This week's deals all come from past NEC tournaments. In today's deal four spades looks a decent spot unless the defenders lead a top club early, as you can play to establish the diamond queen for a club discard. Naturally, at the featured table in a match between Australia and a Beijing squad, the lead was the club king.

Both declarers fell from grace. The Australian declarer took the club lead, cashed a top spade, and played a heart. When a diamond came back, he had no chance to make.

The Chinese declarer won the opening lead and played a heart at once, which East won to play back a club (a diamond was necessary now). West did his best by winning and switching back to hearts, but declarer ruffed and led a club, and the two-two trump break meant he was home.

The board was played at eight tables in the quarter-finals of the main event, but only one declarer, Leon Jacobs of the Netherlands, made four spades by ducking the opening club lead. This might feel as if it risks undertricks, and indeed it does if the clubs split 4-1; but then you were never making your game whatever you did.

The point is that after declarer ducks the club, the defenders can’t continue clubs, or the diamond loser eventually goes away when clubs break 3-2. Even after a heart shift at trick two, followed by a diamond through from East, declarer sets up a diamond discard for the losing club.

Today's deal shows that expert players can make just as many amusing mistakes as their less talented colleagues. In one room the Australian East-West pair had found an excellent vulnerable save in five hearts over four spades, down 200 on a top spade lead.

In the other room it looks as if four spades should be relatively straightforward to make. West led a top club, and now instead of playing on trumps, South made the “expert” play of a heart at trick two to cut the defenders’ communications. West won this and shifted to the diamond queen. Oops… Now declarer could not prevent East from ruffing a diamond and West from ruffing a club for down one.

In the Netherlands-China match South played four spades on the lead of the diamond queen. Declarer won in dummy and led a spade to his hand, Huub Bertens as East ducking because he could see that the ruff would gain his side only one trick, and that this would not be enough.

Now declarer played a heart. The defenders took their diamond ruff and led a club, won in North. At this point when a second trump was played, Bertens took his spade ace and played a second heart, forcing dummy to ruff and locking the lead in the North hand. Dummy had four diamonds and two clubs left while East was out of both minors and still had a trump, so declarer was forced to concede a second ruff.

On this deal from the 2007 NEC event both tables in a match between Japanese and Polish squads reached three no-trump. For Japan Akihiko Yamada led a diamond and declarer took the first trick and cleared the clubs. The defense set up the diamonds, but declarer could run his clubs and knock out the spade ace. When diamonds proved to be 4-4, South had nine tricks.

In the other room Cezary Balicki led a fourth-highest heart four. (Where the opponents do not use Stayman, then when in doubt a major is generally best.) Declarer won the first heart to take the club finesse. Adam Zmudzinski won his king as Balicki dropped the club 10. In this position the partnership conventionally play a variety of signal known as the Smith Echo to suggest that West would be happy with a switch. Naturally, Zmudzinski shifted to diamonds, and Balicki won his king and returned a low card. When Zmudzinski ducked the second diamond, declarer’s diamond ace fell on air. Now when the defenders got in with the spade ace they could cash out for down one.

Nicely done by the defenders; but declarer had opened the door to them by playing on clubs before spades. South wants to keep East off lead for just this reason, and the losing club finesse will surely give the defense the chance to find the killing shift. However, if the cards lie as they do, no shift can hurt declarer when West takes the spade ace.

All the deals this week come from the annals of one of the best annual invitational tournaments in the world, the NEC tournament in Yokohama. This event is traditionally held in February, though it has moved to April just for 2013.

In this deal from the semifinals between Bulgaria and an Anglo-Dutch team, the Bulgarians won the bidding battle but lost the war – though it was a close run thing.

In the room not featured North had overcalled bid two diamonds over one no-trump, which simplified the auction but lost the heart fit for good. The Bulgarians as East-West declared four clubs, and the defenders led spades and eventually scored a trick in each suit for down one.

Meanwhile, although the Bulgarian contract of four hearts (on the auction shown) appeared hopeless, Manol Iliev gave himself a decent chance. He got a spade lead and a club shift to the ace for a club return. He won in hand and played out his top spades, on which Ricco van Prooijen discarded — though ruffing in with the queen might have been best.

Now declarer played a heart to the ace, and Louk Verhees carefully unblocked his king to let his partner in for the diamond play, insuring the defeat of the game. Had he not done so, he would have been thrown in and forced to lead from the diamond king or give a ruff-sluff.

Against six diamonds West leads the heart queen. As the spade ace will surely be wrong, given West's vulnerable two-suited action, how do you plan to make 12 tricks?

You need to bring pressure to bear on West in the endgame, and the entry position requires you to win the heart queen in hand with the ace, then draw two rounds of trump with the ace and another honor, say the jack. Then you must make the key play of cashing dummy’s three top clubs, throwing a heart from hand. (You need to have the lead in hand as you put West’s feet to the fire.) If you take all your trumps at once, you have to discard prematurely from the North hand. You now settle down to run the rest of the trumps.

After a heart, six trumps, and three clubs have been played, you will have generated a three-card ending in which West will have to reduce to a singleton spade or a singleton heart, while dummy has yet to discard, with two spades and two hearts. If West lets a spade go, throw a heart from dummy and then lead the spade seven to West’s now bare ace; you will take the last two tricks with your major-suit kings. If West pitches a heart instead, he will have only one heart remaining, so throw a spade from dummy and cash the heart king; dummy’s heart six will now be good for your 12th trick.

How do you plan the play in six spades on the lead of the heart ace? Obviously, since trumps are under control, the most likely problem comes when clubs are 4-1.

As you will need to exert pressure on the defender who has four clubs, you should tighten the projected ending by discarding a club at trick one! After ruffing the next heart, you will draw trumps, cash the club ace-king, and claim 12 tricks if they split.

If East has four clubs, you need him also to have sole control of diamonds. Then, after all of the trumps are played, he will have to keep four cards, most probably two clubs and two diamonds, and the diamond 10 will become a winner.

What will you do if West has four clubs? All you need for West to hold in addition to his four clubs is at least one diamond honor. Cash the diamond king and run the trumps to reduce to a five-card ending with one trump, two clubs and two diamonds in hand and one heart, one diamond and three clubs on the board.

When you play the last trump, West must keep all his clubs, but throwing the diamond jack will let you finesse the diamond 10. So West parts with his last heart, and you pitch dummy’s small club. Now when you cash the king and queen of clubs, East has no recourse. A heart discard establishes dummy’s heart five, while pitching a second diamond sees your diamond A-10 take the last two tricks.

When West led the heart king against six spades, declarer took it and played the two top trumps, both defenders following. He then turned to the club suit. If East had held the last trump, the slam would have been made. East could ruff in whenever he chose, but he would have no heart to return. Declarer could then discard both his heart losers on dummy's clubs. But today it was West who ruffed the third club, and he cashed two hearts to put the slam two down.

Since you are booked to lose a trump trick, even if the spade suit breaks 3-2, the critical trump trick must be lost to East, who is known to be the safe hand. After winning the heart lead, you should play a trump toward your hand and win with the ace. You then return to dummy with a diamond to lead another trump. When the queen appears from East, you must duck. You can then win East’s return, draw the last trump, and discard your two heart losers. This play is indicated because hearts are known to be 6-1. Had West not bid, the line found at the table would probably have been best.

Incidentally, you would make the same sort of play if your trumps were A-Q-7-6-3. After finessing the spade queen, you would return to dummy to lead a second round of trumps. Whenever the spade king appeared from East, you would duck it, keeping West off lead for the duration of the deal.

How should you play six clubs on a heart lead? Does this deal require card-play technique or elements of psychology?

The best mathematical chance of success is to win the heart ace. Next play the diamond ace and ruff a diamond high. You can cash the club ace, lead the club 10 to the jack, then ruff another diamond. If the diamond king has fallen, you will have created a home for your heart loser. If not, you can always fall back on the spade finesse. This line allows you to take your chances in echelon; but the extra chance that you have built for yourself is less than 10 percent.

Contrast this approach with winning the heart ace at trick one and looking for a more psychological line. Simply call for the spade queen, then use your bridge judgment to gauge East’s reaction to this play.

Even if East is a real expert, he would have to be truly inspired not to cover this card, or at least to consider doing so. If East ducks the spade queen without thought, then you should assume that West has the spade king. If so, you should rise with the spade ace, draw trump, and try to take the diamond finesse to discard your heart loser. Against any but the very best defenders (and there are precious few of them!), this line has a 75 percent chance of success.

In today's deal, North-South need to be able to judge the presence or absence of the two black jacks in order to see what level they should play at. If they had both of those cards, a grand slam would be the target, while with one of them, 12 tricks would be a cakewalk. However, with neither of them, some careful play is required for declarer to give himself every opportunity to bring home 12 tricks.

So how are you going to make six spades after the diamond-queen lead? Presumably, you start by drawing trump. When West shows out on the second round, the focus shifts to trying to avoid losing a club and a trump if neither suit behaves.

Since East has trump length, he rates to be short in clubs, if anyone is. (If he is long in both suits, it will be easy to play to ruff a club on the board.)

You need to protect yourself against both 4-2 and 5-1 club breaks. You cannot afford to have a club honor ruffed away, so play a club to the ace and a club toward your hand. It does not help East to trump in, since he would be ruffing a loser. Win the club king and cross back to dummy with the heart king to lead another club toward your hand. Again, it doesn’t help East to ruff, so he discards again. Now you can ruff a club in dummy. East can overruff, but that will be his only trick.