While a fair percentage of the North-South field reached four spades on this deal from a major pairs game, with mixed success, two spades was a sensible partscore.

The club six was often the lead from West, and declarer usually put up dummy’s king to muddy the waters. When East took the ace, he had the problem of whether to play for a ruff or to cash the hearts. It looked reasonable to return a club, and now declarer was in with a shout to make his game.

However, when he takes the club jack, he has to decide what to do next. Obviously, he has two potential winners in dummy for his heart losers. And indeed if diamonds are 3-3, he might emerge with 11 tricks, but if he plays for the diamond break, he might finish with only nine winners. For example, if he tests diamonds after cashing the top spades and the suit breaks 4-2, he might not get the club discard in time.

The best play is to enlist the opposition’s help by leading the diamond queen before cashing the spade ace-king. Both defenders can be expected to give honest count, perhaps each assuming their partner has the diamond ace. Now when the suit seems to be 3-3, declarer can cash the top spades, unblock the diamonds, and follow up with the club queen. When the same hand is long in both black suits, declarer can next play the 13th diamond and get both his hearts away for an additional, and valuable, overtrick.

In the 2011 Bermuda Bowl Seniors match between France and Poland, both tables defended four spades. Jerzy Russyan for Poland led the spade five to the nine and queen, and Francois Leenhardt took the heart finesse at trick two, losing to the queen. Krzysztof Lasocki led the diamond king back, and Leenhardt won the ace, drew trumps, and tried to split the hearts. When that failed, he tried a club to the king and was one down when that suit too was unfriendly : minus 50.

For France, Philippe Vanhoutte led the diamond seven to the queen and ace and Apolinary Kowalski drew trumps in three rounds, ending in dummy. Now he led a diamond toward his jack, which East had to duck. (Had he taken his queen, he would have built a discard for declarer’s heart loser.)

Now Kowalski followed up by cashing the heart ace and king. When the queen appeared, two more rounds of hearts (with the diamond loser being pitched) endplayed Vanhoutte to concede a trick to the club king. That was plus 450 for 11 IMPs to Poland.

Given that diamonds were 4-2, Kowalski understood that if the heart finesse was working, he did not need to take it — at least if the hearts were breaking 3-3 or 4-2. Had the heart queen not appeared, he could have played a third heart anyway. Even if West could win cheaply and play the fourth heart, Kowalski would simply discard his diamond loser, and the endplay would still ensure the contract.

At the world championships in Veldhoven last year, everyone was impressed by the performance of the Indonesian women. In this deal from their semifinal against England, Grace Tueje made a nice play, one that decided the match in her side's favor.

When South upgraded her hand to a two-club opener, North was now happy to let her partner try for the slam bonus.

Against six no-trump West led the spade four, covered by the seven, nine and ace. Declarer went after clubs first, and things did not look good for her side when East discarded the spade five on the third round. A fourth round of clubs saw declarer pitch a diamond from dummy (having let go a heart on the third club), and East discarded the spade six.

Now West switched to the diamond six, and declarer put up dummy’s ace and played a heart to the jack. When that held, she cashed the last club, West discarding the heart six, dummy the spade three, and East the diamond five. She next cashed the heart ace, and when the king fell, she had to decide who held the diamond queen. If it was West, a simple finesse would suffice, but since East appeared to have started with four cards in that suit, she played her for that card by leading a diamond to the king. Now the heart queen squeezed East between spades and diamonds for the contract.

Today's deal from last year's Bermuda Bowl features the match between the young USA-2 squad and Bulgaria. It shows both U.S. pairs combining nicely for a gain.

Against four hearts both Wests led a small club. John Hurd realized that if the club finesse was right he really did not need to take it. He put up dummy’s club ace, won the second trick with his heart jack, and continued with the heart seven. Victor Aronov took his ace and led a small spade, declarer getting it right by playing the jack. West won the trick with his ace and shifted to the diamond 10, but declarer won the trick, played a trump, and claimed. He still had to lose a club trick when diamonds did not behave, but he had his contract.

In the other room the Bulgarian declarer played dummy’s club queen at trick one and could no longer make his contract. Justin Lall played his club king and switched to the diamond two, the only card to defeat the contract. Declarer won the trick with dummy’s queen and played a heart. Lall ducked this trick, then won the next trick with his heart ace to switch to a small spade. Seeing the ruff coming, declarer took his only legitimate chance by playing his king. Joe Grue won with his ace and returned a diamond for his partner to ruff. East now cashed the spade queen for two down.

At last year's Bermuda Bowl in the match between Israel and Poland, the Poles showed their ability in defense.

After a simple auction, South had to declare three spades and West led his singleton diamond. Ophir Herbst won this in hand and went on to play spade ace and another spade. East won and thoughtfully shifted to the heart jack, ducked by West to leave the defenders’ communications intact. Declarer could do no better than exit from dummy with a club. East won the ace (West giving reverse count by following with the seven) and gave his partner the diamond ruff.

West now did not know which of the club or heart winners were standing up. He solved his problem by underleading his hearts, his low card suggesting a remaining three-card holding. East won the heart 10 and knew to return another heart; thus declarer had to lose two hearts, a club and the diamond ruff for down one. Poland: plus 50.

Jacek Kalita was also in three spades against the lead of the diamond nine. He too won in hand, but immediately ran the spade jack. Of course, East won his king and could now give partner a diamond ruff, but the defense had only their two aces now. Had East returned a heart immediately, South would have won and played a club, and thus have been able to ruff the third heart with the spade ace. The fall of the spade 10 would have allowed declarer to come home.

This week's deals all come from last fall's Bermuda Bowl in Veldhoven, won by the Dutch. On this deal from Australia's qualifying match against USA-1 in the Bermuda Bowl, Sartaj Hans played skillfully to land a three-no-trump contract that failed at many tables.

For the U.S., Martin Fleisher led the spade four, ducked by declarer and taken by Mike Kamil with the king. On the spade return, Fleisher played low on declarer’s jack. Hans played a diamond to dummy’s ace, cashed the diamond king, and then ran the club 10 to West’s jack. A low spade cleared the suit and put the lead in dummy.

This position was reached at many tables, but whereas many of the unsuccessful declarers took a second club finesse, letting West win and cash out his spades for down one, Hans instead played a club to his ace, realizing that he wanted to keep West off play, at least for the time being.

Next he cashed his two diamond winners. Fleisher could spare a heart on the third round of diamonds, but he had to let a spade go on declarer’s final diamond.

Now Hans exited with a club, leaving Fleisher on lead. That player could cash a spade, but then had to lead a heart, giving declarer his eighth and ninth tricks with a club and heart winner.

Had West discarded a heart instead on the fourth diamond, declarer would have led a heart himself and built an extra trick for his side in that suit.

All this week's deals come from the 2011 Bermuda Bowl from Veldhoven in the Netherlands. Today's deal features a defensive maneuver that eluded one of the players at the, table who was faced with the problem. See if you can do better!

At both tables West passed initially, then upped the ante to four spades at his next turn. Neither East nor West could bid on to five spades over five hearts though; perhaps if East had doubled to show extra shape (NOT penalties), that might have got West to do the right thing.

Anyway, with five spades easy to make, the East-West pairs had to defeat five hearts to avoid disaster.

When Bobby Levin was on lead, he started with the spade ace, on which Steve Weinstein played a suit-preference eight, calling for the higher of the unbid suits. Making sure there was no confusion, Levin thoughtfully played the diamond king at trick two and continued the suit for one down and plus 100 for USA 1.

In the other room Joe Grue also started with the spade ace, and he too switched to a diamond at trick two, but he played a low diamond rather than the king. Justin Lall had to decide whether the spade king was standing up or if his partner had the diamond king. He got it wrong when he won the diamond ace and then tried to cash a second spade. Declarer, Lew Stansby, could ruff and was able to claim 11 tricks.

Per-Olav Sundelin, known universally as P.O., was not playing for his native Sweden in the 2008 European Championships. His other duties as Vugraph commentator, Daily Bulletin journalist and proofreader precluded this. P.O.'s command of English is such that he is able to correct not only the analysis but also the grammar of the native English-speaking scribes. Additionally, he wrote a series of bridge problems for the bulletins. Here is one of them, perhaps the hardest of the fortnight.

West leads the spade king against five diamonds, East contributes the jack, and you play the ace. On a diamond to the ace, East shows out, discarding a club. What continuation guarantees your contract?

Answer: play a top club, and regardless of what card East contributes, even the ace, discard your losing spade! Should the club hold, give up a heart then cash the ace and king of that suit. If West trumps in at any point, ruff the spade return, cash the diamond king, and ruff the fourth heart in dummy. If West has the club ace and takes it, win the major-suit return, give up a diamond, then draw the last trump and discard the two losing hearts in hand on the queen and jack of clubs.

And if East plays the club ace, discard a spade, win the return, and give up a trump. The trap is that should you mistakenly ruff the club ace, West can overruff, then play a low spade to East for another club ruff.