When there is a long solid suit in dummy — or even one that looks as if it will set up easily — it often pays to grab whatever tricks might be available to the defense before they disappear.

Today’s deal cropped up in the European Champions Cup of 2007. Against four spades, West led his singleton club, won in dummy. Then declarer called for the trump two, to the three, jack and queen. Seeking to put his partner on lead for the club ruff, West continued with the diamond queen. Dummy played low, as did East. A second diamond went to the king and ace and was ruffed by South, who proceeded to knock out the trump ace. Now East’s club return was too late. West was fresh out of trump, and South’s third heart departed on dummy’s fifth club.

At the second table, the play to the first two tricks replicated those at the other table. But when West, Albert Faigenbaum, returned the diamond queen at trick three and declarer called for dummy’s six, Michel Bessis rose with the ace and delivered the club ruff that set the contract. He had noted the danger of dummy’s clubs and also took into consideration the lead itself. Surely a diamond lead, from a suit headed by the queen and jack would have been preferable, unless West’s club lead was a singleton.

Incidentally, should West have shifted to a low diamond at trick three to avoid this particular dilemma for East? I think so.

Both sides' double-fit will encourage plenty of overbidding. But at this vulnerability East-West rate not to go beyond the five-level, while North has rather too many losers to risk Blackwood at his second turn. Mind you, six spades depends only on a successful club finesse, and if North bids on to five spades over five hearts, South might well raise to six.

The next question is what West should lead at trick one. A case could be made for a diamond; however, most Wests will lead a heart — but which? I like the idea of advancing the queen, retaining the lead while you plan what to do when the dummy comes down. Of course, things do not work out as planned, and it is East who has to lead to the second trick.

East will know that two more tricks are needed to defeat the contract. Since the club suit will yield one trick at most and West’s lead surely denies a club void, a trick will have to come from the trump or diamond suit. To set up his side’s potential diamond trick, East must play his partner for the diamond king and shift to that suit. If you found the answer, well done!

But that is not the full story. To avoid being thrown-in with the second diamond after the major suits have been eliminated, East must switch to the diamond queen at trick two, or he will be fatally endplayed with a diamond at the end of trick five.

The general rule about winning or ducking tricks is that when in doubt ,you should win the trick if you can. But there is a whole class of positions where ducking in a suit in which you do have the top cards has a much more devious purpose than generating extra tricks from that suit alone. Your duck is strategic, in that it relates to the play in the side suits, and not just in the suit itself.

Imagine that on today’s deal you play in four spades, that being the only suit bid, and West leads the heart jack. If you take this and draw trump before conceding a heart, East will surely win the third heart and should find the diamond switch. This will be enough to beat the contract when the club finesse loses.

But say that you duck the first trick and follow with the eight, trying to make East’s spot card look as large as possible. West will surely feel happy about continuing with the heart 10, won’t he? That will give you time to develop a heart, on which you will discard one of dummy’s losing diamonds.

Do you blame West for not shifting to a diamond? It is hard to be too critical, since you might hold a 5-4-3-1 pattern with your actual honors — except that you have the diamond ace, not the heart ace. Now a diamond switch would be the only way to let the contract through.

In today's deal, West may be strong but his honors are not put together well. While he has a maximum for a bid of two diamonds, a two-level overcall should show a decent hand. When the auction gets back to him at four spades, it would be very dangerous to act again.

Having said that, East has the right shape if not the high cards to consider bidding four no-trump over four spades to show the unbid suits.

Assuming West leads the diamond king against four spades, many declarers will put up the ace. East will ruff, and play a club through for a quick one down. South will claim to be unlucky, and probably no one will say anything more (unless North is the pedantic sort). However, a nitpicker in the North seat will tell declarer that it was ‘obvious’ that diamonds were 6-0; and even if they were not, what harm could it do to duck the first trick? Even if East had a diamond all along, with West on lead at the end of trick one, the best he can do is cash the club ace before dummy’s clubs go away.

Is that all there is to it? Not at all! East might leap to South’s defense and tell North that it would not have done declarer any good to duck the first trick, since East was planning to ruff his partner’s winner and find the club shift. After that, no one should have anything more to say.

There was an element of Ping-Pong in today's deal, which cropped up in the later stages of a recent U.S. Teams Trials.

South’s two-club bid on the second round was a relay, setting up a forcing sequence. When South emphasized his spades rather than introducing his clubs, the second-best slam was reached. Six spades is not a hopeless spot, but it looks doomed because of the 6-2 heart break.

However, when West led the club jack, declarer won in dummy with the king. He then cashed the spade ace and king before leading a diamond from the dummy. East went in with the ace (perhaps expecting that West would have led a diamond from his actual holding) and declarer ruffed.

Now declarer had 12 tricks; but when he crossed to dummy’s heart king and played the diamond king, he did not yet know that clubs were breaking. So he discarded a club from his hand. Now when his attempt to ruff a heart in dummy was overruffed, he had to go one down.

Do you see where declarer went wrong? It was an error to play the diamond king when he did; he should have played the club ace first. If both opponents follow, he draws the last trump and concedes a club, later crossing to dummy with a club to discard a heart on the diamond king. However, if someone shows out on the club, he plays the heart ace and ruffs a heart before pitching a club on the diamond king.

Staying in control of dummy's entries would have been the key to success on today's deal. North correctly did not introduce his diamond suit at his first turn, and saw no reason to look any further than the no-trump slam when South showed a balanced hand.

Against six no-trump, West led the club 10, and declarer appreciated that he needed to bring in the diamond suit to make the slam. Of course, had dummy’s redundant spade jack been the diamond jack, the slam would have been foolproof.

South won the club lead with dummy’s king, then led a low diamond to his king. Returning to dummy in hearts, declarer played a second diamond. East smartly rose with the ace to return a heart, taking out dummy’s last entry. Although the diamonds could be set up after the queen dropped the jack, declarer needed a helicopter to reach the rest of the suit. One more option remained — the heart king might have dropped the jack — but when that failed, so did the slam.

South had allowed East to disrupt dummy’s entries. See the difference if declarer wins the first club in hand. Next comes a heart to dummy, for a diamond to the king. When that holds, a second heart to dummy is followed by another diamond, and now East is helpless. If he rises with the ace and returns a club, declarer wins in hand, cashes the diamond queen, collecting the jack, then a club to dummy’s king reunites him with the rest of the diamond suit.

Today's deal comes from last year's world junior championships, featuring interesting problems in both rooms from the match between England and China. In the first room West opened one diamond and North made a light takeout double. East raised to two diamonds and South doubled for takeout. When North bid three clubs, South continued with three spades, and North raised to game. This was a poor contract, which duly went one down on a diamond lead.

In the other room, West also opened one diamond, but here the English pair handled the bidding better, and Tom Paske (South) became declarer in three no-trump on the auction shown.

On a diamond lead, declarer put up dummy’s jack and East covered with the queen. Declarer ducked the first diamond and won the next round, the opponents’ carding suggesting that diamonds were 4-4. Given East’s silence in the auction, declarer laid down the club ace, and when the jack dropped, he could drive out the king and later take the spade finesse. Three spades, three clubs, two hearts and one diamond added up to nine tricks and 12 IMPs to England.

In isolation, the right play in clubs for three tricks is to take two finesses, but in light of the bidding, South’s play was clearly right since West had opened the bidding and East had already shown up with the diamond queen. With only 15 points missing, it was almost certain that West had the club king.

In this deal from the Yeh Bros. there were two leads to trouble South's three no-trump. Tony Nunn of Australia led a top spade against Hiroki Kaku's three no-trump. Declarer won in dummy to lead a heart to the jack and queen. Nunn shifted to a diamond to the nine and Sartaj Hans' 10, ducked by declarer, who also ducked the next diamond.

Now a spade came back, so declarer ran the spade and diamond winners. This forced West to discard a club, after which declarer played three rounds of clubs to throw West in, forced to lead hearts into the tenace. (Note that had Hans tried the ruse of false-carding with the diamond queen on the first round of the suit, declarer might have won the trick — and been sunk without a trace).

At another table, where North was declarer in three no-trump, Peter Newell of New Zealand led the diamond queen, ducked all around. After a spade shift, declarer Shen Jiaxing won in dummy and finessed in clubs, then led a heart to the 10 and queen. Martin Reid as West returned a diamond, and declarer took it, cashed all the spades, (East discarding a heart, West a club) then exited with a third diamond to East.

If Newell cashed his last diamond, declarer would discard a heart from dummy and catch West in a simple squeeze. If East did not cash his diamond, but exited with either a heart or a club, Reid would be thrown in with that suit a trick later, to concede an extra trick in the other suit.