"Eight ever, nine never" reminds us that when we have eight trumps between our two hands, we should finesse for the queen, but when we have nine, we should play for the drop. This is reasonable advice, but there are sometimes good reasons for disobeying it.

At the table declarer in six spades took the straightforward line of cashing the spade ace and king, but when the queen did not drop and the diamond finesse was also wrong, he had to go down. Can you see how he might have done better? Declarer should see that if he can time the play accurately and lose a trick to East at the critical moment, he can insure his contract. With this aim in mind, declarer should start eliminating his hearts and club losers. He should win the heart king, cross to dummy with a club, cash the heart ace, ruff a heart, then go back to a club and ruff the fourth heart.

Now he can cash the club ace, discarding a diamond, and finally the time has come to play trump. Declarer should see that it doesn’t matter if he loses a trump trick to East’s doubleton queen, as East will be endplayed. So declarer should cash the spade king and play a spade to the 10. If it holds, then all his problems are over, but if it loses to East’s queen, then the defender will have to play a diamond into dummy’s tenace or give a ruff and discard.

North was quietly confident when he put down his dummy, but the contract of four spades turned out to be far harder than he might have expected.

West led the diamond 10 and declarer appreciated that so long as spades broke no worse than 3-1, his maximum losers would be one trump, one heart and one club — or possibly two trumps and one heart if diamonds were ruffed, while he attempted to shed a club on the diamond ace.

The lead was won in dummy, and declarer decided to take a safety play. Instead of cashing the spade ace or finessing in that suit, he led a low trump to the queen to protect against West’s having all four trumps. East could not go in with his king or he would lose his second trump trick, so he was forced to duck. South’s queen held the trick, but when West showed out on the spade ace, two trump losers seemed inevitable.

So to make his game, declarer needed to eliminate his club loser. Fortunately, the careful play in trumps had made that easy enough. South cashed the spade ace and now needed a second diamond to stand up, which it did. East ruffed dummy’s third diamond and returned a club, but to no avail. Declarer rose with the ace; then the diamond ace allowed dummy’s club queen to depart. East could ruff in again, but the contract was safe.

Behavior that would be frowned on away from the bridge table is positively encouraged over the green baize. While you should never mislead the opponents by your demeanor or tempo, you should try to make life as hard for your opponents as you can by the cards you play.

Today’s six-heart contract occurred at rubber bridge, North having been rather too pushy in the bidding. When you are in a bad contract, desperate measures are called for; and on this occasion declarer was on the ball. Having sized up the situation quickly, he ducked the opening diamond lead smoothly in both hands, and what is more, carefully contributed the diamond eight from hand, making East’s five look very big to West.

West could hardly be blamed for leading another diamond, thinking he had struck gold, but it was declarer who had come into riches. After the diamond continuation, South could ruff two diamonds in the dummy and throw his two spades away on dummy’s clubs: six hearts bid and made. This line had a far better chance than the legitimate line of playing for the club Q-J to ruff down, with hearts 2-2 and the spade ace onside.

I would be hesitant to cast the first stone at West, but I suppose he might have argued that if his partner had held the diamond ace, he could have overtaken at trick one and returned the suit, just to stop West from going wrong. But how many of us protect our partners in that way?

In today's deal South should make the jump rebid of three spades over his partner's response of one no-trump. He may have only a 15-count, but with 100 honors in spades and great controls, he should take the high road. With the same hand but the singleton diamond king instead of the ace, a simple rebid in spades would be equally clear.

Now it is up to you as declarer to make your game when West leads the heart jack against four spades. You try dummy’s queen but East wins the king and returns a heart. What should you do next?

You should thank your partner, for providing the spade nine to turn a contract hinging on a finesse into nearly a sure thing! You win the heart ace, play a diamond to your ace and then lead a spade to dummy’s nine. Now you play the diamond queen, discarding a heart. West will make his king, and try to cash a heart, but you can ruff his return and cross to dummy with the spade king to discard a club on the diamond jack. You end up scoring six spades, two diamonds and two aces for 10 tricks.

Just for the record, had dummy’s spade nine been the eight, your best play for the contract would have been to unblock the diamond ace, then lead a spade to the eight, hoping to find West with the spade nine. That finesse would give you the entry to dummy to set up diamonds.

Signals to tell partner where your values lie or, as in this instance, don't lie, may also be interpreted by declarer, who might make use of the information for her own ends. In action in today's deal was British international Sandra Penfold, playing in the 2010 American Summer Nationals in New Orleans.

When North opened the bidding with two no-trump, Penfold decided against playing no-trump because of the lack of sure entries to her hand and jumped to five clubs.

West led the heart jack, and putting in the queen was a no-cost play for declarer. Had the queen held, she would have had two discards for spade losers from her hand, allowing her to take the ruffing finesse in spades to provide a painless route to her minor-suit game.

However, when East covered dummy’s heart queen with the king, declarer ruffed and at trick two led a club to dummy, on which West threw the spade 10. According to the defense’s methods, this denied spade interest. Taking full advantage of this knowledge, Sandra threw a spade on the heart ace, then called for the heart eight. When East played low, South discarded her second spade.

West won and could do no better than play a fourth heart, ruffed by declarer. A club to the king was followed by the spade king, covered by the ace and trumped. A third club to dummy allowed two diamonds to be discarded on the spades.

In today's deal it is fairly safe for West to compete against two spades (even when vulnerable), and he should make a second takeout double to prevent his opponents from stealing an easy partscore. North-South should press on to three spades over three diamonds for the same reason. After that, it is reasonable for East either to try to defeat three spades, or to take one more push himself. The vulnerability may persuade him to pass at pairs; and indeed, in four diamonds he would be doubled and set 200.

Against three spades West leads three rounds of hearts. With the diamond ace and club king marked in the West hand, South should envision an endplay that will guarantee his contract. He should draw trump, then eliminate West’s remaining heart by ruffing the last heart from dummy in the closed hand and should then lead toward the club queen.

West cannot rise with the king or South will be able to discard one of dummy’s diamonds on the fourth round of clubs. If South is allowed to win the club queen in dummy, he then leads another club and passes the lead to West, who is then hopelessly endplayed. (West’s best defense is to follow with the club nine or club 10 on the first round of the suit. His hope is that East will have the club eight and will therefore be able to prevent the throw-in. As the cards lie, however, this defense does not quite work.)

The question of whether to lead the only unbid suit when the opponents have confidently reached three no-trump is a vexing one. Michael Rosenberg, formerly of Scotland, is now a world champion in the United States. He resisted the impulse to lead the fourth suit in this deal from the 1995 Vanderbilt and regretted it.

Rosenberg, playing with Zia Mahmood, led a diamond to the jack and king and ducked the club queen. He took the diamond nine with the ace, played a heart, and declarer won this to try a spade to the queen and king. Back came a second spade to the nine and 10.

Zia as East had a choice of three losing options. When he chose a heart, declarer won the king and played the club jack, ducked by Rosenberg again. Now a finesse of the diamond eight was the ninth trick.

This hand represented a 12-IMP swing against the number one seeds in the Vanderbilt Trophy and it represented most of the margin of their loss in that event. The underdog team included Brian Platnick and John Diamond, for whom I had forecast great things at the time they were practicing for the world junior championships, an event they went on to win. Indeed, they have since gone on to collect the open world title in Philadelphia in 2010. Not all my predictions have worked quite as well, so I must make the most of my accurate ones!

One of my readers, Orville St. Clair, sent me this deal. He was playing a practice session with three students of his, on which he took a shot at six clubs.

He won the heart opening lead with the ace and pulled a round of trumps, revealing the 2-1 split. So he led a second round, winning in hand.

Now the spades had to be played for one loser. St Clair realized that he would make if East had either the king or the J-10 of spades. But before leading spades, he cashed the diamond ace in case he could drop the king. Next he led the spade seven, intending to run it to East, but West put in the 10, covered by the queen and king. Back came a diamond, ruffed, followed by a heart ruff and a diamond ruff. When the king did not appear, St. Clair finessed in spades for his contract.

In addition to the bridge hand, St. Clair mentioned that he had been a gambler on the horses when he was young. In a fashion that would make all of us investors proud, he recently correctly named all winners in a Pick-Six. For the first time in his life, he bought a brand new car, and will now focus on mentoring younger players as his way of paying back the friendly folks who helped him when he was just starting in the game. It is very satisfactory when good things happen to nice guys.

In today's auction North should not jump to four spades immediately (which is essentially a pre-emptive bid) lest he shut his partner out of a slam. East should restrain himself from competing at too high a level without the highest ranking suit at unfavorable vulnerability. A takeout double of two no-trump looks completely reasonable, however. South has an absolute minimum opening bid, so jump to game to deny slam interest and no one will have anything more to say.

The lead of the club seven marks South with at least K-Q-8 in that suit, so East should resist the temptation to play third-hand high. He should withhold his club ace to avoid setting up two discards from dummy. There is no hand South can hold, consistent with the bidding, whereby East can let the contract through by holding up his club ace. However, even after that start, the defense still has work to do. When East wins his spade ace, he must lead a diamond to avoid setting up an extra trick for declarer.

Equally, when West eventually wins the diamond king, he must lead a heart to avoid a throw-in play against his partner. (If he does not do so, then after eliminating diamonds, declarer could throw East on lead with the third club and force a heart lead back into dummy’s A-Q.)

After all this work, the defense gets back two tricks in the red suits in exchange for the club ace and defeats the game.