Four spades was a popular contract on this deal from the Gold Coast Teams qualifier. Not surprisingly, few managed to make it, since there appears to be a loser in each suit.

But sometimes appearances are deceptive. Let’s shift to Ishmael Del’Monte’s table, where the defenders led a heart to the king and ace and a low club back to the king and ace for a second club. Del’Monte ducked in dummy, and East put up the jack. South ruffed, then led the spade jack, ducked all around, as East threw a heart, and played a second trump.

If West had ducked, declarer would win in dummy, and cash the diamond king and ace plus the heart queen, then crossruff clubs and hearts. This way at trick 12 he scores the last trump in dummy en passant, with the defense’s diamond and spade winner falling together at trick 13.

So West won the second spade and played a third spade, won in dummy, leaving East to find two discards. One diamond and one more heart were painless enough; but when declarer ruffed a club to hand, then crossed to the diamond king to play the last trump, East was caught in a triple squeeze.

Dummy had a trump, three diamonds and the club 10 left, while declarer had Q-10-8 of hearts and ace-doubleton in diamonds. East had to discard from his doubleton heart jack, doubleton diamond jack and master club, and whatever he threw, declarer could arrange to take the rest of the tricks.

Today’s hand features a frozen suit combination – neither defender can broach the suit without losing a trick in the process.

After West leads the heart king against four spades, you have a heart and a club to lose. If you can avoid a trump loser, then you can afford to concede a diamond trick; if not, then you need an endplay and some good luck. So, win the lead, play a spade to the king, and a spade back to your ace, West showing out.

Now play a second heart. West wins the queen and exits with a heart, East following. You win in hand (discarding a club from dummy) to play the club king. West wins the ace and exits with the club jack, which you win with dummy’s queen.

Because you have three certain losers, you need to avoid losing a diamond. The only way you might achieve that is if East began with king-fourth and West with the doubleton jack, and one of them was forced to open up the suit.

You need to play East for his actual hand, one that is not so unlikely given the bidding. After all, West rates to have a shapely hand to have come in over a strong no-trump at this vulnerability. So now you must give East his trump trick by playing queen and another spade. East wins his king and tries a low diamond, which goes to West’s jack and dummy’s queen. But now you can finesse against East’s king and make your contract.

The International Bridge Press Association presented the 2011 Richard Freeman Junior Award to Cedric Lorenzini and Christophe Gosset of France for this sparkling defense. It was played during the 5th World University Bridge Championships, which were held in the National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung.

After North transferred to hearts, he offered a choice of games with his jump to three no-trump. South was happy to play no-trump with his doubleton heart.

West, Gosset, led the spade four and declarer played the 10 from dummy. East, Lorenzini, elected not to cover with his queen. He had noted the danger of dummy’s heart suit, and wished to deny declarer a possible later entry to dummy in spades. He assumed from the bidding that South held only a doubleton heart. Declarer next continued with a low heart to his jack in hand, which West ducked in tempo. South naturally continued by cashing dummy’s heart ace and king, doubtless being surprised when East showed out on the third round. When diamonds failed to break 3-3, declarer could garner no more than eight tricks.

I noticed that another of Lorenzini’s hands made the final selection for this award. That level of expertise by French juniors bodes well for the future of bridge in France. The French took two Gold Medals at the 2011 World Championships — the women in the Venice Cup and the seniors in the D’Orsi Bowl. Perhaps an influx of juniors will help their Open Team — which in recent years is not what it once was.

The Yiddish word "chutzpah" has come into fairly common usage in the English language. It roughly translates as "cheek" — but that is does not quite do justice to its implications. The best illustration of chutzpah I know is that of a person who murders his father and his mother, then throws himself upon the mercy of the court as an orphan.

Today’s hand comes from the teams event at the 2012 Australian Gold Coast Congress, held in Surfers Paradise. In action was the Irish International pairing of Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann.

After a bidding sequence in which South, Hanlon, bid hearts naturally, he came to rest in three no-trump. West led the diamond jack, which Hanlon won with dummy’s ace. If both minor suits broke 3-3, nine tricks would be there for the taking. But there is no more than a 15 percent chance of that happening. An alternative approach would be to try to build three spade tricks. But when in with the ace, surely West would find the heart switch.

Would you care to guess which card declarer called for from dummy at trick two? It was the heart king. East won, and not wishing to assist declarer in establishing heart tricks as it appeared he was angling to do — after all, South had bid the suit — shifted to a club. South won, then played on spades. On taking the ace, West continued with clubs — and Hanlon had his nine tricks.

Against four spades West's opening lead is the club jack. Sitting East, plan the defense.

You can build up a fairly good picture of the deal: declarer surely has five spades and either king-third or king-fourth of clubs. One possibility is to win the club ace and return a top club, playing partner for a singleton club. Now a diamond return will scuttle the contract, assuming declarer has two or more diamonds and one heart or more. If you are wrong about partner having a singleton club, though, declarer rates to be able to win the club king, draw trump, then set up hearts to pitch his diamond loser.

An alternative approach — one that is rather more likely to succeed — is to assume declarer has just three clubs. If so, the main threat on the deal from your perspective is those heart winners in dummy.

It is imperative that you dislodge dummy’s diamond ace before declarer knocks out your heart ace. At trick two, instead of playing for the club ruff, you must switch to the diamond king. If declarer ducks, then you must revert to clubs (rather than continuing with diamonds) and set up a second club trick. If declarer wins the diamond ace and plays a top heart, you will have to guess to duck.

Note that as the cards lie, a low-diamond shift at trick two is not sufficient. Declarer wins the queen in hand and draws trump, then establishes hearts for 11 tricks.

Today's deal comes from the annual match between the Houses of Commons and Lords in 2009. Crockford's Club hosted the event, which was won by the Lords, by the tiny margin of 110 aggregate points, a form of rubber bridge scoring being utilized. Their overall lead in the series is currently 21-17.

In this deal the focus is on the defense, so cover up the East and South hands to see if you can do better than our West. Against three no-trump (reached after a weak no-trump from South) West led the club six to East’s ace and that player continued with the queen. When this held the trick, he shifted to a heart. Declarer won, knocked out the diamond ace, then claimed his game.

Can you see how the defense could have done better? Clearly West hoped that East held a third club, but he should have realized that it was not necessary for him to do so. A close inspection of the spot cards should have led to the correct defense of overtaking East’s club queen with the king and returning the seven to knock out South’s stopper in the suit while West still held the diamond ace.

This risked giving up an undertrick unnecessarily when East had started with three clubs, but guaranteed the defeat of the contract. After South’s Stayman response, he could surely take no more than three heart tricks, four spades, and the club winner.

What makes a bridge deal challenging? It is hard to know — although as Judge Potter Stewart eloquently put it, although in a slightly different context, I know it when I see it.

In today’s deal, though the play is limited to just two suits, there are many plausible options, and only one plan that covers almost all the bases.

Against six spades, reached after a heart pre-empt from West, the lead is the heart king to the ace. Declarer now draws trump in one round. What next? Clearly, you should play on clubs, but do you cash one honor, or both? You then finesse in clubs, but do you lead out the 10 or up to the nine?

The correct answer is “None of the above.” Declarer should now play ace and a low club. When East wins, he now has to lead a diamond. Declarer can play low, and when West has to contribute the queen, declarer can claim the rest.

Assuming West started with seven hearts then, once spades are 1-1, this plan only loses when East has queen-jack-fourth or longer in clubs and West has Q-10-x or longer in diamonds — when no reasonable plan succeeds.

For example, if West wins a club honor and returns the suit, declarer goes up with dummy’s king. If West still has a club honor left, then he has only one diamond, so the diamond finesse is sure to win. If West has a doubleton club honor, he will be endplayed on winning his club trick.

Today's deal was sent to me by a friend; I'm guessing it is an apocryphal story, but start by covering up the East-West hands and plan the play before reading on. In four hearts you receive the lead of a top diamond, followed by a shift to the spade jack. How do you plan the play?

The problem is that if you simply win the spade in dummy and play the heart king, West may be able to win, put his partner in with a diamond, and get a spade ruff. Can you see a way around the problem?

Knowing that West has most of the outstanding honor cards (and it is unlikely to cost anything anyway), you can find the Scissors Coup of winning the spade and playing three rounds of clubs. When East plays low on the third, you discard your diamond, thus swopping one loser for another and denying East an entry.

This is a good play, but most experts would expect to find it. However, there is a twist to the tale. With the cards lying as they do today, West can win the club queen and play another spade. A trick later he will get in with the trump ace and give his partner a spade ruff to defeat what appears to be the world’s easiest contract!

Of course if you claim to be the defender who found this ingenious shift, please write to the column and collect your brilliancy prize.

Squeeze play is a weapon generally used by declarer against helpless defenders.

However, today’s declarer in a knockout teams match found himself in the embarrassing situation of squeezing himself, a predicament made even worse by the fact that it was entirely his own fault.

Against three no-trump West led the heart nine, covered by the jack, queen and king. At trick two declarer played the spade queen, which West won with the ace, to continue with a second heart.

Declarer won the heart in dummy and crossed to hand with a low diamond to his king in order to play a spade to dummy’s nine. When East showed out, he cashed the spade king and played a fourth round of the suit. East could see that if West continued with a third round of hearts, declarer would have an easy nine tricks. Therefore, he thoughtfully discarded all his hearts.

West now switched to a club to East’s queen, and East played back a diamond. Declarer won in dummy and, without giving the matter much thought, played his winning spades. At the penultimate trick he played a club from dummy and then had the embarrassing problem of what to discard. In the event he guessed to keep the heart 10, and West took the last two tricks with the club ace and diamond jack.

Declarer’s mistake was to cash the last spade. If he simply plays a club at that stage, knocking out West’s ace, both his hand and dummy are high.