Against three no-trump West naturally leads his fourth-highest club. South must win the first trick, of course. But how should he advance from there?

It looks as if you have nine top winners, but there is many a chance for a slip-up. True, there are indeed nine winners if diamonds split, and you do have a 90 percent chance of finding diamonds breaking 3-1 or 2-2. But just because the suit rates to behave, there is no reason for it to do so. If East has all four diamonds, you are in deep trouble. But what if it is West who has four diamonds?

You cannot afford to do anything but lead to a top diamond at trick two — if you make any other play in the suit, you risk looking incredibly foolish if East wins the jack. But what you must do is to start to unblock the diamonds by leading the diamond eight or 10 from your hand, winning with a high honor in dummy.

If you discover that West has all four of the missing diamonds, you can still recover with the aid of two finesses, but only if you have cleared the eight or 10 out of the way on the first round. When East shows out, you can use your two aces as entries to take two finesses against West by leading your remaining high spot-card from hand and forcing a cover, then crossing back to your hand for a second finesse.

The North hand is just worth a splinter raise to four diamonds, which shows game-going values with heart support and a singleton diamond. Despite being low on high cards, the fifth trump and two aces just tilt the balance in favor of the aggressive position.

It looks logical for South to ask for aces, then bid five no-trump to check for specific kings. If he heard a six-club response, he could bid the grand slam with confidence; but as it is, the small slam is far from cold.

Still, what might look like a 50 percent slam (if the club finesse works) can become a far better contract with a little care. On an opening top diamond lead, instead of relying on the clubs behaving, try the following line to exploit the possibility that West has all the high diamonds. Win the diamond ace, cash the spade ace, and ruff a spade high. Next, cross to dummy with a high trump to ruff another spade, and ruff the low diamond in dummy. Finally ruff a spade high and lead the diamond nine.

When West produces the 10, you should not ruff the trick. Instead you discard a club from dummy on this trick, leaving West on lead, with a choice of giving you a ruff and discard, or leading a club into your ace-queen. Either way, he has to concede the contract. If East can win the diamond and play a club through, you will fall back on the club finesse.

Less than sparkling defense allowed declarer's game to roll home in today's deal.

When North heard his partner open one no-trump, he transferred into hearts, then rebid two no-trump. South was certainly accepting the game-try with his super-maximum – but in which strain? True, he held three-card heart support, but his hearts could not have been weaker. Accordingly, he elected to bid the no-trump game.

West led the spade three to the 10, four and a deceptive queen from declarer, who led a diamond to the 10 and continued with the heart queen. West took his king and confidently played a second round of spades. Dummy’s jack held, and declarer drove out the heart ace for 10 tricks.

Where did the defense go wrong? When East did not have the wherewithal to cover dummy’s card at trick one, he should have followed with the nine — top of a doubleton to give count to his partner. West would read this as such and not as a “come-on” signal, since East could not beat dummy’s relatively insignificant spot-card. Knowing that his partner had at most two spades confirms that declarer must have at least three; therefore, a spade continuation could only help declarer.

After a club switch by West and a club continuation, declarer must duck two rounds. But now if East has remained on lead, a spade through declarer sets up a defensive trick in that suit before South can knock out West’s second heart honor. The defenders reach five tricks before declarer can take nine.

When an opening lead suggests that an adverse ruff is in the offing, you may need to take quite careful evasive action to sidestep the problem.

In today’s auction from a team game, North was too strong for a direct raise to the spade game, which would have been pre-emptive, so he bid his club suit first. After South introduced his diamonds, North jumped to four spades.

West now guessed extremely well to lead the club nine, threatening the club ruff which would defeat the contract. The first declarer tackled trumps. East won the spade and returned a club. On winning in hand, South played another trump. West rose with the ace, and if East had followed, the contract would have been safe. But East discarded the heart 10. Getting the message, West returned a heart to East’s ace, and the club return saw the game fail.

Declarer was right in recognizing the danger of a club ruff, but wrong in the way he attempted to avoid it. By contrast, the second declarer appreciated the value of the heart suit. He also received a club lead, but at trick two he led a low heart from dummy toward his jack. East rose with the ace and returned a club, but declarer won in dummy, then discarded his last club from hand on the heart king. Only then did he play a trump. East won, but South was able to ruff the club return high in hand and secure his contract.

In the round robin of the U.S. trials to select the international squad to go to Bali for the 2013 Bermuda Bowl, the following declarer-play problem came up. It was not accurately solved by any of the participants who were confronted with it.

Say you reach four hearts and receive the lead of the heart nine. It looks best to win the trick in dummy and start to eliminate the club suit by leading a low one from the board, which is won by East’s 10. East now exits with the diamond jack. Since the contract is only in jeopardy if diamonds do not break, it looks simple enough to win the diamond ace, trump a club, and lead the heart queen to the ace.

Declarer should then continue to prepare for the endplay he might need if diamonds do not cooperate. Best is to play the spade six from hand, and duck when West plays his seven. West is allowed to hold the trick and exits with the diamond queen, bringing the bad break to light. Declarer wins his king, plays a spade to the ace, crosses to dummy with another heart, and plays the spade jack, discarding a diamond from hand.

Poor East must win the trick and now has no choice but to lead a black suit. That gives declarer a ruff and sluff, which can be trumped in dummy as declarer discards his last diamond loser — making four!

The most straightforward hands sometimes offer a chance for whimsy. In this deal from last year's trials for the national squad to go to Bali, most North-South pairs ended up in three no-trump, here after a strong no-trump by South. If a diamond is led, the defense will surely take the first five tricks, but on any other lead, the contract rolls home.

However, declarer has a curious resource if the diamond seven and eight are interchanged between the South and East hands to produce the diagram as shown. (In real life those cards were switched). Now, when West leads the diamond five to East’s queen — a much better play than the ace at the first trick if partner has jack-third in diamonds — South follows with the deuce. East returns the diamond six and South imaginatively follows with the JACK!

West wins the king perforce, and returns his remaining diamond, the nine. If West started with an original K-9-8-5, East must duck now to avoid blocking the suit and taking only four tricks. On the other hand, if West started with K-9-5, East must take his queen to avoid taking only three tricks in the suit.

There is no scientific way around this problem. If you sacrifice potentially useful spot cards on opening lead to avoid blockages, you will cost yourself tricks in other more normal layouts of the cards. The simple solution is to hope that you do not come up against declarers who are as ingenious as today’s.

In this deal from the 2013 U.S. trials, six clubs has to be played by South, or else a diamond lead through the ace-queen would be fatal. How would you play the slam on a heart lead?

You must avoid leading a spade to the king and ace, or else a diamond return will put you on the spot. Are you going to play for the diamond finesse or for spades to behave? Best is to win the lead in dummy and lead a low spade from the board toward your queen. If West wins the trick, you get to test spades before playing on diamonds. But if it is East with the spade ace, he is caught in a Morton’s Fork Coup.

East cannot fly up with his ace, or declarer can establish three discards for dummy’s diamonds on the top heart and two spades. So East ducks the spade, whereupon declarer wins the queen. Now he discards the spade loser on the hearts, and is almost home. As the cards lie, he can simply draw trump and give up a diamond.

But it is best after pitching the spade loser to play the diamond queen from hand. If the defenders take this, you can unblock diamonds and draw trump. If the diamond queen is ducked, you take two top trumps from hand, and claim if clubs split. If they don’t, you cash the diamond ace, draw trump, then give up a diamond for your 12th trick.

Today's problem was encountered by a declarer in the American trials for the World Championships in Bali.

Declarer was playing against an expert and aggressive pair. In three no-trump, on the lead of the heart nine, dummy’s jack lost to the king. Back came a second heart, won in dummy, and South then led a club to the king, which held. What next?

Declarer led the diamond nine to the ace, then finessed in diamonds, discovering that his Right-Hand Opponent had started with four diamonds to the Q-10 when his Left-Hand Opponent threw away a spade. What now?

Declarer went after spades, but East won his ace and cleared the hearts, while West still held the club ace as an entry — down one. The defenders were Denny Clerkin (West) and his brother Jerry. The key to the defense was that when declarer led a club to the king at trick three, Denny ducked without a flicker in a successful attempt to preserve his entry.

It is easy to be wise after the event, but it was probably right for declarer to continue playing on clubs at trick five, unless South deemed West incapable of ducking an ace. If West wins the club ace at his second turn and clears hearts, declarer will go after spades. But if East can win the club ace and then clears hearts, declarer should play on diamonds. East probably does not have two aces and a king, or he would have opened the bidding.

The names have been omitted in today's deal from last year's trials for Bali to protect the guilty.

Against four spades West led his singleton diamond. Declarer won and played ace and a spade. West followed with the 10 on the first round, then won the queen and returned the heart three (conventionally, lowest from an odd number). Declarer won the ace and led a club to the king in dummy. The first mistake came when East won the ace, despite West’s echo to show an even number of clubs. East should know that declarer must have exactly three diamonds. Partner must have five hearts, giving declarer one heart. So, declarer must have exactly two clubs. Best defense is therefore simply to duck the first club, eliminating dummy’s entry to the clubs.

Now for mistake number two: East returned the diamond queen instead of a heart. Partner can’t possibly need a ruff, since he followed with the spade 10 and queen. Leading a heart would have clarified the situation for partner.

Declarer played the diamond king and now West trumped in, rather than waiting for a possibly useful discard from partner. When he exited with the heart queen rather than playing a club to break up the squeeze, declarer ruffed it and ran the trumps. This squeezed East between the club jack and his master diamond.

In the ending, declarer had to guess what to do in clubs, and he did — at least SOMEONE did something right on the deal!