Today's deal is a constructed hand. Although the details of the deal's genesis are lost in the mists of antiquity, it is believed that it comes from a par-deal contest dating from at least 80 years ago, in which pre-composed deals were set to challenge competitors' ingenuity.

If you hadn’t seen it before, and just looked at the North-South cards, you would assume that it was extremely easy to make the grand slam on a heart lead. However, you are given fair warning that if you run any unnecessary risk, you are doomed.

The best line to bring home your contract requires you to protect against as many bad breaks as possible in all four of the suits — I will give you the tip that if East is ruffing the opening lead, you are in very poor shape!

The secret is to plan to jettison your club honors — and once you decide this is necessary, you can only make that play on winners from dummy. To void yourself of trump, you win the first heart and ruff a heart high, West discarding his club. You lead a low trump to dummy and ruff another low heart high, then draw all the trumps, discarding one top club honor on the fourth trump.

The remaining high heart from dummy takes care of your other high club, and now dummy’s five club winners can be taken without interference.

At pairs the target is to take as many tricks as possible when you are in a normal contract, and to insure your contract only if you know doing so will score well. At all other forms of scoring, try to insure the contract at all costs.

In today’s deal when North opened a weak two hearts, South would find that his partner held a decent suit (by using the Ogust relay, as here, or Keycard Blackwood) and should then play six no-trump to protect his vulnerable diamond holding. Well bid, but most players would play to take 13 tricks in six no-trump, without realizing that there might be a better approach — albeit one that might lead to their taking fewer tricks.

When West leads a low spade, declarer should win the queen and run the clubs, throwing spades and the diamond four from table. On these tricks West throws two spades and a diamond. What next?

Best is to cash the spade king, discarding a heart from table. You have reduced to a six-card ending, dummy having five hearts and one diamond, West four hearts and the diamond ace-queen. When you lead the spade ace and West throws the diamond queen, make sure to discard a heart from the board, giving up the overtrick to improve your chances of making the slam. Now, after the heart ace and king reveal the bad break, throw West in with his diamond ace to lead into dummy’s heart tenace.

One of the most dangerous emotions for a bridge player is that of premature euphoria. It is easy to be on your guard when you can see traps set all around you, but it is more difficult to remain alert when the road seems very clear.

Declarer succeeded in bringing home four spades today after West led the heart queen. He won the trick in dummy and played the spade king, which East took, then cashed his heart winner before exiting with a second trump. At this point declarer could have been forgiven for relying on the diamond finesse, which succeeds if either minor-suit honor is well-placed, or if diamonds split. As the cards lie, this line would be doomed to failure.

South, however, saw a little further into the hand. He cashed the diamond ace first, then came back to hand with a trump and led a diamond to dummy’s queen. East could take his king, but was endplayed. When he returned a heart, it allowed declarer to ruff in dummy and discard his club loser.

The point of the hand is that if the diamond finesse succeeds, you do not need to take it at once. You have enough entries to lead up to the queen-jack twice later on and get a discard for your potential club loser. Had the diamond queen held, declarer would have led a club to the ace and another diamond toward the jack. He could always fall back on the club finesse eventually if nothing else worked.

Today's deal was sent to me by Cees Tammens from the White House Junior tournament in Amsterdam earlier this year. I am always happy to see junior bridge promoted, and this event sees top teams from all round the world coming together, in one of the few events devoted to the younger generation.

Norwegian Kristoffer Hegge came up with a neat play here, in his contract of four spades. After the sort of pre-empt that one tends to associate with juniors, West led his singleton diamond to the two, nine, and South’s ace.

Hegge cashed the spade king, followed by the spade jack to dummy’s ace, collecting all the trumps. Then he came off dummy with a small club, and East hopped up with the king to shift to a heart. Declarer took the heart ace, crossed to dummy with the spade nine, and played the club 10, on which he discarded his diamond five, letting West win his queen.

Now West was endplayed forced either to lead a heart and give up his trick in that suit, or to concede a ruff and sluff. Without the information of the diamond bid from East, declarer at the other table followed the more natural line of playing a diamond to the queen, losing two diamonds, a heart and a club for down one.

Incidentally, it would not have helped East to duck his club king. After stripping off the clubs, declarer would eventually have played three rounds of hearts to endplay West.

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!