In response to your overcall, West leads the heart jack against four spades. Plan the defense.

In situations of this sort it is sometimes difficult to approach the problem because your instincts point you in the wrong direction. So let me prompt you with some questions. Let’s agree that our target is to take four tricks and that we do not mind conceding overtricks in exchange for a chance to defeat the game. How many quick tricks does our side have? The answer is that we have two hearts and we have to assume that we have a club trick coming, or we can surely never defeat this game.

Our best chance of a fourth winner is our diamond king. Can we just sit back and wait to score our two tricks in the minors? No indeed!

As soon as declarer knocks out our club king, then — no matter what his original club holding — he is surely going to have as many winners as he needs to discard slow diamond losers from his hand. Additionally, even if that were not so, declarer is probably threatening to pitch dummy’s slow diamond loser on the heart queen.

If this is the case, you have no hope of defeating the game unless partner has the diamond queen. If so, you need to switch to a diamond now, before either the clubs or hearts are established for a diamond discard. Therefore play a diamond at once, and hope for the best.

In a team game, West opened one spade, was passed around to South, who was willing to risk bidding at least six hearts, but had no way to let North know what was needed for seven. By bidding only hearts and clubs before jumping to slam, he tried to give the impression that he was worth a drive to slam, but was missing a trick in one of those two suits.

North got the message that his partner had longer hearts than clubs, but felt obliged to pass six hearts in spite of his diamond ace because he could not be sure his partner’s hearts were entirely solid. Of course, seven hearts can be made with a 3-2 club split, but on the lead of the spade king, it was up to South not to waste his energies on what might have been and to focus on making the contract he was in.

South found the solution when he ruffed the opening lead and, before playing any trump, cashed one high club, then led a low club, and eventually ruffed a club in dummy with the heart nine to make his contract.

By playing one high club and one low one, South guarantees the contract unless clubs break 5-0. This is clearly the best available play, since if declarer draws even one round of trumps, the defenders can arrange to prevent the club ruff in dummy. The overtrick is irrelevant unless South is playing pairs — and maybe even then!

See if you can play four spades as well as Philip Soulet did in the round of 64 in the Spingold Knockout Teams from Philadelphia last summer.

West led the diamond three, and. East covered dummy’s diamond 10 with the king. Soulet (South) won the diamond ace, took the top two spades (learning that West had three to the queen), then cashed the top two hearts, West following with the queen and 10.

Soulet then exited with the diamond jack. West won the queen and could cash his spade winner, but had no good play from there. Since a diamond would have given a ruff and discard and let declarer pitch his heart loser from hand, West switched to a club, but Soulet could put in dummy’s nine. Had this forced the king, he would have had no club loser at all. When East could cover with the 10, Soulet won cheaply and drove out the heart jack. He could win the club return with the ace and lead a trump to dummy to discard his losing club on the heart eight.

In practice, though, so long as West held either the 10 or king of clubs, it didn’t matter whether West’s doubleton heart consisted of high or low cards. Had the queen and 10 of hearts not appeared, then after winning the club queen, Soulet could have cashed the club ace and thrown West in with the club king. That would have forced a ruff and discard to make the contract.

At last summer's nationals, the winners of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs were Alan Osofsky and Alan Sontag. This board came from the final session. Against the uninspiring contract of one heart, West led a diamond. Sontag won, cashed his other diamond, and exited with a spade. East took this with his queen and shifted to a club, West capturing declarer's 10 with his queen. West returned his second club, dummy's seven winning.

Declarer called for the diamond queen, and now East erred. If he had ruffed low, the defenders would still have been in control. But he ruffed with the 10, and South discarded a spade. West ruffed the third club, cashed his spade king, then led his last spade. Sontag carefully ruffed with his heart five and made his second nice play when he led the heart eight to dummy’s queen. East won with his ace and played his last spade, but South ruffed with his heart three and could overruff with dummy’s heart four, since West was reduced to nothing but diamonds and could not overruff. Now a club lead executed a trump coup, declarer’s K-9 of hearts being poised over East’s heart J-6.

That brilliant play by Sontag for plus 80 was worth 49.5 matchpoints out of 51. If the contract had gone down one, he and Osofsky would have received 38 matchpoints – a difference of 11.5. And they won the trophy by just 11 points!

When today's deal came up at the summer nationals last year, Ziggy Marcinski of Canada not only solved this problem, but also submitted it to the bulletin, thereby earning himself special thanks from those who like a good puzzle.

Put yourself in his position: You declare four spades after East has suggested a two-suited hand with diamonds and a major. Against your game, West leads the diamond 10. Plan the play.

The key to the deal is not whether to finesse or play for the drop in trumps — it is surely right to finesse. Given that the spade finesse rates to work, can you guard against a 3-0 break in trumps when you might lose a club, two diamonds and a trump?

The answer is yes, but you must be careful to strip the hand. You should win dummy’s diamond ace and lead a heart to your jack at trick two! Your idea is to try to keep East off lead for the duration of the deal, thus preventing him from being able to cash his diamond winners.

West takes the heart and plays a club. You win and run the spade queen, ducked by West. East shows out, so you cash the heart ace to pitch a club, then ruff out the clubs, cash the spade ace, and throw West in with the spade king to give you a ruff-sluff for the contract.

In this deal from the Morehead Grand National Teams Championship Flight at Philadelphia last year, both defenders found the same winning play (both ducking). The featured defenders are Chris Compton and Bart Bramley.

Against four hearts Compton started with the diamond king, switching to the spade three at trick two. Declarer won in hand and played the diamond nine. Compton covered with the 10, knowing his partner was going to ruff. Bramley did so, returning the heart jack to dummy’s ace. Now declarer played the club ace, fetching the king from Compton, followed by the club seven. Bramley, with no trumps left, inserted the club eight, and when South covered, Compton ruffed and played his last trump to defeat the contract.

A trump lead always defeats the contract, but declarer could have succeeded after Bramley ruffed and returned the heart jack. After winning the heart ace in dummy, declarer should play as follows: ruff a diamond, play a spade to the ace, ruff a diamond, lead a club to the ace, ruff a spade, exit with a low club. From there, declarer cannot be prevented from taking three trump tricks in dummy for the contract.

However, once declarer embarked on the losing line by cashing the club ace and continuing the suit, Compton needed to get in to play a second round of hearts. Bramley made it easy for Compton by not trying to win the critical trick. Protecting your partner from error is never a bad idea.

Paul Trent was one of the top players in the country in the '60s. His wife, Sandy, may be less well-known but is no less accomplished, as this deal from the second qualifying session of last summer's von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs demonstrates. Sandy was South.

Against the club slam, West led the diamond nine to the king and Sandy’s ace. She played a trump to the queen and ace, won the diamond return to test trumps, and found the bad news.

Now she cashed the spade ace and king, carefully discarding the heart ace. She ruffed a spade to hand, led a heart to dummy’s 10, then ruffed another spade to play the heart queen from her hand to dummy’s king. Next she advanced the heart jack, prepared to overruff if East could ruff in. Whether East could follow or not, his sure trump trick was about to vanish. At the table Sandy could discard her diamond when East followed suit, and the lead was in dummy at trick 12 for a trump coup.

Note that the defenders would have probably beaten the slam on a spade lead. Declarer’s normal line of play is to win the ace and play a trump (though yes, ruffing a spade is probably better, to prepare for the possible trump reduction against the 4-1 break). East can take the first trump and return a trump, dislodging a critical entry from dummy. After that, declarer would be unable to make the contract.

Since the summer nationals will be starting very shortly in Atlanta, all this week's deals come from last summer's national tournament in Philadelphia.

This deal was played in the first qualifying session of the von Zedtwitz Life Master Pairs. See if you can find the textbook defensive play found by at least two defenders.

As West you are happy to pass for penalties when your partner finds the reopening double of the pre-emptive two-spade call. For want of anything better to do, you lead partner’s suit, kicking off with the diamond king. The singleton diamond in dummy is not a welcome sight. How do you proceed?

At least two defenders — Billy Eisenberg and Glenn Milgrim — found the play to collect the maximum penalty: the spade king. After that shift, declarer could win the ace, but if she ruffed a diamond with dummy’s queen, the trump trick West had seemingly given up would come back.

Incidentally, on a medium spade switch, declarer could have put up the queen, ruffed out the club ace, then ruffed a diamond low and taken a discard on the club queen. At the end, West would be the victim of a trump endplay, and declarer would have finished only one down.

At these two tables, and quite possibly a few others, the end result was plus 500 for the defenders, good for close to a 90 percent result.