In today's deal West entered with the unusual no-trump, showing at least 5-5 shape in the minor suits. South's double proclaimed a strong hand, and North now had a problem. His selection of three hearts on a hand containing an ace and a king was an underbid; I think that four clubs would have been best. All was well, though, when South rebid three spades and North raised to four spades. How would you play this when West leads the club king to your ace?

Declarer could see eight spades and only six hearts between his hand and the dummy. It seemed therefore slightly more likely that West held one spade and two hearts rather than the other way around. So he crossed to the trump king and led a diamond to the ace. A heart to the ace was followed by another diamond toward the South hand.

East saw that he could not gain by ruffing a loser with a master trump so he discarded, and declarer won with the diamond king. He then surrendered the third round of diamonds, planning to ruff the fourth round. West won the trick and could not thwart declarer’s plan. If he returned a diamond, declarer would ruff with dummy’s five and the defenders would then score just two trump tricks to go with the one diamond trick. If instead West returned a club, declarer would ruff in his hand and lead a fourth round of diamonds himself, ruffing in the dummy.

Either way, the contract was home.

At the table South knew that his partner's four-club bid would deliver a degree of spade fit and suitability for slam, and he gambled that he would be able to discard diamonds from dummy on his hearts, or that a well-placed queen would give him a finesse for slam.

A casual onlooker might take a cursory glance at today’s deal and remark on the dangers of reaching a grand slam that appears to hinge on a finesse. You would be right in theory, of course, but wrong in practice. The grand slam comes closer to an 85 percent chance if properly handled. With that hint, let’s reassess declarer’s best line on the lead of a top club.

The play is to take the club king with the ace, then ruff a club with the queen, followed by the spade ace, and the spade six to the nine. When trumps behave, as they will do at least two-thirds of the time, you take a second club ruff, then play a heart to the 10, take a third club ruff, and finally lead a diamond to the ace.

At this point South’s diamond loser can be discarded on the spade jack and the last four tricks are taken with South’s 100 honors in hearts.

This line of play is known as a dummy-reversal, in that by ruffing in the long hand you get six trump tricks where only five had seemed to exist. If trumps break 4-1, you take the diamond finesse, of course.

The North cards are difficult to evaluate at the second turn, but facing a response that shows five spades (you would have made a negative double with four spades), your partner took the slightly pushy position to jump to three spades, buoyed by the knowledge that he had no wasted values in hearts.

How will you play your contract of six spades when West accurately leads the heart 10?

You win with dummy’s heart ace of course, and must attempt to discard your heart loser on a minor-suit winner before playing on trump. Everyone follows to the ace and king of diamonds, but on the third round, East is mean enough to ruff the diamond queen with the trump three. You overruff with the four, cross to the club ace, and try your luck with the diamond 10. Again, East persists in his irritating defense by ruffing in with the seven. What now?

Again, you have no choice. You overruff with the eight and must now attempt to throw all three of dummy’s heart losers on your club K-Q-J. Will the club suit assist you by breaking 4-4? No, but your luck turns on the fourth round of clubs. You discard dummy’s last heart, and although East is out of clubs, he is finally out of small trumps and can only ruff in with the spade ace.

Now you can draw West’s last trump and ruff your heart in dummy whatever the defenders do.

When South discovered that his side had all the key-cards, his mind turned optimistically for a second to thoughts of a spade grand slam. One of the merits of Key-card Blackwood is that it also allows you to identify the trump queen and specific kings. When North showed the spade queen but denied any kings, South knew he was high enough.

Against the small slam the lead was the club queen to South’s king. The two top spades draw all the trump; now how should you advance?

The 100 percent play is to cash the diamond ace, then cross to hand with the heart king and lead the diamond 10. If West follows low, play the queen. Should it score, declarer is home with an overtrick. If East wins, declarer has three entries to table (in the form of a spade, heart and club) to enable him to set up and enjoy the long diamond.

As the cards lie, though, when West shows out on the second diamond, dummy plays low and East can win the jack. But declarer has plenty of entries to take the ruffing finesse against the diamond king and nine, and eventually discard his club on the established diamond.

Paradoxically, if West had led his singleton diamond, this would have been an extremely easy play to find because the risk of the 5-1 diamond break would have been foremost in declarer’s mind.

How should you play your heart game when West leads the diamond queen to dummy's ace?

If you can force the defenders to open up spades for you, you hold your losers in that suit to one. To that end, you should aim to eliminate the red suits and exit in clubs. Suppose you cross to a trump at trick two, ruff your remaining diamond, and play ace and another club. Today East could win the second club with the jack, play a spade to the queen, win the third club with the king, and send another spade through. That would be one down.

To prevent East from gaining the lead twice in clubs, you must make the first club lead from dummy, intending to insert the club 10. If West (who cannot attack spades effectively) wins and returns a club, you will win with the ace and exit in clubs, forcing the defenders to play spades or concede a ruff-sluff.

What if East plays the club jack on the first round? You win with the club ace, cross to a trump, and lead toward your club 10. If East ducks, you will play the club 10 to duck the trick into the safe hand. Suppose instead that East rises with the club king and switches to a spade, West winning with the queen. West can now cash the club queen but must then lead into your spade tenace. The contract is safe unless East happens to hold all three missing club honors.

The three bears came back from the duplicate club, and as they came through the door, Goldilocks could see that a free and frank exchange of views had been taking place. Tactfully, she waited until Papa Bear had a large glass of mead in front of him before asking how the game had gone.

In response he produced the following 52-card diagram. Against four hearts the defense led the spade jack, then 10, ruffed. Papa Bear drew trump, then took the diamond finesse and complained about his bad luck — he would have made if trumps had been 3-3 or he could have played the diamond suit for three tricks without loss.

When Goldilocks consoled him for his bad luck, Mama chimed in that she thought she had been even unluckier. She ruffed the second spade and immediately played the diamond ace and a diamond to the jack. Meanly, West won and played a third diamond, ruffed by East. There was still a club to lose.

At this point Baby Bear, who had been hopping up and down trying to get a word in edgewise, told Goldilocks how he had played the hand. He had pitched a club on the second spade, then ruffed the third spade, and had crossed to the heart ace to lead a diamond to the jack at once. Now he was safe, since he could ruff the fourth spade in dummy and cross to his club ace to draw trump.

In today's deal Jerry Goldfein (who was part of the U.S. National team in Rhodes 15 years ago) produced a neat play in which he followed his instincts and the clues from the auction. Accordingly, he rejected what was apparently his best line, and spotted the winning alternative.

Six diamonds looks like a fine spot, but the 4-0 trumps and the 8-1 club split are potentially very awkward to overcome. On the lead of the club king, Goldfein won and cashed the diamond king. If trumps had not broken 4-0, he intended to ruff a club with the diamond queen and would have come to 12 tricks in comfort. When East won the trump ace and returned a diamond, Goldfein resisted the temptation to try to ruff a club low in dummy, since the auction had strongly suggested the bad club break.

The difficulty is to see an alternative, but the double of the final contract gave a clue to the location of the missing high cards. Goldfein instead drew all the trump and decided to play West for the tripleton heart nine. He crossed to the spade queen to advance the heart jack. East covered, and declarer ruffed. Then he went back to the table with the spade king and played the heart ace followed by the heart 10, covered and ruffed. When the heart nine fell, Goldfein could use the spade eight as an entry to pitch his club loser on dummy’s heart eight, for his 12th trick.

When you hold a long strong major facing a balanced hand, the nine-trick game may prove easier to make. Today's deal was just such an example though one can hardly blame North here for insisting on playing hearts, after East's two-diamond bid, which was explained as weak with diamonds, often only a five-card suit nonvulnerable.

In four hearts, declarer won the lead of the diamond king, drew trump, and played a club. When West had the ace and East did not have both spade honors, declarer had no real chances left.

South should have ducked the diamond king at trick one, the right play even if the lead was a singleton. If West switches to a club and East has the ace, that player can continue with the diamond queen, but declarer ducks again. Then he ruffs the diamond continuation and, after drawing trump, discards dummy’s two spades on his diamond ace and club king.

Best defense after the diamond king holds is to switch to a spade to the king and ace. Declarer draws trump with the jack and queen of hearts, and plays another diamond. East must split his honors so declarer wins the ace and gives up a diamond to East’s queen, establishing a trick for his seven. If West did not find the spade switch earlier, declarer is now home. If West did switch to a spade at trick two, East can play another spade now, but declarer should guess this correctly by running it to dummy’s nine.

This column attempts to comb the civilized world for bridge deals to titillate the readers. Today's comes from a South American championships, where Diego Brenner (a Brazilian now living in Spain) and Agustin Madala (an Argentinean living in Italy) were playing together. Truly a cosmopolitan line-up!

Agustin and Diego are not a regular partnership but they are both inspired card-players, and Madala –who is still a junior — may well become the strongest player in the world in the next decade. He currently plays with Norberto Bocchi on the Italian squad, and is capable of ingenious flights of fancy. As witness today’s deal – where declarer was none other than Marcelo Branco (the only player ever to win two world pairs titles with different partners).

Against four spades the lead was the heart ace. When this card held the trick, Madala switched to a club; dummy played the 10 and Diego won the second trick with his king. Now Brenner returned a heart, and declarer, Marcelo Branco, ruffed with the spade eight. On this trick Madala followed unhesitatingly with the heart king!

Now, please sit in Branco’s chair… If he took the trump finesse and lost the lead to East, the danger hand, that player would be able to return a heart to give his partner a ruff with the missing trump honor. So Branco played what was the best percentage line – in abstract – in the trump suit. He cashed the spade ace, and now could no longer avoid losing two trump tricks, for one down.