can be established, and there is no need for a diamond finesse. And if the heart queen is ducked, crossing to the spade king and playing on diamonds will yield at least nine tricks.

Several bridge conventions were invented to protect the stronger hand on opening lead, and also to keep it hidden. This is part of the reason for playing transfers after one-no-trump and two-no-trump openings, though in my opinion at least as important a consideration is that the transfer bid allows you an extra tier of bidding.

My view is that the issue of making the strong hand declarer is of relatively limited value. I have seen plenty of deals where it is better to play from the weaker hand. But in today’s deal, North used the Smolen convention to show five spades and four hearts at his second turn, and South became declarer in four spades.

West led the diamond three, and East guessed to win the ace and continue with a second diamond. Declarer won with the king, pitching a club, drew three rounds of trump, and played a heart. West won the ace and played another diamond. South ruffed in the dummy, drew the last trump, cashed his hearts, and played a club. When East had to win but had no more diamonds, four spades scraped home.

Though it looks illogical, East can beat four spades only by switching to a heart when in with her diamond ace. West must duck the trick, leaving declarer forced to ruff a diamond to dummy to draw the last trump. West now ducks the next heart and wins the third. When the defenders play two rounds of clubs, declarer is cut off either from his hand or from dummy.