There is a big difference between needing tricks from a suit, in which case you grab what you can get, and trying to avoid losing too many tricks in that suit.

Against three no-trump West led the spade five, and although when East played the king declarer has two sure tricks in the suit, this gives him only seven winners. In order to get home he needs to set up his diamond suit, which should produce three tricks once the ace and king have been knocked out. Three diamonds, two clubs and three heart tricks are eight, so only one trick is needed from the spade suit.

What South needs to guard against is the spade suit producing three tricks for the defense. If spades break 4-3, all is well, but if they break 5-2, declarer must exhaust East’s spades before he wins the first diamond honor, and West will surely do his best to arrange that he does. (If East has both diamond honors, there is no problem; if West has both, there is no hope. But if they divide, then taking insurance at the cost of a trick ensures the contract.)

Therefore declarer must duck the spade king and win the spade return, so that when East is in with the diamond ace, he has no further spade to play, and the spade 10 in dummy acts as a guard against the run of the suit when West gets in. Now the defense can only come to two spade and two diamond tricks.

Sometimes the most difficult hands are ones where you appear to have an embarrassment of riches, with numerous ways to take or develop tricks.

Looking for the safest way to achieve your goal is complicated by the fact that when you believe your chances appear very good, it is easy to relax and take your eye off the ball.

Consider today’s deal, where at one table in a team game the defenders led and continued spades against three no-trump. South made the apparently natural move of ducking the spade ace until the third round. Then he tested the red suits and had no joy there, falling back on the club finesse. West (who had pitched clubs on the third round of the red suits) had two spades ready to cash when he won his club king, and that meant down one.

In the other room when West led the spade six, declarer ducked East’s king. East could see no reason to do anything but continue with the spade two. (Yes, a club shift would have worked better, but that is far from obvious.)

South rose with the spade ace and tested the red suits. When East proved to guard both of these suits, declarer put West on play with a spade. That player could cash two spade winners but then had to lead from his club king into South’s ace-queen. This line is guaranteed to succeed if East has length in both red suits.

As South you open one heart, and when your partner raises to two hearts (the hand is not close to a limit raise, though North should plan to compete to three hearts if necessary), you resist the temptation to go directly to game but advance with two no-trump, promising 17-18 points. That is enough for your partner to jump to four hearts, against which West leads the spade queen.

If you win the first spade, draw trump and, trying to avoid a lead through the diamond king, take a losing club finesse, West will win and play a spade to East’s king. Then a diamond cooks your goose.

Is there any reason for you to guess clubs right — other than the old wives’ tale that the queen lies over (or under) the jack? No, there isn’t, but if you make the right preparations, you can follow a line where you will succeed regardless of the location of the club queen.

The trick is to duck the opening lead. You win the next spade, draw trump, and take the losing club finesse. Now West has no entry to his partner’s hand. His best chance is to exit passively with a club, hoping you have four clubs and thus no discard coming on the clubs, since the auction has told West that you must hold the diamond king. But that does not work; you can discard a diamond on the clubs, give up a diamond, and ruff a spade in dummy for the 10th trick.

In today's deal from the semifinals of the NEC tournament in 2007, even if West pre-empted to two or three hearts, South became declarer in four spades. What do you think his chances are?

In one room Justin Hackett led the diamond three. Declarer Huub Bertens rose with dummy’s ace to play a spade to his ace, then ran the club jack to East’s queen. Jason Hackett now made the critical error by returning a top trump. Declarer won, played a diamond to the king, ruffed a diamond, crossed to dummy’s heart ace, and led the fourth diamond, scoring his spade eight. (It would have done East no good to ruff high in front of him.) He then ruffed a heart, exited with a trump, and had to score two of the remaining tricks for plus-420.

The play went the same way in the Closed Room to the first three tricks but at trick four Martin Schollaardt returned the diamond 10. Declarer, Geir Helgemo, won in dummy and played a top spade. Schollaardt did very well to duck. Helgemo won cheaply in hand, played a heart to the ace, the club king to the ace, then ruffed the diamond return, ruffed a heart, came to hand with the club 10, and led a fourth heart, ruffed and overruffed. The trump return now left Helgemo with a heart loser; minus 50, and 10 IMPs to the Dutchmen.

East’s ducking the trump prevented declarer from ruffing two diamonds in hand without creating an extra trump winner for the defense.

What would you do with the South cards after a one-heart opening to your right?

In one room the Bulgarian South overcalled one no-trump, and that got his side to the no-trump game.

Against three no-trump West led the heart 10 to the queen and declarer misguessed diamonds, playing low to the king and ace, because he needed his RHO to have the club king and spade queen if he was going to make his game. Back came a heart and South won and cashed one top spade before leading a second diamond. West rose with the queen and the defense cashed three hearts before East exited with a spade, trying to talk South out of the finesse. It didn’t work, and declarer claimed the rest for down one.

In our featured room four spades received the same lead of the heart 10. Declarer, Louk Verhees, won cheaply, cashed one top spade, crossed to the club ace, played a low spade to the 10, drew the last trump, and guessed well in diamonds by playing low to the nine and ace. The defense could cash two clubs, but Verhees finished with 10 tricks for plus 620.

Declarer’s play in diamonds was based on the idea that if the club king was right, he did not mind losing two diamonds; if it was wrong, then this play in the diamond suit was the one most likely to hold his losers to one, since if West had the club king, East surely had the diamond ace.

This week's deals all come from past NEC tournaments. In today's deal four spades looks a decent spot unless the defenders lead a top club early, as you can play to establish the diamond queen for a club discard. Naturally, at the featured table in a match between Australia and a Beijing squad, the lead was the club king.

Both declarers fell from grace. The Australian declarer took the club lead, cashed a top spade, and played a heart. When a diamond came back, he had no chance to make.

The Chinese declarer won the opening lead and played a heart at once, which East won to play back a club (a diamond was necessary now). West did his best by winning and switching back to hearts, but declarer ruffed and led a club, and the two-two trump break meant he was home.

The board was played at eight tables in the quarter-finals of the main event, but only one declarer, Leon Jacobs of the Netherlands, made four spades by ducking the opening club lead. This might feel as if it risks undertricks, and indeed it does if the clubs split 4-1; but then you were never making your game whatever you did.

The point is that after declarer ducks the club, the defenders can’t continue clubs, or the diamond loser eventually goes away when clubs break 3-2. Even after a heart shift at trick two, followed by a diamond through from East, declarer sets up a diamond discard for the losing club.

Today's deal shows that expert players can make just as many amusing mistakes as their less talented colleagues. In one room the Australian East-West pair had found an excellent vulnerable save in five hearts over four spades, down 200 on a top spade lead.

In the other room it looks as if four spades should be relatively straightforward to make. West led a top club, and now instead of playing on trumps, South made the “expert” play of a heart at trick two to cut the defenders’ communications. West won this and shifted to the diamond queen. Oops… Now declarer could not prevent East from ruffing a diamond and West from ruffing a club for down one.

In the Netherlands-China match South played four spades on the lead of the diamond queen. Declarer won in dummy and led a spade to his hand, Huub Bertens as East ducking because he could see that the ruff would gain his side only one trick, and that this would not be enough.

Now declarer played a heart. The defenders took their diamond ruff and led a club, won in North. At this point when a second trump was played, Bertens took his spade ace and played a second heart, forcing dummy to ruff and locking the lead in the North hand. Dummy had four diamonds and two clubs left while East was out of both minors and still had a trump, so declarer was forced to concede a second ruff.

On this deal from the 2007 NEC event both tables in a match between Japanese and Polish squads reached three no-trump. For Japan Akihiko Yamada led a diamond and declarer took the first trick and cleared the clubs. The defense set up the diamonds, but declarer could run his clubs and knock out the spade ace. When diamonds proved to be 4-4, South had nine tricks.

In the other room Cezary Balicki led a fourth-highest heart four. (Where the opponents do not use Stayman, then when in doubt a major is generally best.) Declarer won the first heart to take the club finesse. Adam Zmudzinski won his king as Balicki dropped the club 10. In this position the partnership conventionally play a variety of signal known as the Smith Echo to suggest that West would be happy with a switch. Naturally, Zmudzinski shifted to diamonds, and Balicki won his king and returned a low card. When Zmudzinski ducked the second diamond, declarer’s diamond ace fell on air. Now when the defenders got in with the spade ace they could cash out for down one.

Nicely done by the defenders; but declarer had opened the door to them by playing on clubs before spades. South wants to keep East off lead for just this reason, and the losing club finesse will surely give the defense the chance to find the killing shift. However, if the cards lie as they do, no shift can hurt declarer when West takes the spade ace.

All the deals this week come from the annals of one of the best annual invitational tournaments in the world, the NEC tournament in Yokohama. This event is traditionally held in February, though it has moved to April just for 2013.

In this deal from the semifinals between Bulgaria and an Anglo-Dutch team, the Bulgarians won the bidding battle but lost the war – though it was a close run thing.

In the room not featured North had overcalled bid two diamonds over one no-trump, which simplified the auction but lost the heart fit for good. The Bulgarians as East-West declared four clubs, and the defenders led spades and eventually scored a trick in each suit for down one.

Meanwhile, although the Bulgarian contract of four hearts (on the auction shown) appeared hopeless, Manol Iliev gave himself a decent chance. He got a spade lead and a club shift to the ace for a club return. He won in hand and played out his top spades, on which Ricco van Prooijen discarded — though ruffing in with the queen might have been best.

Now declarer played a heart to the ace, and Louk Verhees carefully unblocked his king to let his partner in for the diamond play, insuring the defeat of the game. Had he not done so, he would have been thrown in and forced to lead from the diamond king or give a ruff-sluff.