In today's deal, when North doubled a weak two in pass-out seat, South's bid of three hearts promised constructive values since the partnership was playing Lebensohl. With fewer values South would first have bid two no-trump, simply to show a weak hand. After North now optimistically drove to the heart slam, West led the spade two, an obvious singleton.

Had South’s club jack been the diamond jack, both of his spade losers could have been discarded. As it was, South had to resort to desperate measures.

The lead was won with dummy’s ace, and South’s first wish — that the heart 10 would come down doubleton so that two clubs could be ruffed in dummy — failed to materialize. So declarer drew West’s last trump and was about to settle for the club finesse when he was struck with a better idea.

Instead, he cashed the club king and three rounds of diamonds, discarding a losing spade from hand, then led dummy’s fourth diamond. When East failed to follow, South jettisoned his last spade, and West was forced to win the trick. Declarer knew that West now had only clubs left and would be forced to play into his tenace.

If East had shown up with the fourth diamond, declarer would have ruffed the trick and exited with a low club. That would have forced West to win and play back a club into declarer’s tenace, allowing both of dummy’s spades to be discarded.

Sometimes the easiest-looking hands are the most treacherous. In today's deal declarer assumed that he would have no problem making his no-trump game and took his eye off the ball. Once he had done that, he had endangered his contract and was unable to recover from his first mistake — though he did have a chance to do so.

When West tried to find his partner by leading the heart five, South assuming that the lead was from length, finessed by playing low from dummy. East won his queen and returned the suit, then took the club king and played a third heart. Had hearts not been 5-2, declarer would simply have been able to drive out the spade ace for his nine tricks. However, once the bad heart break came to light, South had to guess whether to take the diamond finesse or play on spades. When he guessed to take the diamond finesse, East won and cashed out for two down. This was probably the wrong play by South. Going after diamonds needs both the finesse and the break, while playing on spades simply needs the ace well-placed.

However, the critical play error came at trick one: Declarer must refrain from finessing in hearts immediately. By winning the ace and crossing to the diamond ace to advance the club jack, nine tricks can be guaranteed. Although, as the cards lie, the contract could be secured by other lines of play, the indicated line is the only one that can never fail.

This week's deals all come from the Asia Pacific tournament held this time last year in Fukuoka, Japan. Today's deal was also my favorite play of the tournament. It came from the women's teams in a match between Australian and Japanese squads. While the Australians had played the North-South cards in three diamonds down one, Junko Tsubaki, sitting South, was more ambitious.

East’s decision not to double the final contract of three no-trump was doubtless based on having seen her partner’s opening bids before. The defenders led three rounds of clubs. Declarer won the third, crossed to the diamond king, then took the percentage play when she finessed the diamond 10, unblocked the diamond ace, went to the spade king, and ran diamonds, pitching a spade and a heart from hand. As the last diamond was led in what was about to be a four-card ending, declarer had produced an intriguing squeeze on West, an ending that Terence Reese has elegantly defined as a winkle.

West had to keep two spades and one club, and when she came down to the bare heart king, declarer led a heart from dummy. East could not rise with the ace and crash her partner’s king, so she ducked and let West cash her heart and club. But that player then had to lead a spade into declarer’s tenace and concede the rest.

It was 12 well-deserved IMPs to the Japanese team, on their way to a 24-6 win.

Before we look at the play in today's deal, from the later stages of the Asia Pacific Bridge Games from Fukuoka, Japan, last year, analyze the bidding problem South had. He heard his partner overcall two clubs over one diamond, and he advanced with a two-diamond cue-bid, to which his partner responded three clubs, suggesting no major and nothing to say. In one room the South player now passed — reasonable, if pessimistic — and his partner emerged with 10 tricks. So his action was well-judged, up to a point.

(Incidentally, though, another possibility for North would have been to bid three diamonds over the double of two diamonds, to suggest good clubs and no clear direction on the hand, looking for a diamond stopper for three no-trump.)

At the other table in our featured match, after Zhou Jiahong’s three-club call, Lian Yong’s three-spade bid at his second turn (normally suggesting five) gave Zhou a chance to head for the best game of four spades.

Against four spades the defenders led and continued diamonds. Declarer ruffed, advanced the spade 10 (covered all around), then ruffed a second diamond in dummy and came to the club queen to draw as many trumps as he could before running the clubs. East could ruff in whenever he wanted, but that was the defenders’ last trick.

Incidentally, had West shifted to the heart king at trick two, declarer wins the ace, leads the spade 10, and simply ducks East’s queen to retain control.

The objective in today's deal from the Asia Pacific games last summer is to reach three no-trump and avoid a spade lead. In the other room the pair for Pan-China did their best when North opened a weak no-trump and was raised to game. However, East did extremely well to lead the spade nine.

Declarer won the ace and finessed in hearts. East won and cleared spades, after which declarer had no chance. Had declarer ducked in dummy at trick one, West would also have had to duck while encouraging, in order to set the game.

In our other, featured, room, West led a fourth-highest spade against three no-trump, but no doubt the two-spade call by South had persuaded East that his partner could not hold a five-card suit. Accordingly, when declarer won the spade queen and led a diamond, East ducked. Declarer won his diamond queen and took a heart finesse. East correctly won the first heart and cleared spades, but declarer could run the hearts and take the club finesse for his ninth trick.

At yet a third table North-South reached five diamonds on a spade lead. Declarer won the queen and led a trump to hand, a heart to the queen, which held, and now, quite reasonably, instead of taking the club finesse, he played a second trump to hand and repeated the heart finesse. Disaster! East, Gan Xinli, won his heart king, cashed the diamond ace, and cut loose with a spade, leaving declarer with three eventual club losers. Nicely defended!

Today's deal comes from the teams finals at the Asia Pacific Games last summer in Fukuoka, Japan. In one room South got to bid and rebid spades and was eventually doubled in two spades. When West led a heart, declarer won in hand and took an immediate diamond finesse to pitch the club loser, then played a trump to the nine, 10 and jack. Declarer ruffed the diamond return, ducked a trump, then left trumps alone, playing on the side-suits. He lost four spades and two clubs for down one and minus 200.

In one spade doubled, played in the other room, declarer plowed a different furrow. He won the heart lead, crossed to the diamond ace and heart queen to ruff two diamonds in hand, then exited with a club; West put up the king and returned a club. West could subsequently ruff a heart and lead a fourth diamond, ruffed by his partner with the spade ace, while declarer pitched his last club loser. In the four-card ending, East could lead a plain card while declarer had spade Q-10- 8-6 left in hand and West held K-J-7 of trumps and a diamond. West overruffed the spade eight with the jack and played his last diamond for East to ruff with the spade nine. This forced declarer to overruff, and now the spade K-7 took the last two tricks.

The maneuvers in the trump suit included five ruffs, an overruff and an uppercut — all for no swing!

Today's deal came from the knockout stages of the Seniors event in the Asia Pacific games last fall in Fukuoka, Japan. The deal shown swung the match — but not in the way you might expect.

Where Hirata Yamada and Kyoko Ohno were West and East respectively, East’s decision to pass one spade let her opponents back into the auction, and East-West finished up defending three no-trump. Yamada led a low club to the first trick – an interesting choice, because partner was marked with club shortage. Declarer won in dummy and led a diamond to the jack, queen and ace. Yamada now accurately shifted to the spade 10, and declarer was now dead. He covered with the jack, and East won and cleared spades. West was sure now to get in with the club ace and could then cash out the spades. Down one for 50 looks like a good result for East-West.

However, in the companion room there was no easy way into the East-West auction when East raised to two spades instead of passing one spade. After a diamond lead, declarer Hideo Togawa ruffed two diamonds and a club in dummy and two hearts in hand. Then he led a third heart and played safe by ruffing high, following a guaranteed line for eight tricks. So he finished up making 110.

Accordingly, Yamada’s textbook play had held the loss on the board to 2 IMPs — and an eventual loss in the match by just one IMP.

This week's deals all come from the Asia Pacific Bridge Federation tournament held this time last year in Fukuoka, Japan.

The board came up in the pairs game, and I thought the result somewhat surprising when I saw the scores from all around the room. If you had the South cards and your partner opened the bidding, would you let him out below slam? I wouldn’t — especially if I found we had all the aces. But today, six no-trump on an unlikely diamond lead is horrible (it makes only if you duck the diamond and play for a diamond-spade squeeze). What is more, even on normal defense you are likely to come down to needing spades to break evenly. But who wants to rely on a 3-3 split — for which the chances are scarcely better than one in three?

David Hoffman of Australia did far better when he played six hearts instead. He won the club lead, drew all the trumps at once, then exploited the diamond spots by leading the diamond 10 to dummy’s ace, ran the diamond jack, then regained the lead and passed the diamond nine to establish the diamond eight. That line is well over a 75 percent chance — if West can bring himself to duck the diamond 10 smoothly when he holds both honors.

Of course, with spades 3-3, you’d expect more than a few pairs to get to that slam and make it. But not so. Bringing in 980 turned out to be a 75 percent board.