The opponents do not always find the best possible lead against your games, and you have to take advantage of the opportunities they give.

In today’s deal North had a difficult decision – some would raise to three spades, some might even have bounced all the way to game. But he opted for the low road today, and East wisely did not introduce a terrible suit over two spades, letting South declare four spades, giving West a blind lead.

When West led the diamond jack from the top of his sequence declarer seemed to have four inescapable losers. However, he saw a solution — he needed one defender to have a singleton spade ace and for the hearts to be blocked, with either East or West having a singleton honor or doubleton double-honor. Correctly, he took the first trick with the diamond ace, then cashed the club ace and king, before making the key play of overtaking the diamond queen with the king and ruffing a diamond. Now he exited with a trump.

East won his ace and could do no better than play the heart ace followed by the queen. This left West with no winning answer and when he allowed the queen to hold, East was forced to lead a minor suit card next. Declarer ruffed in hand with the spade eight and threw the heart 10 from dummy. He drew West’s last trump with the king and could claim his contract.

The bridge press has an association, the IBPA, and I came across today's deal in an IBPA bulletin from a tournament 30 years ago.

Against six clubs West led the spade jack, and declarer’s normal approach was to take this with the king and play a trump; down one against the cruel trump split.

Whatever declarer does, West will score two club tricks, sooner or later.

However, one player took the spade king and then crucially played the diamond jack to the ace and ruffed a diamond before playing a trump. The timing had now been corrected to give him a chance to make the contract. When the bad trump break came to light, declarer, in dummy with the club king, decided to play West for three cards in each of the side suits. (His choice would have been to play West for two spades, three hearts and four diamonds, but East’s decision to pitch a diamond on the first club pushed him in favor of the correct decision).

South ruffed another diamond low in hand and cashed the heart and spade winners ending in dummy. Now he had reduced to an ending where dummy had the doubleton club jack and the diamond king, South and West their three highest clubs.

Remarkably, when South ruffed the diamond ace with the club queen, West’s sure second trump trick had vanished. Whether he overruffed and led into the club tenace, or underruffed, and then let the club jack score in dummy, he could take only one further trump trick.

I've always liked the deceptive element to bridge, so this hand, which I was shown from the National Swiss Teams Final a few years ago, was especially pleasing.

Against the contract of three no-trump West led the spade six, and the chances of success did not look rosy, with the blockages in clubs and diamonds, not to mention a wide-open heart suit.

With limited practical chances, South thought a little deception might come to his aid. He tried the effect of the spade nine from dummy, and when the eight appeared on his right, he overtook with the king. Cashing the diamond ace and queen brought down the jack, and declarer could now lead a low club from hand.

To West it looked exactly as if his partner held the doubleton spade eight, and South had begun with the bare ace-king in that suit. It seemed unnecessarily dangerous to let declarer reach dummy to cash his good diamonds, so he rose with the club ace and, after long consideration, produced his “safe” spade exit.

Now South went up with dummy’s jack and cashed the diamonds. At this point declarer already had nine tricks, but West was so disconcerted when the spade jack held, that he discarded a club on the run of the diamonds, As a result that suit also came in without further loss, giving South no fewer than 12 tricks!

The play to trick one is certainly a useful tool to add to your armory.

West leads the diamond queen against your spade game and you must somehow avoid the loss of three hearts and one club. While East might hold the heart ace, what would be a 50 percent chance for anybody else is a far smaller chance for someone with your bad luck. What can you do about it?

You win the diamond lead with the ace and draw trump with the ace and king. You then lead the club queen from dummy. East plays low and the queen holds the trick. What now? At this point you could cross to dummy and take the heart finesse, but why not hope that West has both the club 10 and nine – in which case he can be endplayed?

If you continue with ace and another club, East will win the third round and a switch to the heart queen will sink you. But since you hope to throw West on lead with the third round of clubs, you should play the club jack next. East has to cover with the king and you win with the ace.

You cross to the diamond king and ruff a diamond in your hand, eliminating that suit. When you exit with the club eight, West has to win the trick. Now a minor-suit return will give you a ruff-and-discard and a heart return will allow you to make the heart king sooner or later. If East had won the club, you would still have been able to take the heart finesse.

West leads a fourth-highest heart seven against three no-trump, and East plays the queen. What is your plan to make nine tricks? After taking the heart queen with the king, you note that six diamond tricks will be enough for the game. Is that too much to ask? Maybe! Suppose the full deal is similar to the layout shown here.

If your next move is to play the diamond ace and king, then when West shows out on the second round, you will have nowhere to turn. Even if the club queen were doubleton, you would not be able to play the suit to score five club tricks. Even if the ace and king drop the club queen, you will find that dummy’s club jack blocks the suit.

The solution is to test diamonds in a way that allows you to recover from a bad break there, so long as the club suit lies favorably for you. You should cash the diamond king at trick two and return to hand with a diamond to your ace. Whenever the diamond suit breaks 3-2 you will take your nine top tricks as before. However, when the cards lie as shown here, you will tackle clubs by leading a low one to the jack next. When that holds, you cash the diamond queen, throwing a heart, followed by the ace and king of clubs.

That allows you to make a heart, three diamonds and five clubs, because your communications have been left sufficiently fluid.

Good technique was rewarded on this deal, where the field reached three no-trump on a heart lead.

The auction put West on lead with an easy choice of the heart 10. With the heart suit lying as it does, it is necessary to consider your first move carefully. If the heart suit splits 4-3, it is irrelevant whether you win the first or second round of the suit. But as the cards lie, look at what happens if you take the first heart and drive out the spade ace (it is clearly more attractive to go after spades because of the intermediates in that suit, though playing on clubs might work, as the cards lie).

When East takes the spade ace and returned the heart jack, West overtakes and can clear the suit while retaining the club ace as an entry. Once spades do not behave, you are very short of tricks, and will have to let West in to cash out his hearts.

By contrast, if you duck the first heart and win the second in hand, then drive out the spade ace, East will have no hearts left to lead, and will have to exit passively, letting you drive out the club ace at your leisure.

Ducking trick one makes the difference between an undertrick and an overtrick.

One of the stronger bridge players in the country for the last 30 years has been Eddie Wold. He is currently fourth on the ACBL's list of all-time masterpoint winners, with more than 50,000 masterpoints, and he has won all the major U.S. titles at least once.

In today’s deal he lured declarer on a sequence where North had transferred into spades, then offered the choice of games.

Four spades looked comfortable enough, at first glance. The opening lead was the heart king, and declarer won to take the diamond finesse. Wold ducked his diamond king smoothly, then ducked again when a spade was led from dummy.

Declarer won the spade king, cashed the club ace, and ruffed a club to lead another spade. Wold won the spade ace and led a heart for dummy to ruff. Declarer now picked up the last trump with his spade queen, denuding everyone of trumps. He then confidently cashed the club king and led a diamond, finessing the jack when West followed low. Only now did Wold produce the diamond king, and East-West took the rest of the tricks with the club queen and two good hearts for plus 200.

Should declarer have done anything different? I hardly think so, but had Wold taken the first diamond, declarer would surely have brought home 10 tricks, either by finessing the spade 10 at once, or by ruffing hearts to dummy twice to play spades toward his hand.

In today's deal the bidding wound its way to six diamonds by South, when South elected not to make a simple rebid of three no-trump over two no-trump. Instead, he repeated his diamonds and North cooperated once, then went all the way to slam when South indicated suitability for higher things by going to the four-level.

Against the slam West found the best lead: the spade six. Declarer won with dummy’s ace, and it was clear to him that if the diamond queen fell in two rounds, he could discard a loser on the third round of clubs, ultimately losing just one heart trick.

Care had to be taken though, to preserve entries to the North hand, should diamonds misbehave. Accordingly, declarer played a diamond to the ace, then the seven to the king, carefully conserving the trump two. When the queen did not drop, it now became necessary for the club suit to provide four tricks, for both a spade and a heart discard.

Since the lead was in dummy, where it needed to be, a small club was led and the 10 was successfully finessed. The club queen was cashed and dummy re-entered with the heart ace. The club ace came next, on which the spade loser was discarded, and although East ruffed the third club with the master trump, declarer could re-enter dummy with the thoughtfully-preserved diamond two to North’s four, so that the heart loser could be pitched on the remaining high club.

In Scotland's match against the Netherlands in the 2002 European Championships, Derek Diamond opened with two hearts to show a weak two-suiter reached four hearts in two bids, and froze the opponents out altogether.

When Jan Jansma led the club king, Louk Verhees contributed the nine, using upside-down signals. With declarer known to have 10 cards in two suits, he was trying to show his five-card suit. (By contrast the play of the club queen would have suggested a high card in spades.)

When Jansma misread the position and played another club, Diamond ruffed, then played a heart to the jack. Verhees took his ace and returned his second trump. Declarer continued with ace and another diamond. In with the king, East returned a spade. South was sure, from the lack of a spade switch at trick two, that West held the king, so he played low and brought home his contract.

If West switches to a diamond at trick two, he should defeat the contract. Does declarer have any chance? Yes – but not a good one: he does best to rise with dummy’s ace, followed by leading the heart jack, trying to look like a man about to take a trump finesse.

If this fools East into playing low, declarer can ruff out the clubs and endplay East to lead spades for him. However, East does best to rise with the heart ace, cash his diamond king, then return a trump. He thus avoids the endplay, and leaves South with a spade loser.