Today's deal from last year's Bermuda Bowl features the match between the young USA-2 squad and Bulgaria. It shows both U.S. pairs combining nicely for a gain.

Against four hearts both Wests led a small club. John Hurd realized that if the club finesse was right he really did not need to take it. He put up dummy’s club ace, won the second trick with his heart jack, and continued with the heart seven. Victor Aronov took his ace and led a small spade, declarer getting it right by playing the jack. West won the trick with his ace and shifted to the diamond 10, but declarer won the trick, played a trump, and claimed. He still had to lose a club trick when diamonds did not behave, but he had his contract.

In the other room the Bulgarian declarer played dummy’s club queen at trick one and could no longer make his contract. Justin Lall played his club king and switched to the diamond two, the only card to defeat the contract. Declarer won the trick with dummy’s queen and played a heart. Lall ducked this trick, then won the next trick with his heart ace to switch to a small spade. Seeing the ruff coming, declarer took his only legitimate chance by playing his king. Joe Grue won with his ace and returned a diamond for his partner to ruff. East now cashed the spade queen for two down.

At last year's Bermuda Bowl in the match between Israel and Poland, the Poles showed their ability in defense.

After a simple auction, South had to declare three spades and West led his singleton diamond. Ophir Herbst won this in hand and went on to play spade ace and another spade. East won and thoughtfully shifted to the heart jack, ducked by West to leave the defenders’ communications intact. Declarer could do no better than exit from dummy with a club. East won the ace (West giving reverse count by following with the seven) and gave his partner the diamond ruff.

West now did not know which of the club or heart winners were standing up. He solved his problem by underleading his hearts, his low card suggesting a remaining three-card holding. East won the heart 10 and knew to return another heart; thus declarer had to lose two hearts, a club and the diamond ruff for down one. Poland: plus 50.

Jacek Kalita was also in three spades against the lead of the diamond nine. He too won in hand, but immediately ran the spade jack. Of course, East won his king and could now give partner a diamond ruff, but the defense had only their two aces now. Had East returned a heart immediately, South would have won and played a club, and thus have been able to ruff the third heart with the spade ace. The fall of the spade 10 would have allowed declarer to come home.

This week's deals all come from last fall's Bermuda Bowl in Veldhoven, won by the Dutch. On this deal from Australia's qualifying match against USA-1 in the Bermuda Bowl, Sartaj Hans played skillfully to land a three-no-trump contract that failed at many tables.

For the U.S., Martin Fleisher led the spade four, ducked by declarer and taken by Mike Kamil with the king. On the spade return, Fleisher played low on declarer’s jack. Hans played a diamond to dummy’s ace, cashed the diamond king, and then ran the club 10 to West’s jack. A low spade cleared the suit and put the lead in dummy.

This position was reached at many tables, but whereas many of the unsuccessful declarers took a second club finesse, letting West win and cash out his spades for down one, Hans instead played a club to his ace, realizing that he wanted to keep West off play, at least for the time being.

Next he cashed his two diamond winners. Fleisher could spare a heart on the third round of diamonds, but he had to let a spade go on declarer’s final diamond.

Now Hans exited with a club, leaving Fleisher on lead. That player could cash a spade, but then had to lead a heart, giving declarer his eighth and ninth tricks with a club and heart winner.

Had West discarded a heart instead on the fourth diamond, declarer would have led a heart himself and built an extra trick for his side in that suit.

All this week's deals come from the 2011 Bermuda Bowl from Veldhoven in the Netherlands. Today's deal features a defensive maneuver that eluded one of the players at the, table who was faced with the problem. See if you can do better!

At both tables West passed initially, then upped the ante to four spades at his next turn. Neither East nor West could bid on to five spades over five hearts though; perhaps if East had doubled to show extra shape (NOT penalties), that might have got West to do the right thing.

Anyway, with five spades easy to make, the East-West pairs had to defeat five hearts to avoid disaster.

When Bobby Levin was on lead, he started with the spade ace, on which Steve Weinstein played a suit-preference eight, calling for the higher of the unbid suits. Making sure there was no confusion, Levin thoughtfully played the diamond king at trick two and continued the suit for one down and plus 100 for USA 1.

In the other room Joe Grue also started with the spade ace, and he too switched to a diamond at trick two, but he played a low diamond rather than the king. Justin Lall had to decide whether the spade king was standing up or if his partner had the diamond king. He got it wrong when he won the diamond ace and then tried to cash a second spade. Declarer, Lew Stansby, could ruff and was able to claim 11 tricks.

Per-Olav Sundelin, known universally as P.O., was not playing for his native Sweden in the 2008 European Championships. His other duties as Vugraph commentator, Daily Bulletin journalist and proofreader precluded this. P.O.'s command of English is such that he is able to correct not only the analysis but also the grammar of the native English-speaking scribes. Additionally, he wrote a series of bridge problems for the bulletins. Here is one of them, perhaps the hardest of the fortnight.

West leads the spade king against five diamonds, East contributes the jack, and you play the ace. On a diamond to the ace, East shows out, discarding a club. What continuation guarantees your contract?

Answer: play a top club, and regardless of what card East contributes, even the ace, discard your losing spade! Should the club hold, give up a heart then cash the ace and king of that suit. If West trumps in at any point, ruff the spade return, cash the diamond king, and ruff the fourth heart in dummy. If West has the club ace and takes it, win the major-suit return, give up a diamond, then draw the last trump and discard the two losing hearts in hand on the queen and jack of clubs.

And if East plays the club ace, discard a spade, win the return, and give up a trump. The trap is that should you mistakenly ruff the club ace, West can overruff, then play a low spade to East for another club ruff.

When this deal originally appeared it came with the punning subtitle from the Bonnie Tyler song: "It's a heart eight, nothing but a heart eight."

Norberto Bocchi, the hero of the deal, was complaining about what a bad card-holder his partner was on this deal. Quite a few of the field had reached four hearts by North after a weak no-trump. At those tables, after a club lead, West won the ace, cashed the spade ace, then played another spade. Since West had produced two aces, declarer was not hard-pressed to get hearts right. In fact, 16 of 22 declarers made 10 tricks in their heart contracts.

In our featured room, Bocchi sat West, and on an informative auction, led the spade ace and shifted to the diamond two. Believing the opponents’ count-cards, declarer played four rounds of diamonds, discarding his club, hoping that whichever defender ruffed would weaken his trump holding. Bocchi now knew his partner must have the heart ace, and seeing the trump nine in dummy, thoughtfully ruffed with the heart queen. His expectation was that declarer would win the spade return on the board and pass the heart nine.

Alas for him, when declarer led the heart nine from dummy East’s irritating heart eight got in the way. Declarer now knew to go up with the king (on the assumption that East would have covered from the 10-8 (by no means a sure thing, incidentally) and hold his trump losers to one.

Today's deal comes from a knockout match in a regional event where all the players were not only competent, but (as usual) had an appropriately high opinion of their own abilities.

When one East-West pair came back to score up, their teammates called out “minus 50” and the first pair announced that they had conceded 420. Nothing more was said for a few seconds, then East made the mistake of asking how South had gone down.

He was told that, against four hearts, West had led the club jack (denying a higher honor). Declarer won, cashed the heart ace and jack, and played a spade to dummy’s king and East’s ace. Can you see what the defense ought to do now?

In one room East made no mistake when he switched to the diamond queen. Just because East knew the contract would be cold if South covered, didn’t mean that HE knew that.

Look at the problem from declarer’s perspective. If East has the Q-J-9, he would be right to duck the queen. Even if he had covered and West had guessed to win and play a low diamond back, declarer would have been likely to go wrong.

When the unfortunate South retaliated by asking how the defense had gone in the other room, East (who had shifted to a low diamond at the critical moment) had little excuse but to say that the sun had got in his eyes at the critical moment.

Turkey's Senior Team won its country's first-ever European Teams Championship title a couple of years ago. This hand features a well-reasoned play by Orhan Ekinci, a member of that team, reported by Erdal Sidor, Turkey's Open Team captain.

Against four spades West led his singleton heart, and South rose with dummy’s ace. The play seems straightforward: draw trumps, then pitch a heart on the third diamond and play on clubs for 11 tricks if the club queen sits onside, or for 10 if not.

But Ekinci had to reassess when, at trick two, he discovered he had a trump loser. How to proceed? One line would be to play three rounds of diamonds, discarding a heart from hand, then finesse East for the club queen. East was less likely to have the club ace as well as his strong heart holding, for then he might have opened one heart. And indeed that is how the play went at many tables.

However, Ekinci already knew that West held a singleton heart plus four spades, whereas East had six cards in the majors. If additionally he held four diamonds, he could be endplayed. So declarer cashed three rounds of diamonds, shedding a heart, then led dummy’s fourth diamond, on which he pitched his last heart. West won, but was now endplayed in the black suits.

Incidentally, had East produced the fourth diamond, Ekinci would have ruffed high and played a low spade. He would still have come home had the club queen been well-placed for him.

The higher a contract, the easier it usually is to play. Imagine for a moment that you were playing today's hand in six spades. How should you play it when the defenders lead two rounds of hearts? You would ruff, cross to dummy, and finesse the queen of trumps. The only chance would be to find East with a doubleton trump king.

With just 24 points between the hands, though, it is more likely that you would end in game. Now your aim is to make 10 tricks against any lie of the cards. How would you play the contract at teams or rubber, when the defenders again begin with two rounds of hearts?

The original declarer ruffed the second heart and played the ace of trumps, East showing out. When he continued with a low trump toward dummy’s 10, West stepped in with the jack.

Can you see what the winning defense is now? West played a third round of hearts, deliberately giving a ruff-and-discard. If declarer ruffed with the dummy’s bare 10, West’s K-9 would be worth two further tricks. If instead declarer ruffed in his hand, he would be down to the same number of trumps as West. He would lose trump control when he knocked out the trump king and was forced again.

Paradoxically, the only safe line is to lead a trump toward the 10 at trick two. You then have a small trump left in dummy to deal with a third round of hearts.