The fifth session of the 2011 Cavendish began with Levin-Weinstein (who had won the title in three of the last four years) having what seemed like a nearly insuperable lead over the pack. The tournament had thus far featured wild deals, but the first three deals of the final session were quiet. Not so for the fourth.

At one table an American international player sitting North made the mistake of overcalling two clubs, then, after his opponents had reached four hearts, reopening with a bid of five clubs. He was doubled there, and the defenders collected an easy 500 — not bad, since four hearts had no play at all because of the defense’s club ruff.

Of course it was possible for North-South to do better than defend four hearts or go for a big penalty. Look at what happened to the eventual winners. Kit Woolsey, South, heard his partner, Fred Stewart, bid two clubs, then double four hearts for takeout.

He removed to four spades and, when doubled by West, ran to five diamonds. Nobody doubled that contract — which was just as well, since it proved to be unbeatable! After a top-heart lead, Woolsey ruffed in dummy, played the club ace, ruffed a club, then crossed to a top diamond and ruffed another club. East followed suit, while West could not overruff the diamond 10. Then declarer drew the last two trumps, ran the clubs, and had 12 tricks for a remarkable plus-620.

This deal came from the final match of the teams event at the Cavendish last year, won by Lou Ann O'Rourke, who retained her team's lead by defeating Roy Welland in the head-to-head match.

Welland had to fight to limit the damage here. His decision to lead his singleton club against four hearts, playing for ruffs, created an opportunity for declarer, one that would not have existed if the lead had been two top diamonds, which is what Steve Weinstein had done in the other room. All that declarer could do was ruff and set up the clubs, then rely on a favorable spade position. When none was forthcoming, he was down one.

However, against Welland’s club lead, declarer, Eric Greco, took the club ace, drew trumps, then cashed a second top club to find the bad news. He next led a diamond to the 10, jack and queen. It looks routine for West to exit by leading a second top diamond for declarer to ruff. But had Welland made that play, Greco would have pitched a spade instead of ruffing. That would have endplayed West, who would have to lead either spades or diamonds, allowing declarer to avoid losing a spade trick.

Welland saw this coming, so he underled his diamonds on the second round of the suit to Bart Bramley’s eight. Declarer could now do no better than ruff and eventually play for the spade king onside or some unlikely endplay from the spade spots. Down one, and a flat board.

This is the normal time of year for the Cavendish tournament in Las Vegas, but this year the event will be held in Monaco in the fall. I shall be running deals all week that focus on the players in last year's event. Here is a deal that saw the winners from 2011 chalk up what seemed to be a normal if mildly fortunate result. But there is more to it than that.

North-South actually play a strong club, so I’ve simplified the auction to a standard sequence. The play in three no-trump saw declarer, Kit Woolsey, win the first heart and pass the diamond jack to East. Back came a heart, ducked, and a club shift. Woolsey won and drove out the diamond ace, and when both aces were onside, he had nine somewhat fortunate tricks — or was there more to it than that?

Contrast what happened when Justin Lall and Kevin Bathurst were West and East respectively. Since South had opened a 14-16 no-trump, North passed initially, Bathurst balanced with two hearts, and North reopened with two no-trump, a nonforcing call suggesting the minors, which South judged to pass.

The heart lead was won by South, who played the diamond jack. Lall hopped up with the diamond ace and cleared the hearts. Now declarer had to guess if East had the bare diamond queen or the spade ace, and he got it wrong by repeating the diamond finesse — down two!

Lall’s defense protected his partner’s entry and deserved the result it achieved.

When West leads the heart king against six spades, you must not ruff it with the spade two, or you will run into trouble when the trumps break 4-1. This is because you will have no entry to the South hand to draw East's last trump. If anyone holds four trumps, it will surely be East. So you should ruff at trick one with the spade king and continue with the spade queen and jack, West showing out on the second round. What now?

You can reasonably place West with 1-7 shape in the major suits, so nothing can be lost by cashing the diamond ace and king. If West follows to two diamonds, you will eventually play clubs from the top. You would then expect clubs to break 3-2 and — more importantly — there would be nothing you could do about a holding of jack-fourth with East. As it happens, it is West who shows out on the second diamond, suggesting that he has 1-7-1-4 shape. You play the club ace to take a look at East’s singleton, and then lead the spade two for a finesse of the nine. After drawing the last trump, you can confidently finesse the club 10.

Incidentally, if your trumps were A-8-6-5 in hand instead of your actual holding, you would again need to ruff high at trick one. This would boost your chances of success when West began with a singleton spade 10 or 9. You would still have the trump finesse available.

One often hears the truism about needing to play the cards up if you overbid them. A truer word was never spoken about today's deal, where South's jump to four spades would not appear in any textbook — a three-spade bid looks ideal for these values.

The lead of the heart 10 went to dummy’s ace. Declarer saw the need for reducing his trumps in hand as quickly as possible if the diamonds did not produce a miracle, so he took the risk of ruffing a heart with the spade six, the highest trump he thought he could afford.

When that passed off peacefully, declarer cashed the club ace. Next came a diamond to the king, a club ruff, then a diamond to the ace and another club ruff. The sight of the diamond queen on the second round of the suit, coupled with East’s discard on the third club, gave South a warning. Eventually he decided that the fall of the spots had strongly suggested East was likely to have begun with a 4-5-2-2 shape. He therefore ruffed the next diamond with the spade ace, and the expected news was confirmed when East pitched a heart.

Another club ruff with a low trump let South take a diamond ruff with the spade 10. Whether East overruffed or discarded, declarer would be able to score his spade eight at the next trick and come to 12 tricks — a triumph for overbidding!

Isn't it just like partner to bid most aggressively when you have to play the contract? That happened to George Steiner playing with Gaylor Kasle.

The heart game was no shoo-in here: It was missing the A-J-x-x-x of trump, with two sure diamond losers — and what about the clubs?

West led the diamond 10 in response to his partner’s lead-directing double. East won the king and switched to a low spade. Steiner took the spade in dummy and called for a low heart. Up popped the jack; That was one hurdle cleared.

West took the heart ace and played a second round of diamonds to East’s king. Back came the club 10. Steiner won with the ace, picked up trumps with three more rounds (as East discarded three diamonds), then played a spade to the king and ruffed a spade. It wasn’t a sure thing, but it looked as though East had started with four spades. This meant that his original shape appeared to be 4-1-5-3.

If so, Steiner realized that he could catch East in a show-up squeeze. When Steiner played the last heart from dummy, East had to find a discard from the spade queen and the club 9-7. East discarded a club on the heart, and Steiner threw his spade.

When Steiner played a club from dummy and East produced the nine, Steiner was confident that the queen would drop under the king. It did, and Kasle’s aggressive bid paid off with a near top.

South claimed that he had been desperately unlucky to run into a lie of the cards that led to his defeat in today's deal. But you, the jury, will get to decide his case. Was he unlucky or careless?

What happened at the table would probably be mirrored at many tables in even a top-level duplicate field. Against four hearts West led three rounds of spades. Declarer ruffed the third one, cashed the heart ace and king, and was discomfited to see West with the length. He switched his attention to clubs, and when two rounds of the suit stood up, he played a third. West ruffed and exited with the heart jack to leave declarer with a diamond loser.

South was at fault for not taking the diamond finesse after two rounds of clubs, but as the cards lie, that would not have helped.

However, a better approach would be to ruff the spade at trick three, then play the heart ace and follow up with the heart 10. If West wins and plays another spade, you can ruff in dummy, then cross back to hand with the diamond ace, and draw trump. If East wins and leads a diamond through, you simply rise with the ace and run the clubs after extracting the remaining trump.

Almost but not quite as good is to draw one trump, then cross to dummy with a club to play a heart toward your hand, intending to finesse. However, you might conceivably run into a club ruff by following this line.

Thomas Bessis is part of what would surely be the strongest bridge-playing family in the world, since both he and his brother and his parents have been successful in U.S., European, and world championship events.

Here, he was declarer in four hearts. Against that contract West led the club queen, which was allowed to hold. A second club was ruffed by Bessis, who continued with the heart queen.

When it was not covered, he rose with the ace as, on the bidding, he fully expected East to hold the king — which might even have been singleton. Had West held high-card values, it was perhaps more likely that he would have made an unassuming cue-bid of two hearts, showing diamond support, instead of making the pre-emptive bid of three diamonds directly.

Next came a successful finesse of the diamond queen, then the ace and a diamond ruff eliminated the suit. A club ruff eliminated that suit too, and now declarer exited with a heart and could claim his contract when East won the trick.

The point was that with the minors eliminated, either he would receive a ruff and discard, or the defense would have to broach the spade suit, and with East on lead, the defense could get only one trick. If West had shown up with the heart king, East would have been a lock to hold the spade king, and declarer would have been able to hold his spade losers to one by force.

Today's deal is from the 1960s British Bridge World Simultaneous Par Contest.

The directed contract was three hearts by South, and the required lead was the unbid suit, diamonds. East wins the opening lead with the 10, and has to decide on a plan at trick two.

The problem is that declarer must be denied diamond ruffs in dummy, but besides that East should realize he must restrict the diamond discards from declarer’s hand.

Ace and another heart apparently solves the first part of the problem: Dummy’s hearts as a source of ruffs are removed. But that does not deal with part two. Declarer simply draws the last trump, then throws losing diamonds from hand on clubs. And if East passively exits with anything but a trump, declarer plays to ruff diamonds in dummy and emerges with at least nine tricks.

The card to defeat the partscore is the heart five. Appreciating that the heart ace is still lurking, ready to deal with dummy’s second trump, South sees that playing for diamond ruffs is a hopeless plan. He cashes the club king and ace, then discards a low diamond on the club queen. If clubs break 3-3, all would be well.

But as the cards lay, West ruffs the third club, returns a trump to East’s ace, and there are still two diamond tricks to come — one down.