Today's deal sees how modern bidding and the use of conventions can occasionally solve what could be knotty problems in the auction. (Of course, as we shall see, it is all very well to bid to the best contract, but you also have to make it!).

North described his powerhouse by bidding his long suits, then repeating his spades, in an auction that his partnership played as game-forcing. Over South’s rebid of three no-trump, North decided to commit the hand to slam, and his jump to five no-trump offered a choice of slams, strongly suggesting his precise hand pattern. South was delighted to propose playing in his chunky five-card suit, and North had no reason to mistrust his partner’s judgment.

Take a moment or two – or maybe more – to plan the play in six clubs on the lead of a top heart. The normal route seems to rely on ruffing out the spades (taking heart ruffs in dummy seems to set up trump winners for the defenders). But the risk of overruffs or losing control is very real. So what plan is best?

The answer is to win the heart ace and immediately to duck a spade! The defenders can achieve nothing by forcing dummy to ruff a heart – declarer unblocks the trump king, ruffs a spade in hand, then draws trump and claims. Likewise, on a diamond return at trick three, declarer wins the king, crosses to the club king, ruffs a spade, then can draw trump, using the diamond ace as the entry for the spades.

Hands as strong as South's frequently pose a problem on the rebid. In my opinion it is the smallest lie to jump to two no-trump here, because you can still often find your way back to spades when that is appropriate, while you have simultaneously limited your hand and right-sided the play in no-trump. As you can see, three no-trump would have been a comfortable spot.

But at the table South did not see it that way. He invented a call in a nonexistent club suit, and after that his partnership did quite well to stay out of the hopeless diamond slam.

How should you plan the play for 11 tricks in diamonds after the lead of the club queen? The point is that should the heart ace be offside, the contract will almost certainly be defeated — unless West can somehow be thrown in on the third round of spades, with that suit breaking 3-3. But you can do better than that. In fact the game can always be made if either spades split or the heart ace is onside.

If spades break 3-3, a discard can be found for a losing heart by ducking the opening lead. Then declarer wins the club ace, draws trump, and discards a spade on the club king. He ruffs out the spades and can eventually re-enter dummy with a trump to cash the long spade. If spades do not break, declarer falls back on the heart ace being onside.

The world is full of stories of bridge deals where a ridiculous play succeeded, or the correct play failed. In today's example West was not only a fine player, but also a practical joker. Moreover, he was playing against two of his least favorite opponents, both of whom could be relied on to bid accurately, but neither of whom possessed a detectable sense of humor.

A competitive auction saw North-South reach four hearts after flirting with a slam-try. When West led his singleton diamond, he could see prospects of defeating the game would hinge on whether his partner had both the ace and king of diamonds. If so, the defenders could surely take two diamonds and two trump tricks.

Alas for West, when East won his diamond ace and continued with the diamond queen, it was South who had the diamond king. It was easy for the defenders to take three tricks, but where would the fourth come from? East surely had no more than one trump.

Inspiration dawned! The defenders might prevail if East had the singleton heart king. West ruffed the second diamond with his heart ace and led his small trump to his partner, giving him the entry to cash the diamond jack for one down.

At the end of the deal West leant forward and apologized for accidentally wasting his heart ace. “If I had ruffed low, would we have beaten them two tricks?” he asked, and was rewarded when South started banging his head on the table.

In today's deal North first showed a limit raise, then indirectly defined his hand by suggesting three no-trump as a final contract. Notwithstanding that, South felt he was worth a slam try of four clubs, and as soon as he found the heart control opposite, he drove to slam, assuming that his partner must have a top spade for his no-trump call at his second turn.

The small slam certainly looks like a fine spot, but the bad trump break complicated matters somewhat. However, South was equal to the task.

The opening lead of the heart queen was taken in dummy, and a low trump was led to South’s queen, disclosing the bad split.

When West discarded, South led out the diamond king and surrendered the trick to West’s ace. Back came a spade, which declarer won in dummy. He next ruffed a diamond low, then had to take the risk of crossing to a second spade in dummy to ruff another diamond. Now came the club ace and two more rounds of trump, extracting all of East’s clubs. This produced a three-card ending, in which dummy had the spade three and diamond jack, plus a small heart, while South discarded his spade ace to retain three hearts. West could not discard his spade jack or diamond queen without setting up a winner in dummy for a repeating squeeze on himself, so he pitched a heart. Declarer now led to his heart king and cashed his two remaining hearts to bring home the slam.

In today's deal South was looking at a complex hand when he heard his partner jump to two no-trump to show the minors. On the plus side for defense he had a void in one of his partner's two suits, and additionally he had the ace and king of hearts in a suit where he knew his partner was likely to be short. As against that, the vulnerability was right to try to push the opponents around, and he did have a big fit for diamonds. That was enough to tempt him to jump all the way to game. West doubled, and found the incisive lead of ace and another trump. (Had he not done so, declarer would have developed the play on crossruff lines and collected 12 tricks if he judged the play well.)

After the repeated trump leads, declarer has only 10 top tricks (two hearts, one spade and seven trumps) because of the bad heart break. Can you see what declarer should do to overcome this defense?

Declarer won the second trump on board and immediately passed the heart 10 around to West’s jack. West tried the club king next, but declarer ruffed and cashed the heart ace and king, throwing clubs from dummy.

Next came the heart nine for a ruffing finesse against West’s queen. West could cover, but declarer’s remaining hearts in hand were good. Declarer had established the extra heart winner for his 11th trick.

One of aspect of constructive bidding that frequently challenges beginners is the idea that when you have shown extra shape in the auction, you are then not obligated to continue showing the same feature of your hand. Instead, as in today's deal, once you have shown spades and diamonds, as South, and partner has suggested heart length and strength, why not try no-trump?

As you can see, trying for nine tricks in no-trump might have been the easiest way to bring home a game today, but South elected to rebid diamonds at his third turn, and soon found himself in the perfectly reasonable contract of five diamonds — doubled by East on general suspicion rather than anything else. Against the suit game West kicked off with the club nine. East took the ace and returned the suit, South’s queen winning. The main danger to the contract now was the threat of a club ruff.

To sidestep the danger, declarer cashed the spade ace and ruffed a spade. The fall of East’s jack simplified the play. Declarer threw the club king on the heart ace, then played the diamond king. East took his ace and played a club. However, South simply ruffed high, drew trump, and claimed.

Even if the spade jack had not fallen, declarer would have been decently placed by relying on a 4-3 spade break.

Today’s deal features several rather subtle points in the play. The auction to three no-trump was straightforward enough, but the final contract was a very unattractive one. The risk of the defenders cashing four hearts and a spade was a high one — and as it turned out, the spade blockage generated other additional problems.

After West led the heart jack East cashed the queen, king and ace, on which West had the opportunity to signal suit preference. By following up the line, with the four then nine, he was strongly suggesting no spade honor. Since East could infer that declarer rated to have his precise distribution, he thoughtfully shifted to a club. When declarer saw what might happen if he played a spade at once (East would win and play a second club to leave the spades blocked), he found an unlikely resource by leading the diamond 10 to his king. Then he played the spade king. East won and continued with his plan by returning a second club. Declarer ran all the clubs, pitching his spade queen, and came down to a three-card ending with the doubleton spade jack and a small diamond in dummy, and the heart eight and the diamond K-9 in hand. East could keep his diamonds but West (forced to keep the doubleton spade 10 and the master heart) had to pitch his last diamond.

Now declarer led out the spade jack to pitch his heart, then finessed the diamond nine for his contract.

The opposition bidding frequently leads declarer toward the winning line. In today’s deal, however, although that should have been the case, the best play was only discovered in the post mortem.

Against three no-trump West led a low spade to the 10 and queen, and now with six top tricks, declarer hoped that hearts, via a 3-3 break, might furnish the other three. A heart to the jack lost to the ace and back came a spade, removing declarer’s last stopper in that suit. When hearts proved to be 4-2, South cashed the club ace then entered dummy with the diamond ace and ran the club 10. It lost, and the spade return saw the speedy demise of the game.

In view of East’s opening bid, South was unlucky to find the club queen offside. But, unless East’s opening bid was an out-and-out psyche, declarer could have guaranteed the contract by entering dummy with the diamond ace and leading the heart four toward his queen. If East rises with the ace, declarer has three heart tricks, to bring the trick count up to the requisite nine.

And if East plays low, the queen wins, and declarer can turn his attention to clubs, where four tricks are always available by playing low to the 10. (Although at pairs, cashing the ace and king would give you a shot at 10 tricks if the queen lies singleton or doubleton, that play would not cater for a 5-1 or 6-0 break.)

Against four spades West leads the club queen, which holds the trick. West then thoughtfully continues with the club 10 to your ace. Everyone follows when you cash the trump ace. What now?

At the table, after winning the club ace, one declarer drew two rounds of trump with the ace and king, discovering the 4-1 break. Next he played on diamonds, but West held up his ace until the third round, then exited with a trump to the dummy’s 10. The contract could no longer be made, since dummy had no more entries and West was poised to ruff a fourth round of diamonds. Declarer had to try a heart, hoping that East held both honors, but it was not to be, and so declarer could not avoid losing four tricks.

The declarer at the second table showed better technique. The first two tricks were the same, but instead of drawing two rounds of trump, he cashed the trump ace, then played on diamonds. Like his counterpart, this West held up the ace until the third round, then exited with a trump, taken by dummy�s 10. Declarer now played a good diamond and threw one of his heart losers. West could do no better than ruff and try a heart. Declarer took East’s queen with the ace and crossed to dummy by playing a trump to the king, drawing West’s last trump. He then cashed the fifth diamond to dispose of his remaining heart and claimed 10 tricks.