Kit Woolsey reported that Fred Stewart found an amusing play in the following deal from the first final session of a recent Life Master Open Pairs.

But before we get to Fred, look at that West hand and plan the defense to four hearts.

It is highly unlikely that two rounds of diamonds will stand up. Since declarer’s clubs threaten to take care of his spade losers, it feels like you should take an active role in the defense and go after our tricks quickly.

If you think about it, surely the best way to beat four hearts has to be to put partner on lead to play spades through declarer’s presumed king —isn’t it? So our unnamed hero (or was it goat?) in the West seat led a low diamond. Imaginative and unlucky, you may say, but only if Stewart put up the diamond queen at the first trick — and he did! That was his 10th trick for a great score.

Of course the purists would point out that with hearts and clubs splitting, there were always 10 tricks except on the lead of the spade ace. Declarer could ruff out the clubs and end up in dummy after drawing trump in two rounds. He could have fallen back on the spades splitting if that line wasn’t going to work — but this was more fun, wasn’t it?

Debbie Rosenberg, who is married to top expert Michael, demonstrated here that the talent in that family is not limited to her husband. Debbie was also part of the U.S. squad that won the World Junior Teams in 1991 as well as having numerous major successes in the women's game. Here she is at work in a delicate contract of three hearts.

West led a club to East’s jack. It did not seem right to East to give up on the club tenace by continuing the suit (although that does defeat the hand), so East quite reasonably shifted to the spade nine. West took two rounds of spades and played a third spade. Rosenberg ruffed in dummy, and appeared to have five top losers. However, she realized that she had been given a chance, since the defense no longer had any communication in the club suit.

However, the winning path is by no means obvious. But, given that East appeared to have all the remaining clubs, West was marked with the balance of high cards to make up his opening bid. Therefore, Debby cashed the top hearts and led a low diamond to the 10 and queen. West hopefully led a spade, but Rosenberg could win her spade king since East was out of trump. She drew the last trump, finessed the diamond jack, and parked her club loser on the diamond ace to make nine tricks for an excellent result.

How would you have dealt with the club situation in this deal, which arose during the 2007 European Youth Teams Championships, held in Jesolo, Italy?

Defending against four spades, West led the heart four. South won with the bare king, cashed the spade ace and king, then got off play with a trump. Back on lead with the spade queen, West deviously returned the club queen, which was ducked all around. West continued with the club nine, and declarer, deciding that West’s initial club holding was Q-J-9, ducked again. East’s jack won, and the club return to the ace defeated the contract.

Great play by West, but should declarer have fallen for it? Probably not. Think back to the opening lead. If West had held both the heart queen and jack, the queen would surely have been the opening lead. The actual lead of the four suggests that it is away from one honor, not two. So, if West had held such an attractive sequence of club honors — the one South was playing him for — wouldn’t that have been the more obvious choice of attack?

At another table, also against four spades, West led a low diamond. Declarer inserted the jack — just in case — and East fell from grace and covered. South won, cashed his top trumps, then cashed his other top diamond, overtook the heart king with dummy’s ace, and discarded a club on the diamond 10. When later in the play declarer led a club to the king, that brought in 11 tricks.

In today's deal South played too fast and suffered the consequences. He didn't see the danger to his contract of four hearts when the defenders led and continued spades. He ruffed, and drew three rounds of trump, expecting them to break, or for East to have the long trump, in which case he would be in no danger.

When West turned up with four hearts, South could do nothing else but try to build the tricks he needed by knocking out the diamond ace. However, the damage had already been done. East won the diamond ace and returned a spade, leaving West with the 13th trump and two master spades ready to cash.

By contrast, compare the strategy of ducking the second trick, pitching a small club. You will then ruff the third spade, stripping East of that suit. Now you draw three rounds of trump to find the bad news, but can then simply draw the last trump and knock out the diamond ace.

The difference between this position and the former one is that East no longer has a spade to lead. So he must lead back a minor suit, and your hand is high.

While you would have gone down if West had five spades, the fourth trump and the diamond ace, there was nothing you could have done in that position. Accordingly, you might as well try to make your contract whenever it is possible.

Adam Zmudzinski and Cezary Balicki (commonly known as B and Z) have been one of the strongest Polish pairs for many years. Cezary Balicki was a master chess player before he turned to bridge and is acknowledged to be one of the world's best declarers.

Today’s deal sees Balicki time the play perfectly to make his three no-trump, reached after North had shown real extras by his second double. Start by covering up the East-West hands and have a try yourself.

West led the spade 10 to the queen and ace. Declarer then played a club to dummy’s ace and was not so happy to see East show out. Plan the play from here.

Realizing that if West had five spades and four clubs, he was going to be short in the red suits, Balicki cashed the heart ace and played a heart to his king before playing another club. When West split his honors, Balicki ducked.

What could West do? His best shot is to play the diamond ace and queen, but declarer simply won in dummy and conceded another club, losing just one spade, one diamond and two clubs.

Had West cashed the spade king, South would have pitched a club from dummy. Now, on a spade continuation he would have won in hand, pitching a diamond from North, and run the clubs. On the defense of ace and another diamond, he would duck a club and convert to the same winning position as above.

Against three no-trump West leads the spade queen. How do you plan to make nine tricks?

Outside the diamonds, you have five top tricks. So you need a minimum of four diamond tricks to make your contract. Suppose you win the spade lead with the ace and finesse the diamond jack. If the finesse loses, the spade return will mean that you won’t make nine tricks unless the diamond 10 drops. This would be the case even when the diamonds were 3-3, for the entry to the diamonds has been removed.

Accordingly, the best approach is to win the first spade (for fear of a club shift) and play a diamond to the king. Then continue by overtaking the diamond jack with dummy’s ace, even if West has followed with a small card. Here, since the diamond queen has put in an appearance, you can simply dislodge the diamond 10 from East’s hand and make nine tricks: two spades, two hearts, four diamonds and a club.

If the diamonds had been 3-3, the third round of diamonds would have established the suit, with the spade king as the entry to cash them. Notice that you will succeed when either defender began with a singleton or doubleton diamond queen or 10. As we have seen, dummy’s 9-8-7 is then good enough to allow you to knock out the remaining diamond honor, letting you collect four diamond tricks and the contract. This gives you a better than two-thirds chance to make your game.

Bridge strategies alter, depending on the form of scoring in use. Board-a-Match format makes overtricks vital — as witness this deal, which would be irrelevant at regular Teams scoring.

In one room Sue Picus and Alex Ornstein as East-West had held South’s three no-trump to nine tricks on a spade lead. Declarer won the lead, cashed his club and heart winners, then exited with ace and another diamond, but Picus unblocked a diamond honor under the ace to avoid being endplayed into giving declarer a spade trick.

In the other room four hearts looked as if it had 10 tricks — but Judi Radin did even better. She won the spade lead and ruffed a spade at once before crossing to hand in clubs and leading a third spade. Whether West ruffed did not matter. If he discarded, Radin would ruff low, unblock hearts, then cash the club ace and use the diamond ace as the re-entry to draw trump. West actually ruffed in with the heart nine, so Judi simply overruffed and drew trump.

Note that if Radin had cashed the club king at trick two, the entry position would have been compromised. Declarer can ruff two spades as before, but has to use the diamond ace as a re-entry to hand. Now when she leads the third club after ruffing two spades (not ruffed by West) and unblocking the trump ace, East trumps in with the heart 10 and promotes a heart trick for West.

North's first-round call was a negative (takeout) double, suggesting the unbid suits. South responded with a cue-bid in the enemy suit to show a strong hand and eventually came to rest in the 5-2 heart fit.

How would you play four hearts when West starts with three rounds of spades? Let’s say you ruff the third spade, reducing yourself to four trumps, the same number as West. How should you play the trump suit now? Remember not to make the rote play!

West is the danger hand, the defender who can force you again in spades and thereby promote the setting trick in trump if either defender started with four trumps. You should therefore play the heart suit so that West cannot gain the lead. You lead the trump jack from your hand and run it into the safe (East) hand.

When the cards lie as in the diagram, the finesse will win. You play a second trump to dummy’s king, return to your hand with a diamond, and draw a third round of trump.

West is left with a trump winner, and you hold one low trump, but that is no problem. You simply play your minor-suit winners and West can take his master trump when he wishes.

You can see what will happen if you miss this avoidance play. West will gain the lead with the trump queen and play yet another spade, setting up a second trump trick for the defense.

In a recent Junior European Championship the Greek team, sitting North-South here, put in a serious entry for the luckiest board not only of the tournament but of the decade! The defense can cash out spades against three no-trump, while five clubs appears to have two top spade losers and an inevitable heart loser.

At the table, though, North’s conservative bid of four clubs set South up for his inspired bid of four diamonds, naturally raised by North to five diamonds. Remarkably, the 4-3 fit is the only available game for North-South because of the spade ruff in the short trump hand. When West led a spade, East won the spade king, cashed the next spade, then played a heart.

However, declarer simply refused the heart finesse and ruffed a spade in dummy, bringing his total to 11 tricks: four diamonds, five clubs, the heart ace and the spade ruff. Of course he needed to guess the trumps well, since when he led the third spade from hand and West ruffed in with the jack, declarer still had to find the trump 10, but he did so.

Note that if East had played back a heart before cashing the spades, it prevents the ruff in dummy. However, declarer would simply have taken the heart ace, drawn trump, and discarded two spades on dummy’s clubs before setting up a heart. Similarly, if the opening lead had been a minor, South would have cashed three rounds of trump and again discarded his spades on dummy’s clubs.