The three bears came back from the duplicate club, and as they came through the door, Goldilocks could see that a free and frank exchange of views had been taking place. Tactfully, she waited until Papa Bear had a large glass of mead in front of him before asking how the game had gone.

In response he produced the following 52-card diagram. Against four hearts the defense led the spade jack, then 10, ruffed. Papa Bear drew trump, then took the diamond finesse and complained about his bad luck — he would have made if trumps had been 3-3 or he could have played the diamond suit for three tricks without loss.

When Goldilocks consoled him for his bad luck, Mama chimed in that she thought she had been even unluckier. She ruffed the second spade and immediately played the diamond ace and a diamond to the jack. Meanly, West won and played a third diamond, ruffed by East. There was still a club to lose.

At this point Baby Bear, who had been hopping up and down trying to get a word in edgewise, told Goldilocks how he had played the hand. He had pitched a club on the second spade, then ruffed the third spade, and had crossed to the heart ace to lead a diamond to the jack at once. Now he was safe, since he could ruff the fourth spade in dummy and cross to his club ace to draw trump.

In today's deal Jerry Goldfein (who was part of the U.S. National team in Rhodes 15 years ago) produced a neat play in which he followed his instincts and the clues from the auction. Accordingly, he rejected what was apparently his best line, and spotted the winning alternative.

Six diamonds looks like a fine spot, but the 4-0 trumps and the 8-1 club split are potentially very awkward to overcome. On the lead of the club king, Goldfein won and cashed the diamond king. If trumps had not broken 4-0, he intended to ruff a club with the diamond queen and would have come to 12 tricks in comfort. When East won the trump ace and returned a diamond, Goldfein resisted the temptation to try to ruff a club low in dummy, since the auction had strongly suggested the bad club break.

The difficulty is to see an alternative, but the double of the final contract gave a clue to the location of the missing high cards. Goldfein instead drew all the trump and decided to play West for the tripleton heart nine. He crossed to the spade queen to advance the heart jack. East covered, and declarer ruffed. Then he went back to the table with the spade king and played the heart ace followed by the heart 10, covered and ruffed. When the heart nine fell, Goldfein could use the spade eight as an entry to pitch his club loser on dummy’s heart eight, for his 12th trick.

When you hold a long strong major facing a balanced hand, the nine-trick game may prove easier to make. Today's deal was just such an example though one can hardly blame North here for insisting on playing hearts, after East's two-diamond bid, which was explained as weak with diamonds, often only a five-card suit nonvulnerable.

In four hearts, declarer won the lead of the diamond king, drew trump, and played a club. When West had the ace and East did not have both spade honors, declarer had no real chances left.

South should have ducked the diamond king at trick one, the right play even if the lead was a singleton. If West switches to a club and East has the ace, that player can continue with the diamond queen, but declarer ducks again. Then he ruffs the diamond continuation and, after drawing trump, discards dummy’s two spades on his diamond ace and club king.

Best defense after the diamond king holds is to switch to a spade to the king and ace. Declarer draws trump with the jack and queen of hearts, and plays another diamond. East must split his honors so declarer wins the ace and gives up a diamond to East’s queen, establishing a trick for his seven. If West did not find the spade switch earlier, declarer is now home. If West did switch to a spade at trick two, East can play another spade now, but declarer should guess this correctly by running it to dummy’s nine.

This column attempts to comb the civilized world for bridge deals to titillate the readers. Today's comes from a South American championships, where Diego Brenner (a Brazilian now living in Spain) and Agustin Madala (an Argentinean living in Italy) were playing together. Truly a cosmopolitan line-up!

Agustin and Diego are not a regular partnership but they are both inspired card-players, and Madala –who is still a junior — may well become the strongest player in the world in the next decade. He currently plays with Norberto Bocchi on the Italian squad, and is capable of ingenious flights of fancy. As witness today’s deal – where declarer was none other than Marcelo Branco (the only player ever to win two world pairs titles with different partners).

Against four spades the lead was the heart ace. When this card held the trick, Madala switched to a club; dummy played the 10 and Diego won the second trick with his king. Now Brenner returned a heart, and declarer, Marcelo Branco, ruffed with the spade eight. On this trick Madala followed unhesitatingly with the heart king!

Now, please sit in Branco’s chair… If he took the trump finesse and lost the lead to East, the danger hand, that player would be able to return a heart to give his partner a ruff with the missing trump honor. So Branco played what was the best percentage line – in abstract – in the trump suit. He cashed the spade ace, and now could no longer avoid losing two trump tricks, for one down.

Few would solve today's problem, although the correct play requires nothing more than a careful consideration of the opponents' bidding and a little thought as to how the play is likely to develop.

Against four hearts the opening lead is the diamond two to dummy’s ace. Clearly the spot-card led indicates that diamonds are 5-1, and while you are in no imminent danger of a defensive ruff, the possibility exists that the defenders may be able to arrange some inconvenient discards – if you let them.

On the bidding, it is both safe (and necessary as the cards lie) to cash the spade ace, king and queen. While you might feel this could expose you to ruffs, remember that West’s negative double showed precisely four cards in the spade suit. (With five he would have bid one spade.) The reason for cashing those winners is to prevent West from discarding spades on diamond winners.

It may feel that you have done the heavy lifting now, and can tackle trumps, but that is not so. Instead you must lead the club queen to drive out the ace. You can ruff the third round of diamonds high, then play a high trump from hand if you want, but after that you must cash the club king and ruff a club, thereby avoiding the loss of a second club.

If you lead trumps early, West will ruff his partner’s diamond winner and can then play ace and another trump to leave South with a second club loser.

Against three no-trump West leads the heart eight, and East wins the first trick with the queen and returns the heart five when you hold up the ace. You might as well duck this, just in case West has opened on a five-card suit. West wins with the jack and clears the heart suit, dummy and East each throwing spades.

You have eight top tricks, so an extra trick from the diamond suit will carry you to the finishing line. You will need to duck a round of diamonds at some stage and it must be to East, the safe hand with no more hearts. At trick four you lead a low diamond from your hand. If West produces the diamond six or seven you will cover with dummy’s eight, forcing East to win the trick. Nine tricks will then be yours when the diamonds prove to be 3-2.

Suppose West holds diamond Q-10-7 and inserts the 10 on the first round. You win with dummy’s ace and see that it would not be safe to continue by cashing the diamond king. West would win the third round of diamonds and cash too many hearts for your liking. Instead, you return to your hand with a spade and lead another diamond toward dummy. West has to produce the seven this time. You cover with the eight, and are now sure to make three diamond tricks without letting West on lead.

When this deal occurred in a local pairs game, most pairs landed in three no-trump. As North would occasionally raise a major-suit response to an opening one-bid with three trumps, South's three-no-trump call simply offered a choice of games. How would you play the game when West leads the spade six and East plays the queen?

Most defenders took East’s queen with the king and ran the club queen. East took this with the king and returned the spade seven. As the cards lay, the defenders now had no trouble in making four spade tricks, and those declarers finished down one.

One declarer allowed the spade queen to win the first trick and played the spade jack on the next trick. After some thought, the West at this table ducked, retaining his spade A-10 tenace over South’s remaining honor. This was enough to defeat the contract. When East won the club king and returned his remaining spade, West could take three more spade tricks.

The final declarer judged that West had led from spade length and, as he had not overcalled in spades, decided that the club king was likely to be wrong. He played the spade two at trick one and the spade four under the spade seven at trick two. East continued with a third round of spades to the jack and ace. However, when the club finesse lost, that was the last trick for the defense, and declarer could take one spade, two hearts and six tricks in the minors.

Some suit combinations are instinctive, but what your instinct tells you to do is not always right. With a trump suit of A-10-7-3 facing K-J-8-6, you can cash the king and run the jack, OR cash the ace and run the 10 to guard against 4-1 trumps in whichever hand you choose. But let's look at the full deal from last fall's nationals in Seattle to see how to apply the rules.

North-South competed to the three-level with only eight trumps (a violation of the Law of Total Tricks) when both players perhaps did a little too much. North’s decision to compete to two spades with only four trumps when facing a likely three-card holding was perhaps out of line. (North-South would have managed to collect 200 from three hearts doubled, though it is not so easy to defend with West declarer).

In three spades on a diamond lead, declarer had successfully crossed the first hurdle. Trumps were clearly 4-1, given East’s decision to compete so high facing a passed partner, so South ran the spade 10, covered all around, then ducked a club, won by West’s jack.

A passive diamond exit let declarer cash two more rounds of diamonds, then play a second club. Whatever West did, South could play to ruff a club with the spade ace and run the spade seven, finessing against the nine for nine tricks.

Incidentally, best defense would have held declarer to eight tricks in three spades if he had started trumps by leading the ace.

One aspect of the game that defeats beginners and intermediate players is the concept that every card means something. Take this deal from the second semifinal session of the Kaplan Blue Ribbon Pairs from Seattle last year, and focus just on East's cards and the North's hand (dummy).

North-South were playing Precision, which resulted in an inelegant sequence to one no-trump rather than two diamonds. But it was up to East-West to punish them.

Using fourth-highest leads, West started with the club four: jack, queen, six. The club two went to the nine and 10, and the club three was returned to East’s king. When West let the club eight hold the trick, East had to decide how to continue. Dummy had pitched a heart and two diamonds on the clubs; declarer had thrown a heart.

Should East play a spade, in case declarer started with the doubleton spade ace and five solid diamonds? Or should he play a diamond, in case declarer had the spade king and not the diamond king?

The answer came from West’s decision to win the second club trick with the 10, not the ace. (He knows East has the club king from the play to the first two tricks, so he has a choice of plays from equals.) When he then returns the club three, not the ace or five, he has played his lowest card at each turn, signaling for a diamond through.