When this deal came up a year or so ago in the later stages of a national knockout championship, I was surprised that neither declarer came a great deal closer to making his delicate game contract.

Both Wests led the spade king against four hearts and shifted to the club jack, at least reducing the total number of possible losers declarer had by one. Both declarers pulled out cards without any particular direction in mind, and eventually finished up by leading a diamond toward the king, thus going down one for a flat board. Running the diamond jack would not have worked any better, since East would have covered, of course.

Success requires nothing more than finding trumps not 3-0, with the clubs dividing no worse than 6-2 and the club 10 where you would expect it to be — in the West hand. The winning line is to cash the heart ace at trick three, then your remaining high club, before you cross to dummy with the heart king, drawing the last trump in the process.

Now you lead the club nine from dummy and throw your last spade away, endplaying West into winning and either leading a diamond, when you lose just to the ace, or playing a club. In that case, you pitch a diamond from dummy and play to ruff two diamonds in the North hand.

I always appreciate receiving deals from my readers. Here is one from Orville St. Clair, who pointed out the elegance of the possibilities in the deal, which he had played in four diamonds, making 11 tricks. Let's consider instead that he had been in five diamonds, to appreciate the full beauty of the play.

If you look at all four hands, you will see that there are two inescapable aces for declarer to lose in five diamonds, so the key to the deal is to avoid losing a second spade trick. After a top heart lead, declarer would like to find a way to force the defenders to open up his vulnerable suits. Remember, there is no suit that you can play to more advantage by yourself, compared to having the opponents tackle it for you.

So, win the heart lead and advance the club queen. East will no doubt cover, but no matter what he does, you play the ace and ruff a club, ruff a heart, ruff a club, and ruff another heart before leading a high trump from your hand. When East wins, he could lead either a club or heart to let you pitch a spade from hand and ruff in dummy, or he can shift to a spade. You put in the 10 and this is covered by West’s jack and won by the queen. Next a spade toward the king means East will win just one spade trick, whether he takes the ace now or later.

When South took advantage of the favorable vulnerability to overcall four spades (for which one could hardly blame him), North took him seriously and jumped to slam. No one had done anything ridiculous, but the final contract was hardly one Lloyds of London would have had any interest in underwriting.

In fact the slam has almost no play – 12 out of 13 of West’s cards defeat the slam, but can you criticize him for leading his singleton heart? I certainly cannot — and anyone who would is a results-merchant of the highest order!

Even after that start, declarer had to play perfectly to envisage a possible way home. He ruffed the first heart high, then led a low trump to the seven to ruff a second heart, and made his next critical play when he ducked a club. East won the first club and returned the suit, allowing declarer to win in dummy and ruff a third heart. Declarer drew the second round of trumps by leading the 10 to the jack to ruff a fourth heart with his last trump, and West was forced to underruff to preserve his diamond guard and master club. That only postponed the evil day: South crossed to dummy with the diamond ace to cash the spade ace and pitch his club, squeezing West in the minors.

This play is called a dummy reversal. Declarer scored seven trump tricks by ruffing four times in the South hand and drawing trump with the three-card suit.

Against your contract of three no-trump, West leads the spade seven. You duck East's queen and win the second spade (since if spades are 4-3, they pose no imminent danger to you).

You have five top tricks and must aim to score four tricks from the diamond suit. Additionally, though, when West holds five spades, you must set up the diamonds without allowing West on lead. This can be done if East holds three diamonds to the queen — but only if you take care to lead diamonds twice toward your hand.

Therefore, after taking the spade ace, cross to the heart king and lead a low diamond. East plays low and you win with the diamond ace. You return to dummy with a club and lead another diamond. If East rises with the queen, you will let it hold. He will probably play low instead, and you win with the king. When you surrender a third round of the suit, it is East (the safe hand) who has to win the trick. As a result of good fortune combined with sound technique, you make your game.

Do you see why it was right to win the second round of spades? Suppose you had held up the spade ace a second time. West might then have played a middle (suit-preference) spade for want of anything better to do, and a bright East could then ditch the diamond queen! This would promote West’s diamond jack to an entry.

Here, you reach a slam after the opponents pre-empt, warning you of bad breaks to come. North's four-club call was a cuebid, agreeing spades, since having opened one no-trump, he would never go past three no-trump without a fit for you. That encourages you to follow the simple route to six spades.

On the lead of the heart two to the ace, you can be entirely sure that hearts are splitting 7-1. That is good news if you plan to construct an endplay, since West has no communications to his partner’s hand. After winning the heart ace, you draw trump, throwing a heart from the table. Now can you do better than taking the simple club finesse?

Yes, you can; start by playing a diamond to the queen. Then lead a low club from the table and cover East’s card with the nine. Here West wins with the 10 and plays back a second diamond. You now take the diamond ace and king, then play the spade 10, throwing the last heart from dummy. This reduces everyone to three cards, and East is squeezed; he cannot keep both the hearts and clubs guarded.

Instead of relying on the club finesse — a 50 percent chance — you followed a line of play that would win whenever West had either the club 10 or club queen. By testing diamonds and spades and getting an inferential count of hearts, you would always be sure how many clubs East started with, and thus whether a finesse was necessary in the three-card ending.

The opponents do not always find the best possible lead against your games, and you have to take advantage of the opportunities they give.

In today’s deal North had a difficult decision – some would raise to three spades, some might even have bounced all the way to game. But he opted for the low road today, and East wisely did not introduce a terrible suit over two spades, letting South declare four spades, giving West a blind lead.

When West led the diamond jack from the top of his sequence declarer seemed to have four inescapable losers. However, he saw a solution — he needed one defender to have a singleton spade ace and for the hearts to be blocked, with either East or West having a singleton honor or doubleton double-honor. Correctly, he took the first trick with the diamond ace, then cashed the club ace and king, before making the key play of overtaking the diamond queen with the king and ruffing a diamond. Now he exited with a trump.

East won his ace and could do no better than play the heart ace followed by the queen. This left West with no winning answer and when he allowed the queen to hold, East was forced to lead a minor suit card next. Declarer ruffed in hand with the spade eight and threw the heart 10 from dummy. He drew West’s last trump with the king and could claim his contract.

The bridge press has an association, the IBPA, and I came across today's deal in an IBPA bulletin from a tournament 30 years ago.

Against six clubs West led the spade jack, and declarer’s normal approach was to take this with the king and play a trump; down one against the cruel trump split.

Whatever declarer does, West will score two club tricks, sooner or later.

However, one player took the spade king and then crucially played the diamond jack to the ace and ruffed a diamond before playing a trump. The timing had now been corrected to give him a chance to make the contract. When the bad trump break came to light, declarer, in dummy with the club king, decided to play West for three cards in each of the side suits. (His choice would have been to play West for two spades, three hearts and four diamonds, but East’s decision to pitch a diamond on the first club pushed him in favor of the correct decision).

South ruffed another diamond low in hand and cashed the heart and spade winners ending in dummy. Now he had reduced to an ending where dummy had the doubleton club jack and the diamond king, South and West their three highest clubs.

Remarkably, when South ruffed the diamond ace with the club queen, West’s sure second trump trick had vanished. Whether he overruffed and led into the club tenace, or underruffed, and then let the club jack score in dummy, he could take only one further trump trick.

I've always liked the deceptive element to bridge, so this hand, which I was shown from the National Swiss Teams Final a few years ago, was especially pleasing.

Against the contract of three no-trump West led the spade six, and the chances of success did not look rosy, with the blockages in clubs and diamonds, not to mention a wide-open heart suit.

With limited practical chances, South thought a little deception might come to his aid. He tried the effect of the spade nine from dummy, and when the eight appeared on his right, he overtook with the king. Cashing the diamond ace and queen brought down the jack, and declarer could now lead a low club from hand.

To West it looked exactly as if his partner held the doubleton spade eight, and South had begun with the bare ace-king in that suit. It seemed unnecessarily dangerous to let declarer reach dummy to cash his good diamonds, so he rose with the club ace and, after long consideration, produced his “safe” spade exit.

Now South went up with dummy’s jack and cashed the diamonds. At this point declarer already had nine tricks, but West was so disconcerted when the spade jack held, that he discarded a club on the run of the diamonds, As a result that suit also came in without further loss, giving South no fewer than 12 tricks!

The play to trick one is certainly a useful tool to add to your armory.

West leads the diamond queen against your spade game and you must somehow avoid the loss of three hearts and one club. While East might hold the heart ace, what would be a 50 percent chance for anybody else is a far smaller chance for someone with your bad luck. What can you do about it?

You win the diamond lead with the ace and draw trump with the ace and king. You then lead the club queen from dummy. East plays low and the queen holds the trick. What now? At this point you could cross to dummy and take the heart finesse, but why not hope that West has both the club 10 and nine – in which case he can be endplayed?

If you continue with ace and another club, East will win the third round and a switch to the heart queen will sink you. But since you hope to throw West on lead with the third round of clubs, you should play the club jack next. East has to cover with the king and you win with the ace.

You cross to the diamond king and ruff a diamond in your hand, eliminating that suit. When you exit with the club eight, West has to win the trick. Now a minor-suit return will give you a ruff-and-discard and a heart return will allow you to make the heart king sooner or later. If East had won the club, you would still have been able to take the heart finesse.