By reading, and by learning from other people's mistakes, the expert can sometimes get the play right in a position he has not actually encountered before. Today's deal provides such an example, which comes from the final of the 1986 Australian Interstate Championships. Against four spades West led the heart queen, and declarer took it with dummy's ace to try to camouflage the position as best he could, while East discouraged. Now declarer came to hand, drawing just one round of trumps, then led a diamond. Put yourself in West's shoes: Would you win the diamond ace, or would you duck?

When you’ve made your decision, compare what happened at the table. West knew that his side had no tricks coming in the majors, and that he needed his partner to have the diamond jack — on the bidding there was no chance that he could hold the club king. So on the first round of diamonds West contributed the queen and dummy the king. On the diamond continuation, East rose with the jack and put the club 10 on the table. Curtains for declarer!

As you can see, if West ducks the first diamond, he can subsequently be endplayed in diamonds to lead clubs. And if he goes up with the ace, he can later be thrown in with a heart (declarer pitching a club from dummy on the third heart) to lead clubs, again after the trumps and diamonds have been stripped off.

Today's deal comes from the Arthur Loeb charity game, set up to provide funding for Lennox House in Manhattan by means of a pro-am event. At the table declarer followed the normal enough approach of going after diamonds, leaving herself with one diamond and three hearts to lose.

But how should you play four spades on the lead of the club eight? If the club finesse is wrong, then every other significant card is with West, and you are doomed. You need the club finesse and one diamond honor onside — so you will surely not find the hearts favorably located.

Curiously, you must take the practice finesse in clubs at trick one, then lead a low diamond to your jack. When West wins the trick, he can defeat the contract only by the unlikely shift to the heart king. In practice you will win the likely trump return in hand and cross to dummy’s trump nine to pass the diamond 10. Whether or not East covers, you will be able to win this diamond trick or the next in dummy, then lead the club ace while pitching a heart. Now you ruff the last club, strip off the diamonds if necessary, and exit with a low heart from hand.

With the hearts lying as they do, the defenders cannot unscramble their three winners in the suit. If West flies up with the king and exits in hearts, your queen is good. If West ducks, the heart blockage means West will eventually give you a ruff-sluff, and the heart loser goes away.

Where you have eight tricks in three no-trump, there is usually a way to find a ninth. Today's deal was well-played by Nevena Senior in the round of 16 knockout match against Singapore in the World Mind Sports Games a few years ago. Cover up the East and West hands and give it a try yourself before reading on.

Not surprisingly, the heart four was led at both tables. The Singaporean declarer did not really make much of an attempt to make her game. She won the heart king, crossed to hand with a club, and led the spade jack. When West covered with the king, she ducked, but now the defenders were not hard-pressed to know what to do next.

By contrast, Senior won the heart lead in hand and immediately played the spade jack. When West covered with the king, she won dummy’s ace and ran her club winners. West discarded a diamond easily, but on the last club had to discard a spade. Nevena now cashed the spade queen and exited with a heart. West cashed her four heart tricks, but then had to lead a diamond and it was easy for Senior to guess the position.

In the same position the player sitting West for the U.S. produced a sparkling defensive resource. On the last club he discarded down to the bare diamond king. Now when declarer cashed the spade queen and threw him in with a heart, he had a spade winner to cash.

Before falling prey to the knee-jerk reaction of taking your trump tricks when you can "before the rats get at them," stop to consider the implications.

At the table West naturally led a heart against four spades, and East cashed two of his top hearts, then continued with a third. West was quick to ruff in with the queen in front of dummy. Declarer took the diamond return on the table, and with dummy’s two trumps still intact, he was able to run the nine successfully. South continued by finessing the 10, and with the ace dropping East’s king on the third round of the suit, he was able to claim 10 tricks.

See the difference if West elects to discard on the third heart, rather than ruff. Declarer ruffs in dummy, yes, but the consequence of this is that dummy is now reduced to one trump. This means that only one trump finesse can be taken. Declarer duly takes it, and West wins with the queen and returns a diamond.

With no trumps left in dummy, and lacking the ability to reduce his trumps in hand sufficiently to effect a trump coup, South will continue with the spade ace, hoping that East had started with a doubleton spade king. But this eventuality will not come to pass, and declarer ends with just nine tricks, having to concede a second trump to the spade king.

In every major tournament there is always at least one instance of David defeating Goliath. At the Olympiad in Beijing in 2008, the giant was Italy and they were beaten 16-14 by Albania, playing international bridge for the first time. This was one of Albania's triumphs.

The Italian South found himself in three no-trump, against which West led the unbid suit, hearts. Declarer won in hand with the queen and played a heart back to dummy’s nine. He now played a diamond. East went up with the ace and continued hearts. Declarer misjudged now when he ran the heart around to dummy’s king, and played a club to his 10. When this lost to West’s jack, South was doomed.

The Albanians bid to the delicate contract of four hearts. West led a top spade and switched to a club. Declarer won in dummy and played a diamond, and East won and continued clubs. Declarer won in dummy again and played a spade. The defenders won and played a third club. When no-one ruffed this, declarer had three clubs and crossruffed seven trump tricks to make his game.

Even a trump lead would not have hurt declarer. Suppose West leads a trump at trick one. Dummy wins, plays a diamond, and East plays another trump. Declarer wins in hand, ruffs a diamond, crosses to hand with the club queen, draws the last trump, and plays a top diamond. This establishes two more winners in the suit, allowing South to make five trumps, two diamonds and four clubs.

The swing that arose in today's deal resulted from one team's aggression in both rooms. At one table South opened two no-trump with very little excuse, and North bounced to six diamonds. East closed his eyes and guessed to lead a spade, giving declarer a discard for his heart loser. But when he played the trump suit in normal fashion, he had to go down a trick.

In the other room West stretched to show his two-suiter, and got his opponents to slam the correct way up. Worse was to follow from his perspective since he had a horrible lead problem. It is rarely correct to lead an ace against six no-trump. But eventually West started with ace and another spade, which turned out to do no serious harm, declarer winning in hand as East gave count.

West’s two-suited bid had given declarer a very good idea of his general shape. He knew 10 of that player’s cards, but what was his minor-suit pattern? Declarer set out to find out more, cashing two rounds of clubs ending in dummy. When West followed suit, declarer knew 12 of West’s 13 cards, and it was now a 4-1 shot that he had a singleton small diamond rather than the bare jack. Accordingly, declarer ran the diamond 10 next. When it held, he unblocked the diamonds, crossed to the club king, and ran the diamond suit. He took tricks 12 and 13 with his heart and club winners.

Today's deal demonstrates that one should always go for that slim extra chance. You never know when the card gods are going to reward you for digging around to find a way to overcome a bad break, or an unfriendly lie of the cards.

When you declare four hearts, the spade queen is led to the first trick. It seems that you must rely on the diamond ace being onside. Can you do better, though?

There is indeed an extra chance when the diamond ace is wrong, and this is that East holds either the club king-queen or a doubleton club honor. To prevent East from gaining the lead when he has both club honors, you must duck the opening lead in both hands — a strange-looking play but one that can hardly cost since you have plenty of other losers to discard on the spade winner. After winning the next spade in hand, cross to dummy by leading the heart jack to the queen, then playing the club two, intending to insert the jack.

East must therefore split his honors, and you take East’s queen with the ace, play the heart two to dummy’s seven, then throw the club jack on the spade ace and lead the club 10. After ruffing away East’s king with your trump king, play the heart two to dummy’s seven. You can now throw a diamond on the good club nine, and can even lead a diamond to the king in the search for the overtrick.

This deal is from the final of the 1980 Australian National Open Teams. Which game contract do you think North-South should have reached? In my opinion one could argue that once North bid three spades over two hearts at his second turn to promise a good suit, maybe South should have considered raising to four spades.

Note that even with the bad break in spades, and the club and heart finesses failing, declarer should be able to find a way to bring home 10 tricks in spades by setting up the diamonds, or by ducking an initial club lead.

As it was, South declared three no-trump, and the club six was led to the 10, jack and queen. Declarer appreciated that the spades could wait. He ducked a diamond, and East overtook the diamond 10 with the jack to return a second club. West took the trick and cleared the clubs. Now South led another low diamond. West took the queen and played a fourth club, won by East’s nine.

At this point it looks easy to exit with a heart. But look what happens: declarer will cash the ace and king of hearts and catch East in a squeeze. Whether he discards a spade or a diamond, declarer will take the rest. Appreciating that, East found the shift to a spade into dummy’s tenace, cutting declarer’s communications and insuring a diamond trick for himself or a heart for his partner in the ending.