Today's deal comes from the recent U.S. National tournament in Atlanta. The guilty party reported the deal in the confessional booth, so we have preserved his anonymity.

In third seat our hero opened two no-trump, perhaps more as a tactical move to keep the opponents from identifying a major-suit fit if they had one, than because he thought it the right valuation of his hand. Naturally his partner raised him to three no-trump after a Stayman inquiry. The defense started by cashing four hearts, and declarer discarded a diamond and a spade from hand and a spade from dummy.

East now shifted to a diamond, and declarer took two high diamonds, finding that East had started with a singleton. With the clubs behaving, declarer had seven minor-suit winners and the spade ace, but no communication between his hand and dummy, so all that West had to do was watch declarer’s discard on the fourth club to defeat the game.

Since West had the spade king and only three clubs, declarer had missed the small extra chance that made the difference between success and failure. At trick five try taking the diamond shift, then cashing the spade ace (the Vienna Coup — an unblocking maneuver to facilitate the timing for a squeeze) and next running the clubs.

This would have had the effect of bringing West under pressure. In the three-card ending, dummy has the doubleton spade queen and a diamond, while declarer has king-queen-third of diamonds, and West cannot keep control of both suits.

When today's deal from the Dyspeptics Club was over, South grumbled that West's single high card had been enough to defeat his game. North, not usually a diplomat, answered that there was no way South could have made the contract, while East winked at him, understanding that this comment was more a reflection on South than the lie of the cards.

Against three no-trump West led the spade three, to the two, 10 and king. Had South ducked the first trick, the defenders would in turn have ducked the next spade and would have been poised to cash out.

South now took the simple approach by leading out the ace, king and another club, hoping that East would win the third round. But West could score his club jack and shoot back a second spade. That meant one down, when East cashed out his suit.

See the difference if declarer leads clubs twice from dummy. He has ample entries in hearts, so he crosses to dummy in that suit for the first club lead. If East plays low, South plays a club honor, then goes back to dummy in hearts for another club play. When the queen appears from East, declarer should allow this to hold — he has to lose a club trick anyway. East cannot advantageously attack spades from his side of the table, so the game comes home.

Note: If South plays the club ace at trick two, East must unblock his queen at once to prevent South’s avoidance play.

Have you noticed how many experts seem to be lucky and how many palookas are born to run into hostile breaks and unfavorable lies of the cards? I wonder whether the two things might somehow be linked. For example, the average player might go down like a stone in three no-trump here, and complain about his terrible misfortune, but in reality he would have only himself to blame.

Declaring the no-trump game, most Souths would duck the first heart, although this play is probably not important today. He would then take the second heart, cross to dummy with the spade king and lead the club queen. It would not matter whether East covered or ducked; the defense can prevail. The point is that declarer is permanently cut off from the long club in dummy — since the side entry is gone.

Another losing approach would be to cash the club ace at trick three — this is a somewhat better approach since it guards against West’s having all four clubs, though it fails today.

The expert player would, realize that nothing could be gained by ducking the first trick. He would win the first heart with the king, but then make the critical play of leading a low club toward the jack. This guards against a bad club break in either hand. Whether East wins or ducks the first club, declarer can set up the suit for one loser and come home painlessly with nine tricks.

After South opened one heart, North's two-no-trump call showed a forcing heart raise, while South's jump to game showed a minimum with no shortage. North now simply bid the small slam with some confidence, but the duplication of values and mirror-image shapes of the two hands made slam a parlous spot.

Can you find a legitimate line to bring home the bacon? The answer lies in your club spots, coupled with the fact that the opponents’ spades are divided 5-2, so they have no flexibility as to who will win the third round of that suit.

After the lead of the spade jack, you plan to eliminate the side-suits and hope to receive something to your advantage. Win the spade ace, then take the heart ace and queen. Cash the spade king, noting East’s queen, then play off the diamond ace and king, and lead out the club jack. You are hoping that West will duck, and in such situations leading the lower of touching honors is more likely to persuade West to play low. If he does not cover, you can endplay him with the third round of spades to lead clubs for you. However, if he covers the club jack, you can succeed if you play East to hold the club 10. (If spades are 5-2, you expect East to be longer in clubs.) Win the club ace, then cash the club queen and endplay East with a club to give you a ruff-sluff, on which your losing spade goes away.

Let's look at how the play rates to go when West leads a heart against three no-trump, going to East's 10 and declarer's queen.

If declarer leads a diamond next, the defenders can afford to duck this, and that will not be enough to let declarer come to nine tricks.

It is a different story if declarer leads either a spade or a club at trick two. Let’s say declarer leads a club. I think it is somewhat more likely that West will duck, hoping his partner has the jack. When the club queen scores, declarer leads a spade to the jack and ace, wins the heart return in hand, leads a low diamond to the jack, comes back to hand with a spade and leads another low diamond toward dummy. West’s ace falls on empty air sooner or later, and declarer scores one club, two spades, and three tricks in each red suit.

Of course, if West flies up with his club ace at trick two and plays on hearts, declarer is dead in the water. Advantage to the defense? No, declarer has a resource, though a somewhat unlikely one, and it comes at trick one. He must duck the first trick — an apparently illogical play with three guards in the danger suit.

That leaves East on play. He will exit in spades, letting West win, and play a second heart. Declarer simply wins and knocks out the diamond ace, then the club ace, and has a painless nine tricks.

Ken Barbour of Arizona had already represented Great Britain at bridge at the age of 25 before coming to the United States and retiring from the game. Happily, after a 20-year hiatus, Barbour took up the game seriously again. Playing with another expatriate, Alan Truscott, he perpetrated the following coup at the Miami Nationals in 1996. Put yourself in the East seat to appreciate the full beauty of it.

Barbour and Truscott had followed an optimistic sequence (slightly edited here) to arrive at six diamonds, which we will charitably attribute to a fit of youthful enthusiasm. This was particularly the case since three no-trump was a likely final resting spot at the other table, so there was perhaps no need to go looking for slams.

With a blind opening lead, West tried the club 10, and, perhaps without giving the matter sufficient thought, East followed with his small card, which systemically encouraged the lead. This was the natural thing to do — but it might well have been better to overtake the trick, though the reason for that was hardly obvious.

However, Barbour now played for his only chance by ducking the first trick — setting West an almost impossible problem. It was natural for him to continue with a second club. Now Barbour could win in hand, draw trump, then throw away his spade loser on the fourth round of clubs. When the heart jack cooperated by putting in a timely appearance, another impossible contract had come home.

In today's deal North's raise of two hearts to three was just a little pushy. However, since his double was in the balancing seat, South might easily have held up to a 10-count for his minimum response in hearts. South accepted the invitation, since he did have a little in hand, and West led the spade two against the game.

When East took his ace, the killing diamond switch looked somewhat unappealing, so he returned a spade to the king. After drawing trump in three rounds and ruffing a spade, declarer led a low club to the jack and ace. The club 10 lost to the king, and when the clubs did not break, two diamonds eventually had to be lost.

If declarer had realized that his game needed a favorable lie of the clubs, there would have been no need to fear a club ruff. Accordingly, this suit should have been tackled earlier. There was the extra chance that East (who was marked with most of the missing points) held the king doubleton — together with a significant club spot.

After winning the spade return at trick two, declarer should have crossed to dummy with a trump and played a club to the jack and ace. Now two more rounds of trump, ending in dummy, would have allowed a low club to be led toward the 10. There are still two entries to dummy (the diamond ace and the deferred spade ruff) to enable declarer to unblock the club 10 and later cash the queen.

As West in today's deal you have wisely resisted the temptation to compete to two spades over two hearts. (It is partner's responsibility to do that with four spades.) It is not uncommon for the one-spade rebid to be based on three spades without a convenient alternative action, because opener is missing a heart stopper for no-trump.

Against two hearts you lead the club 10, and East wins the first trick with the ace. Next he plays the king and jack of clubs, declarer ruffing and West overruffing. What should West do next?

Whenever a defender is giving his partner a ruff, he should do his best to signal suit-preference at the same time. On this occasion East has played his highest club possible at every turn of the first three tricks, so is marked with the spade king. However, if you play a spade now and he wins his king, he may try another club, trying to promote a trump trick. You know that is the wrong defense, since your remaining trumps are small (though if you had begun with queen-jack-third of trumps and no diamond jack, this would indeed be the defenders’ best chance).

To avoid giving your partner the chance to go wrong, play a trump now. When East gets in, the possibility of a trump promotion will have disappeared, so he will know to play a diamond instead. This way, your side scores two tricks in each minor suit, and one in each of the majors.

Do not get caught up in the idea that the object of signaling relates solely to your holding in the suit led. When you signal encouragement on the suit led, part of what your signal implies is that you do not want a switch to whatever is deemed the obvious suit, assuming partner shifts. Conversely, discouragement of the led suit is equally about not liking the suit led and wanting the obvious shift.

Today’s deal shows how experts deal with this sort of situation. It comes from a clash between two of the major powers in bridge, a Russo-Polish squad and a top Dutch team.

At one table, East won the diamond ace and shifted to a club at trick two. He was playing his partner for the trump ace or king — in which case he might get a club ruff, but where would the defenders’ third trick come from?

In the other room Alexander Dubinin led his singleton diamond against four hearts. Andrey Gromov won the trick and cashed two more diamonds, on which Dubinin did the right thing by playing discouraging cards in both spades and clubs. Gromov now knew not to expect his side to take any tricks in the black suits, so he played a fourth diamond, promoting the trump queen for down one.

Just for the record, if West has the spade ace and no heart or club queen, he should ruff the third diamond to cash the spade ace, thus avoiding the possibility of an accident.