Transport yourself back in time, to play four spades, after an idiosyncratic auction, with 1954 Bermuda Bowl Champion Doug Steen in the East seat. West leads the club eight, which places East with the club ace and West with virtually all of the other high cards. You play low from dummy and Steen inserts the jack. Play on.

The original declarer drew trumps in three rounds and led a club to the king, which Steen allowed to win. When Steen took the third round of clubs he then carefully shifted to a diamond, allowing his partner to set up two winners in the suit. Declarer could not reach his hand except by overtaking the trump eight with the nine — and that would have exhausted his trumps. So he had to lose three tricks in the red suits; down one.

Did you spot declarer’s mistake? After drawing two rounds of trumps with the ace and queen, he should have thought back to the bidding. West appeared to have a doubleton club, as East did not try for a ruff, so West’s most likely shape was 2=5=4=2 (he would not leap to game on a 14 or 15 point 5332 shape). Thus, after the second round of trumps, declarer should have played on clubs. East could hold up the club ace until the third round, but the trump king would be the entry to the established clubs. On this approach, declarer would have made four trumps, a diamond, four clubs and a red-suit ruff.

In today's deal South drove to game by showing his two-suiter, then guessed to rebid four clubs rather than gamble out three no-trump, and was raised to five.

The defenders led two rounds of hearts, then East exited passively with a small diamond. Declarer won in hand cashed two top clubs, then crossed to the spade ace and took the club finesse and claimed the rest when diamonds behaved.

While East was telling his partner that there was nothing he could have done, West was wearily shaking his head in a successful effort to irritate East; can you see why?

There is a defense to five clubs, though it is hard to find. After winning two heart tricks, East can see that the main hope to defeat the contract is by winning a club trick. He should also realize that, given the chance, declarer will lead two rounds of clubs and find out East has the guarded club jack, then cross to dummy, and finesse the jack. To prevent this, East must shift to a spade at trick three and remove declarer’s side-entry to dummy before he finds out about the four-one club split. The bidding indicates the likelihood of South having solid diamonds (and shifting to a spade would not help declarer avoid a diamond loser if he has one).

Even if South were void in spades, and had 100 honors in trumps, it would take an iron nerve (or a peek) to finesse against the jack on the first round.

When England play the Netherlands it is always an enjoyable encounter for both teams. The Dutch speak English as well as we do, and their exciting bidding makes for interesting auctions.

In Beijing the English Under-21 team faced the Netherlands in the round robin towards the end when England were securing their place in the top two and the Dutch were struggling to make it into the top eight.

On the deal below it was the English pair who created the swing, with a calculated risk in the bidding.

Ed Jones, sitting East for England, opened one diamond after two passes and the Dutch South, perhaps surprisingly, overcalled one no-trump. Tom Paske, West, made a disciplined pass, and North transferred to spades by bidding two hearts. When South completed the transfer by bidding two spades Tom sprang to life and doubled for take-out. East now had a tricky bid to make but he reasoned that his partner would not have four diamonds since he had not supported the suit, and that consequently his A-K-Q would pull their weight in defense. So he decided to pass the double, converting it into penalties.

Tom kicked off with a diamond, and after cashing three rounds Ed switched to the club jack, to the queen and king, and Tom returned a club. South could now draw trump (losing two tricks to Ed’s ace and 10 in the process) but he had nowhere to put his fourth club and ended up losing three diamonds, two clubs and two trumps for two down and 500 points to England. Since the other table had played peacefully in three diamonds and gone two down that was a good swing of 12 IMPs to England.

Plan the play in a team game if you declare three no-trump on the lead of the club six.

The only danger to your contract is if the clubs are 5-2. If the suit is 4-3, you should be able to survive almost any misguess. But if clubs are 5-2, there is a chance that you may lose four club tricks and the diamond ace. If you put in the club jack at the first trick, then, if East wins the trick with a doubleton queen or ace, he can simply return the suit. Now, whenever West has the diamond ace, he will get in and cash out his five winners.

Much better is to go up with the club king at trick one. Now, if East has the doubleton club queen, the defenders’ club holding is completely blocked, and declarer can set up the diamonds in comfort. But as the cards lie today, with East holding the doubleton club ace, this play would not succeed. East would capture the club king with the ace and set up the suit for his partner, so long as West overtakes the club nine on the second round.

The only way to be certain of avoiding that fate is to play low from dummy at trick one. Play it through and see for yourself. East can win the first club cheaply but cannot continue the suit effectively, and declarer has time to set up the diamonds.

A few years ago a charity bridge event was held at Mosimann’s Restaurant in London in aid of the Variety Club. The total raised for the charity was £30,000.

On the morning of the event Zia Mahmood was sick and couldn’t play. His replacement, Nicola Smith filled in, and she and her partner won their section. The following slam caused her no problem. While the play should be straightforward, it floored a number of players.

Although South has only 10 high-card points, his hand is strong in distribution and well worth an opening bid. (A two diamond opening would be wildly misleading.) After that start, there would be no stopping North, and the final contract would be six diamonds after the obligatory use of Blackwood.

On a spade king lead, declarer needs to set up dummy’s hearts, using trumps as entries. The simplest line is to win the lead, play a trump to dummy and ruff a heart, play another trump to dummy and ruff another heart. Now ruff a spade and try the ace and king of hearts (discarding a spade and a club). If hearts break, declarer can claim the rest. On the actual layout declarer ruffs another heart, setting up dummy’s 10, which he can reach with a second spade ruff. The remaining heart winner allows declarer to discard a second club, and the slam is made without needing to guess which opponent holds the club ace.

Here is another example of how well computers can play, given the right circumstances. The computer known as GIB can generally find the best line when it understands the constraints imposed by the bidding.

Today’s deal comes from Deauville, in 1996. Herve Mouiel won the prize for the best-played hand here, declaring six no-trump on a spade lead. So how do you make two diamond tricks in your slam? You can play for a stiff honor somewhere, or a doubleton honor in either hand, but you may well have to guess which defender to play for shortage.

The chances of a 5-2 diamond break did not seem especially good, with both opponents having shown a long suit, so Mouiel played East for both diamond honors. Since he had opened a weak two with such a feeble suit, he rated to have some side-values. Mouiel cashed two spades, then all five hearts and both his clubs.

At this point dummy was left with a small spade and three diamonds, South had the master spade and three diamonds. West was irrelevant, and East had to come down to king-queen-third of diamonds and thus just one spade.

Now declarer played the spade king, stripping East of all but his three diamonds, and next led a diamond to the 10 to endplay him. Nicely done! At the other table, the French defender found the devastating lead of the diamond nine. GIB duplicated Mouiel’s line, but no one gave it a prize.

In today's deal North's second-round double promised three-card heart support. When North decided to leap to game in hearts, you passed, despite knowing that you would have only a 4-3 trump fit. West begins with two top spades and East follows up the line to indicate a three-card suit. How do you plan to make 10 tricks?

If trumps are 3-3, then 10 tricks will be easy. If the trumps are 5-1 or West has four trumps, then there will be no way to make four hearts. So the crucial case is when East has four trumps, as here.

West, a passed hand, has the spade ace-king plus either the queen or the jack. So this makes East a heavy favorite to hold the club king. You should make a plan that will produce 10 tricks when East has four trumps, three spades, and the club king.

After ruffing the second spade in hand, you should draw two rounds of trump with the king and ace, then ruff another spade in hand with the trump jack. Next, you will play a diamond to dummy’s king, followed by the trump queen, and continue with your remaining diamond winners. What can East do? If he ruffs at any stage, he will have to lead away from the club king. If instead East discards on the diamonds, you will score just one club trick but four diamonds, again bringing you to a total of 10.

The winners of the Midweek Senior Swiss Teams Championship at the 2010 Brighton Summer Festival of Bridge were Rhona and Bernard Goldenfield, Kath Nelson and Jim Luck. Bernard Goldenfield found a loser-on-loser play here, which produced an extremely satisfying result.

Against three hearts West led the diamond queen, taken in dummy by the ace. A heart to the king was captured with the ace and West returned his last diamond. On winning, East switched to a club. Suspecting from the bidding that this was a singleton and that West must hold six clubs to the king-jack, Bernard rose with his ace.

There are five potential losers; one in every suit and two in clubs. But as you can see, the defenders have no communications in any suit except diamonds, and that lifeline has already been cut.

Declarer drew the rest of the trumps and continued with a low spade to the queen and ace. East returned the spade 10, won by South’s king. A third spade went to the jack, West showing out. Had spades split, life would have been easy, but when they did not, Goldenfield played dummy’s last spade, on which he discarded a club from his hand.

Declarer by now had a complete count of East’s hand, and his club queen was poised to be jettisoned on East’s forced diamond return. The ruff and discard gave South his ninth trick.

This four-heart contract came along in the Championship Swiss Teams, the main event of the Brighton Summer Congress. West, Catherine Seale, had appreciated from the bidding that Nevena Senior, her partner, was likely to have a singleton diamond or a void, so she led a low one (for suit preference) to the jack and queen. South played a heart to dummy's queen and Nevena made the winning play of withholding her ace. Declarer next threw two clubs on the spade ace and king, then played a club. West could win and give East her diamond ruff. Senior next cashed her heart ace, removing dummy's last trump in the process, then played another club for a second diamond ruff. Well defended, for two down.

Despite the fine lead, declarer could have succeeded. Missing the trump ace, South may suspect there is a likely defensive diamond ruff to come, but there is nothing she can do to prevent it, and she needs club ruffs in dummy, so she should accept that fact and play a club at trick two.

This puts the defense in an unenviable position. West can win the club and deliver a diamond ruff. But if the continuation is ace and another heart, declarer is in control. The last trump is drawn; then three clubs are discarded on the top two spades and fourth diamond. And if East plays back a low heart to retain control, one club can be ruffed in dummy and the other two pitched on dummy’s spades.