When this deal originally appeared it came with the punning subtitle from the Bonnie Tyler song: "It's a heart eight, nothing but a heart eight."

Norberto Bocchi, the hero of the deal, was complaining about what a bad card-holder his partner was on this deal. Quite a few of the field had reached four hearts by North after a weak no-trump. At those tables, after a club lead, West won the ace, cashed the spade ace, then played another spade. Since West had produced two aces, declarer was not hard-pressed to get hearts right. In fact, 16 of 22 declarers made 10 tricks in their heart contracts.

In our featured room, Bocchi sat West, and on an informative auction, led the spade ace and shifted to the diamond two. Believing the opponents’ count-cards, declarer played four rounds of diamonds, discarding his club, hoping that whichever defender ruffed would weaken his trump holding. Bocchi now knew his partner must have the heart ace, and seeing the trump nine in dummy, thoughtfully ruffed with the heart queen. His expectation was that declarer would win the spade return on the board and pass the heart nine.

Alas for him, when declarer led the heart nine from dummy East’s irritating heart eight got in the way. Declarer now knew to go up with the king (on the assumption that East would have covered from the 10-8 (by no means a sure thing, incidentally) and hold his trump losers to one.

Today's deal comes from a knockout match in a regional event where all the players were not only competent, but (as usual) had an appropriately high opinion of their own abilities.

When one East-West pair came back to score up, their teammates called out “minus 50” and the first pair announced that they had conceded 420. Nothing more was said for a few seconds, then East made the mistake of asking how South had gone down.

He was told that, against four hearts, West had led the club jack (denying a higher honor). Declarer won, cashed the heart ace and jack, and played a spade to dummy’s king and East’s ace. Can you see what the defense ought to do now?

In one room East made no mistake when he switched to the diamond queen. Just because East knew the contract would be cold if South covered, didn’t mean that HE knew that.

Look at the problem from declarer’s perspective. If East has the Q-J-9, he would be right to duck the queen. Even if he had covered and West had guessed to win and play a low diamond back, declarer would have been likely to go wrong.

When the unfortunate South retaliated by asking how the defense had gone in the other room, East (who had shifted to a low diamond at the critical moment) had little excuse but to say that the sun had got in his eyes at the critical moment.

Turkey's Senior Team won its country's first-ever European Teams Championship title a couple of years ago. This hand features a well-reasoned play by Orhan Ekinci, a member of that team, reported by Erdal Sidor, Turkey's Open Team captain.

Against four spades West led his singleton heart, and South rose with dummy’s ace. The play seems straightforward: draw trumps, then pitch a heart on the third diamond and play on clubs for 11 tricks if the club queen sits onside, or for 10 if not.

But Ekinci had to reassess when, at trick two, he discovered he had a trump loser. How to proceed? One line would be to play three rounds of diamonds, discarding a heart from hand, then finesse East for the club queen. East was less likely to have the club ace as well as his strong heart holding, for then he might have opened one heart. And indeed that is how the play went at many tables.

However, Ekinci already knew that West held a singleton heart plus four spades, whereas East had six cards in the majors. If additionally he held four diamonds, he could be endplayed. So declarer cashed three rounds of diamonds, shedding a heart, then led dummy’s fourth diamond, on which he pitched his last heart. West won, but was now endplayed in the black suits.

Incidentally, had East produced the fourth diamond, Ekinci would have ruffed high and played a low spade. He would still have come home had the club queen been well-placed for him.

The higher a contract, the easier it usually is to play. Imagine for a moment that you were playing today's hand in six spades. How should you play it when the defenders lead two rounds of hearts? You would ruff, cross to dummy, and finesse the queen of trumps. The only chance would be to find East with a doubleton trump king.

With just 24 points between the hands, though, it is more likely that you would end in game. Now your aim is to make 10 tricks against any lie of the cards. How would you play the contract at teams or rubber, when the defenders again begin with two rounds of hearts?

The original declarer ruffed the second heart and played the ace of trumps, East showing out. When he continued with a low trump toward dummy’s 10, West stepped in with the jack.

Can you see what the winning defense is now? West played a third round of hearts, deliberately giving a ruff-and-discard. If declarer ruffed with the dummy’s bare 10, West’s K-9 would be worth two further tricks. If instead declarer ruffed in his hand, he would be down to the same number of trumps as West. He would lose trump control when he knocked out the trump king and was forced again.

Paradoxically, the only safe line is to lead a trump toward the 10 at trick two. You then have a small trump left in dummy to deal with a third round of hearts.

Today's deal comes from an international match between Poland and Portugal. At first glance you might imagine it was a dull four-heart contract with the spade ace onside. The only thing that appears to be at stake is the overtrick.

In the closed room, on the lead of the spade 10, the Portuguese declarer made 11 tricks without raising a sweat, by guessing the diamond jack. But Jacek Romanski got a less helpful heart-nine lead to his 10. Can you see the best line?

Obviously you could simply play a spade to the king at some point after drawing trumps, then rely on your table presence to find the diamond jack — a line that is perhaps just a bit better than 75 percent. But you do have an even better chance once trumps turn out to be 2-2.

You should play the heart king at trick two, then ruff out the clubs by playing three rounds of the suit, and next play a diamond to the queen. When it holds, you run the diamond 10. Even if the defenders have two diamonds to cash, West will be endplayed after taking his winners. If the diamond queen loses to the ace, you can still succeed if East has either the diamond jack or the spade ace.

This line succeeds unless all three critical cards are badly placed. In other words, you come home seven times out of eight. The fact that the spade ace was onside all along does not spoil the elegance of this line.

In today's deal it would have been easy enough to defeat three no-trump after a top heart lead. (Declarer wins the opening lead and runs five rounds of diamonds, but West simply keeps his club 10 till the last diamond (to prevent declarer from finessing in the suit), then discards his spade on the top clubs. He keeps four winning hearts and the spade ace. Mission accomplished.

However, you have done well to reach five diamonds instead, on the lead of a top heart. You could rely on the spade ace being onside, but before you do that, try something else. The key to the deal is to try to establish clubs to allow you to discard your spade losers without letting East on lead. To that end, you win the heart ace and take the diamond queen, all following. Next you lead a club, and when East plays low, you put in the eight.

West wins the club 10 and does best to punch dummy with a heart. You ruff, draw second round of trump, cash the club ace and king, and ruff a second heart. Now you ruff a club to set up the suit and ruff another heart with dummy’s last trump. At this point the fifth club has been established and takes care of one of your two spade losers.

The avoidance play in clubs requires West to hold one of the three top clubs. You also need either diamonds or clubs to break evenly.

In today's deal South was a solid performer, but one who believed that the cards always conspired to gang up against him. After he had finished declaring four hearts here, he could add another plaint to his long litany of woes. Was he entitled to whine? You be the judge.

Against his game the defenders led out the three top diamonds. South ruffed and announced he was not going to risk a defensive ruff. So saying, he led out the heart ace and jack. West ducked this, and now declarer found himself in trouble. If he played a third trump, West would win and force dummy with more diamonds, whereas if he played on the side-suits, West would score both his trumps for down one.

It may be unlikely that four trumps will lie with the long diamonds, of course, but the point of the deal is still a valid one. If you can protect yourself against a bad break, you should do so. After declarer ruffs, he must play the heart 10 — otherwise, West will prevail. When this holds, South continues with the heart jack, leaving the defense powerless. If West wins his king, he can play another diamond, but South ruffs in hand, crosses to the club queen, and can use dummy’s high trumps to draw West’s last two hearts.

Incidentally, declarer cannot afford to cross to dummy to take the trump finesse. He might run into an unexpected ruff.

Timing the play to take advantage of all possibilities can be very difficult. Today's deal defeated one of the best declarers in the country (who shall remain nameless).

Against four spades West led the diamond ace and king, then switched to the club four. Declarer won in the dummy and took a spade finesse. When that was wrong and clubs failed to break 3-3, he had to go one down.

Can you see how he could have done better?

Since he needed one of the major-suit finesses for certain, he should have won the club in hand and run the heart queen. In practice West would have covered with the king (it doesn’t help him to duck), and declarer wins with dummy’s ace. Only now does declarer play a spade to the queen. West wins and no doubt continues with another club. Declarer wins in dummy, draws trump, then cashes the heart jack and crosses to the club king. If clubs are 3-3, he has no more losers. He can ruff a heart, cash his long club, and ruff a diamond with dummy’s last trump.

However, when clubs fail to break, he can take a ruffing heart finesse. The king and 10 have gone and East just has the nine poised over dummy’s eight-seven. This finesse is certain to succeed because declarer knows that West started with two spades, four clubs, five diamonds (for his overcall) and therefore only two hearts, both of which have been played.

Plan the play in six hearts on the club king lead assuming a 2-1 heart break.

Before you play a card, count your tricks if you decide to draw trump, to avoid unpleasant accidents in the spade suit.

You draw trump in two rounds and have six trump left to take separately; that makes eight tricks. Three black suit winners makes 11, so what you will need to do is establish an extra trick in spades. That would be a good bet if the opponents had not bid (best is to cash the king and ace then lead up to the jack) but here the auction has made this no better than even chance – probably rather worse.

There are several possibilities but the bidding makes the best line stand out. Win the club ace and draw two rounds of trump ending in hand then play the diamond queen, discarding a spade if West does not cover. Win the return, and play the diamond jack. If West covers you ruff, ruff a club to hand and discard dummy’s last spade on the diamond 10; if West doesn’t cover the diamond jack, the spade loser goes away immediately.

Even without the opponents bidding, this line would be a 75 percent chance. The way to calculate the chance of success is to work out that the line works unless both diamond honors are offside – and the chance of that that is one quarter (one half of one half). So you succeed the other three quarters of the time.