Today's deal from the United Kingdom occurred in a Gold Cup match, a knockout tournament that is organized in its early stages across the whole country until the field is reduced to eight teams, whereupon the final stages are played at a single venue.

The hero of the deal was Gunnar Hallberg, who sat West. Gunnar is an expatriate Swede who came to London for the rubber bridge two decades ago and has since won a series of European and world titles for the English senior team.

You may want to cover up the South and East hands to see whether you would have found the winning play.

Against three no-trump the defense started with three rounds of spades, declarer holding up his ace until the third round. Declarer now needed to establish one of the minors, and the diamond suit is clearly the more promising option. It looks as if South will succeed because East cannot gain the lead to cash his spades.

However, when declarer cashed the diamond ace, Hallberg dropped his king! Now there was no way East could be prevented from gaining the lead with his jack, and three no-trump had to go down.

It was just as well for Hallberg’s team that he found such a good defense because in the other room North-South had lost their way and ended up in a hopeless five clubs. But Gunnar’s defense helped to level the board.

Reaching six no-trump from the North seat would be too hard for most of us. After you open two clubs and rebid two no-trump to show a good 22-24 points, you have failed the "test." Incidentally, North might have explored for a minor-suit fit, the easiest way being to jump to five no-trump to offer a choice of slams.

Of course, West leads a heart. Resignedly, you call for dummy’s heart queen, not in the least surprised when this loses to East’s king. How will you play the contract when East returns a second round of hearts, removing your safe entry to dummy at an inconvenient moment?

Five diamond tricks and four club tricks will bring the total to 12. You will need to find East with the club king, of course, but you must also solve the blockage problem in diamonds. The best line is to lead the club queen from dummy. If East follows with a low club, you must unblock the club 10 from your hand. When the finesse wins, as you must hope, you continue with a low club to your jack. If East began with a doubleton or tripleton club king, you will be able to pick up the clubs. Then you can unblock the three top diamond honors and finally return to dummy by overtaking the club five with dummy’s six.

Dummy’s two remaining diamonds, plus the top spades in your hand, will allow you to claim the slam.

The advent of senior events at European and world championship levels brought many names from the past back into the playing arena. For instance, Joe MacHale first represented Ireland at the 1953 European Championships, held in Helsinki. Fifty years on, he was again in action under the Irish flag, in Salsamaggiore, Italy. His handling of today's contract showed that his skills remained intact.

As South, MacHale reached four spades after West had suggested he held most of the outstanding high cards. By chance he had managed to avoid playing four hearts, which would have been hopeless on a club lead. (Perhaps that is what is meant by the luck of the Irish.)

West led the club king against four spades, ducked by declarer. Next came ace and another diamond. On the established queen and jack, declarer did not discard his losing club, but two hearts from hand. He had appreciated that the way home lay in making two heart tricks, but without first losing two tricks in the suit. The bidding made West the likely candidate to hold the outstanding honors.

Joe now played ace and another heart, endplaying West. West’s best exit is a trump, but if he leads the nine, declarer covers, thus establishing two spade entries to dummy, one to ruff a heart, bringing down the king, and the second to cash the established jack for a club discard in hand. If instead West had played the spade five, it would have been covered by the eight to achieve a similar position.

Only one line of defense will defeat South's contract, but to find it, East had to visualize the holdings needed in the unseen hands.

Against three no-trump West led the diamond 10, and declarer could count eight tricks, with the ninth to come from a 3-3 break in clubs or hearts.

Declarer put in the diamond queen, cashed the club ace and king, and on seeing the jack and 10 fall from West, decided, rightly as it transpired, that clubs were not breaking, so he broached hearts. As a heart trick had to be lost, and expecting to lose no more than three spade tricks, declarer played a low heart to dummy’s eight.

On winning the heart, East did some calculating. West could hold just one high card — either the diamond king, the heart king, or the spade ace. If he held one of the red kings, there would be no defense. But even if he had the spade ace, the defense would have to be precise. East appreciated that on any return bar a spade, the likely 3-3 heart break would see declarer home. Thus four quick spade tricks were needed. For this to be possible, South had to have exactly the doubleton spade queen, and the only way to take those four tricks was to lead the spade king right now. East did so, and a second spade went to the queen and ace. West’s last spade, through dummy’s 10-8, produced the requisite four tricks. Nicely done.

In today's hand from the Women's teams at the 2002 European Championship, declarer was able to restrict her losers in the fourth suit to just one, regardless of the location of the missing honors, by eliminating the other three suits.

Against four spades West led the heart nine. Declarer rose with the ace and immediately ruffed the heart jack. The spade queen came next, then another spade to the king and ace. At this point in the deal declarer has two sure diamond losers and thus to insure her contract needs to hold her club losers to one. It would be easy to guess the suit – but why guess when you have a sure thing?

With trump and hearts eliminated, declarer set about diamonds by leading the jack.

This ran to West’s king, and rather than give a ruff and discard or open up the clubs, West returned a diamond to East’s ace. East did her best by playing another diamond. Nicola ruffed her winning diamond queen in dummy to lead the club queen, (a low club would have had the same effect in this position). Irrespective of the location of the missing club honors, this was guaranteed to be the winning play. In practice East covered with the king, and on taking the ace, declarer conceded just one club trick to the jack.

Had West held the king she would now have been endplayed into either giving declarer a ruff and discard, or returning a club into declarer’s tenace.

This deal was declared by John Crawford, a great American player of the early postwar years. I've substituted an auction that might occur today. After an opening call of two no-trump, it is common to play transfers at both the three- and four-level. The Texas transfer at the four-level is either to play or to be followed by Blackwood, while a transfer and raise is a mild slam-try.

Against four spades West led the heart two and Crawford took East’s heart king with the ace. Next he played the spade king, followed by the spade jack to the ace. Then came a heart to the nine and 10. West now shifted to clubs, declarer capturing East’s 10 with his ace.

Crawford next played the heart jack from his hand and discarded the club jack when West covered this with the queen. West did his best when he exited with a club, which was ruffed in dummy. Now the spade five to the queen allowed Crawford to eliminate the club suit by ruffing the club in dummy. Finally came a diamond to the 10, and when West won the diamond queen, he then had either to lead a diamond or concede a ruff-and-discard. Either way Crawford had his 10th trick.

It is hard to criticize West unduly, but a black-suit lead would have seen four spades fail since declarer does not have the timing right for the endplay on West.

I would expect East to pass as dealer here, then double at his second turn to speak. If South could redouble to show a strong hand, there is something to be said for that action, after which East would retreat to two diamonds. Now 300 is available by doubling this, but at most forms of scoring, there is a lot to be said for aiming higher, since if you bid three no-trump and make it, the rewards are far higher.

At many tables East would unthinkingly win the first diamond and try to cash the suit from the top. That would make sense if South had a doubleton diamond, but how likely is that? Not very likely, I’d say.

East does best to duck the first or second diamond, stopping the easy route home via the club finesse. Declarer has a counter: He must run the hearts, forcing East to make two discards. The first one, a small spade, is easy; the second appears relatively innocuous as well, in that he must throw an apparently irrelevant small club. But then declarer has to reconstruct the hand. Since East appears to have started with four spades, two hearts and five diamonds, he either has the bare club king or he doesn’t. South must cash the club ace and exit with his remaining diamond. East is now endplayed; he can cash his diamonds but in the three-card ending he must lead into dummy’s spade tenace and concede the rest.

Here is one of Edgar Kaplan's favorite deals, from a duplicate pairs long ago. To appreciate it fully, cover up the East and West cards.

Against four spades doubled, West led the heart king, then played the ace and a third heart, hoping partner could overruff dummy. Kaplan, sitting East, could infer that West was void in spades and that four hearts would make 10 tricks. So the task at hand was for the defense to set declarer three tricks. When North played the third heart, declarer ruffed in dummy with the nine. Kaplan casually discarded the diamond five, apparently unable to overruff. Declarer now played a spade from dummy to his ace and was shocked when West discarded.

Declarer could do nothing but lead another spade. Kaplan won, played his last diamond, and obtained the diamond ruff for the necessary penalty of 800 and matchpoint top.

Of course, there was considerable discussion between North and South. South explained to his partner that despite all appearances to the contrary, he had heard of a finesse, but he argued that he could never play East for the king when he didn’t overruff the heart.

North had little sympathy for his partner, but 20-20 hindsight makes the game much easier. In my opinion it was a neat play and apt to work against almost anyone. However, it wouldn’t have succeeded against you or me. Or would it?

Today's deal emphasizes the point that bridge is not a game that you can learn by mastering one theme and extrapolating it to other deals.

First of all, let’s see what happened at the unsuccessful table in a teams match. Against three no-trump, the heart queen was led to the ace. The diamond 10 went to the ace, and declarer took the losing spade finesse. The next heart was ducked and South won the third rouind of hearts, throwing a spade from dummy. At this point he must have felt confident he was going to succeed. After all, if West had the diamond queen, the finesse would work. If East had it, the hearts were not a threat.

But when declarer led the diamond nine and West showed out, East ducked. Now the contract was no longer makable. With no entries to dummy there were just eight tricks.

Declarer had in a sense done well. If he takes the diamond finesse immediately, East clears hearts and the contract will depend on the success or failure of the spade finesse. However, at the other table South led the spade jack from his hand at trick two, a truly unnatural play, but one that would generate nine tricks no matter how the defense played. When West took the trick and continued the attack on hearts, South ducked, won the third round of hearts, and now ran the diamond 10. Whether East took this or the next diamond, South had four diamond winners and nine tricks.