Two of the original ACBL Life Masters were players whose surnames differed by a single letter. We saw a deal earlier this month defended by Sam Fry; time, therefore, to credit Richard Frey, who was the fifth member of the Four Aces, the first team to take on Eli Culbertson. He collaborated with Howard Schenken in a daily column for over 30 years. Here is a deal that he defended expertly.

Against three no-trump, Frey (West) led the heart four. Declarer played low from dummy, and East won the trick with his king and returned the heart nine, declarer following first with the heart seven, then with the queen.

Declarer now attacked diamonds, and Frey could see that he would be able to win the diamond ace and clear hearts. But what were the chances that he would regain the lead with the spade ace before declarer had cashed nine tricks?

It is very easy to focus on your own hand and you own plans without considering what declarer might do to combat them. Here, Frey correctly concluded that he had little chance of success by clearing the hearts. Since he could also see the danger of ducking even one diamond trick if declarer had six clubs, he took his diamond ace at once and shifted to the spade jack. Since East had the spade king, with length, this ensured that the defenders could take three spade tricks and set the contract.

It is hard to sacrifice a trick voluntarily, and that is especially true when you appear to have been given a free finesse. But never say never, and today's deal is an example of when deception trumps other factors. The deal shows when you might rise with an ace unnecessarily to try to encourage a continuation of the suit led — even at the apparent cost of a trick.

Four hearts might well be the best game, but your auction strongly suggested that you had three hearts and five clubs, and North opted for the nine-card fit. In a sense you have done well to avoid three no-trump here in favor of a suit game, since a spade lead sinks you if the club finesse is wrong — but even so, isn’t five clubs equally doomed?

Not necessarily: West gives you a respite by leading a diamond. If you run this to your hand, you set up an irrelevant discard for a spade from dummy. However the defenders will know to shift to spades when in with the trump king.

A better and more deceptive approach is to win the diamond ace and take the club finesse. Unless East works out to discourage at trick one (and why should he?), West will probably continue diamonds, hoping for the spade switch from East, and he will be sorely disappointed. You now have time to draw trump and set up hearts to provide the discard that really matters, the spade from hand.

South was puzzled why his result of down one in four hearts had cost his team 10 IMPs. When prompted, North, who had stoically watched the play as dummy, took pains to explain.

Against four hearts West had led a top spade, and declarer won this in dummy, then took the heart finesse. It lost to the king and back came another spade, won in hand by South. Declarer drew trump in one further round then exited with the spade nine. His hope was that West held both minor-suit kings and would be endplayed. But West could exit safely in diamonds, and did so. Declarer ended one down, having lost a trick in each suit.

As North pointed out, if the trump finesse was right at trick two, it would still be right later on in the deal. But you may not want to take the finesse at all if other factors make it irrelevant.

The best play is to win the initial spade lead in hand, not in dummy, and play a club toward the queen. West must take the king or lose it, and will presumably return another spade. You can win this in dummy and cash the club queen.

Now you don’t take any chances. You play a trump to your ace, then cash the club ace and discard dummy’s losing spade. After that, you can draw the outstanding trumps and will have 10 tricks on top. Your only losers are one club, one diamond and one trump.

When we read books or articles about suit combinations, they generally assume that the suit is in isolation — i.e., that the only consideration is the actual odds in the single combination. However, in real life there are often other things to take into account.

For example, here West leads the diamond six against four hearts. How would you plan the play?

The first decision is whether or not to win the first diamond, and that depends on whether you think West might have a seven-card diamond suit. The rule of 11 says no – but that is not the full story. You don’t want to duck the first diamond and run into a club shift that may help the defenders build a trick in that suit.

After you win the diamond ace, the percentage play in isolation in hearts is to start by cashing the ace. With no opposition bidding, you would then cash the king, but in the face of West’s pre-empt you may prefer to take a finesse against East’s queen. The problem is that you have no easy way back to dummy.

Even if you guess correctly in spades, the defenders may be able to take the spade ace and play two more rounds of diamonds, generating a trump loser for you. Now you will need something miraculous in the black suits to avoid a fourth loser.

After you win trick one, it is surely better to take a first-round heart finesse, playing East to have queen-third or queen-fourth of trumps from the outset.

Against four spades West leads the trump seven to East's ace and a trump is returned, West following suit.

The contract is in danger only if East has the diamond king and you cannot avoid losing two club tricks. If West has both club honors, you will surely be sunk whenever East has the diamond king. Let’s not worry about that.

What else do we know? There are clues in the bidding and the lead. Since West did not lead a heart, East surely has a heart honor. If East had the club ace as well, he would have: the spade ace, the diamond king, the club ace and a heart honor. That would give him at least 12 high-card points and an opener in third seat. Thus, if the diamond king is wrong, so is the club ace.

The best way to win against this layout is to lead the club four from hand next! If West rises with the club ace, then you will lose only one club trick and are home free. If West plays low, you put in the jack. East will win the first club and can only return a heart. You will win and play the club king to West’s ace. West must shift to diamonds, but you rise with the ace and ruff the clubs good before returning to dummy with a heart ruff to run the good clubs. You will make four trumps, a heart, a heart ruff, a diamond and three clubs.

Nowadays in a European Teams Championships the boards are pre-dealt, the same boards are played across the field, and hand records are available at the close of play. All this is a boon for bridge journalists.

On today’s hand, from the 2010 event, the popular contract was five diamonds by South. Whether it made or failed depended to a large extent on the activities, or lack of them, by opponents during the bidding phase.

When West employed a gadget to show both majors over South’s one-diamond opener, declarer was able to pinpoint the distribution and play accordingly. Additionally, if West led and continued hearts, the majors could be eliminated and East endplayed. The worst-case scenario for South is a trump lead. With a certain heart loser, the contract depends on losing just one trick in clubs.

West is known to have at least five cards in each major, and has shown out on the second round of diamonds. So he can have two clubs at most. Of course a simple line would be to play West for the king, but the odds favor him instead tp have the jack or 10. If that is so, South can secure his contract. A low club to the nine loses to the 10, and back comes, say, a spade. Now, so long as declarer has retained a trump entry to dummy, the club queen can be led, neatly bringing down West’s jack, an example of the intrafinesse at work.

Today's deal saw West with a comfortable diamond lead against four hearts, and South was realized that he was faced with a distinctly uphill struggle when North revealed a disappointing dummy, with the spade king worth little or nothing.

From declarer’s perspective, there was a certain loser in each of the side suits, as well as further potential ones in trump and clubs. After winning the lead in dummy with the diamond king, East doing his best to encourage, declarer led a trump to the queen. When that held, South led a spade. West took his the spade ace and continued with a high diamond, setting up a trick for his side. South took the diamond with his ace, ruffed a spade, and led a second trump, crossing his fingers as he did so. When East’s king appeared, South’s potential trump loser had disappeared. After winning the heart ace, declarer ruffed his last spade, and now had to resist the temptation to relax.

Rather than play clubs himself, a 75 percent line, but one that might be fatal if West had both clubs and East a diamond entry, South completed the elimination by playing a diamond. East was able to win and shift to a club, but West then had to concede the 10th trick, either by conceding a ruff-and-discard or by playing on clubs to declarer’s advantage.

Note that if declarer plays clubs prematurely, West can win and lead a diamond to his partner, for a second club through declarer’s gizzard.

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.