When you're a truly great player, even if you have a complete bidding misunderstanding and end up in a dreadful contract, you can still focus and play for your best chance. In today's deal Bob Hamman managed to bid himself to the less-than-optimum contract of six diamonds. (Let's blame his partner.)

West started with a low spade to dummy’s king, and Hamman ruffed away East’s ace. He then played a diamond to the king, a diamond to the jack, and the diamond ace: one hurdle negotiated successfully.

He then cashed three rounds of hearts and exited with a low club. East won his singleton jack, perforce, and now had to give dummy three spade tricks (one more than declarer needed at this stage).

Very nicely played, but can you see how the defenders could have scuppered his plan?

West had (or should have had) a count of the whole deal. He knew declarer had started with a void in spades, four hearts (his partner having played up the line to show an odd number), and five diamonds. Therefore, he had four clubs. He could not possibly have started with A-Q-J-x in clubs or he would have discarded one on the spade queen when he had the chance. Consequently, East must have the singleton club jack or queen. In either case, West should go in with the club king, crashing his partner’s honor, and return the 10, thus ensuring a fourth-round trick for himself in the suit.

David Gold, a regular on the England Open team, sat South in this deal at the Young Chelsea Bridge Club. This club has a good claim to be one of the strongest in the world. Duplicates take place every weekday and it would not be unusual to find half a dozen internationals playing on any evening.

After East opened two hearts to show at least five cards in the major together with an unspecified four-card minor, Gold became declarer in four spades.

West led the club king to dummy’s ace, as the club five appeared from East. It seemed likely that East’s second suit was diamonds, and if East also had the heart king, there would be four losers. The only suit likely to provide a discard was diamonds.

Gold cashed dummy’s top diamonds, then took the precaution of ruffing a third diamond high in hand as West discarded. The spade queen lost to East’s ace and back came the club 10, overtaken by West for a heart return, Gold taking his ace.

Now, aware that East held nine red cards and was likely to have three cards in clubs, both from East’s carding up the line and West’s silence in the auction, Gold placed East with the singleton trump ace.

Backing his judgment, he continued by finessing dummy’s spade seven, ruffed another diamond high, and now a trump to the jack allowed him to discard a heart on the established fifth diamond.

One of the techniques all bridge players must become familiar with is the avoidance play. To keep the danger hand off lead, declarer may have to go to great lengths. In today's deal no trick needs to be sacrificed, but declarer does need to be careful.

Against four hearts West leads the diamond king to dummy’s ace. Where is your 10th winner coming from, and what precautions do you need to take to prevent the defenders from thwarting your plans?

Rather than relying on the club finesse, you should try to develop a spade trick if you can, which requires spades to be 3-3. But you also need to try to do so without letting West on lead for a club switch. To accomplish this, first you lead the heart jack to your queen. A diamond is ruffed high, and then you lead the heart nine to your 10 and advance the spade nine, planning to let it run.

West must cover with the queen, and you win the spade ace, East unblocking the 10, Now you play the heart two to the eight in your hand, then advance the spade two. You can cover West’s card, and East must now win the defense’s spade trick. Consequently, the contract is safe, spades having split.

If you start spades by leading a high one from dummy, then East unblocks a spade honor and West can now arrange to win his side’s spade trick for the lethal club play.

Martin Schaltz is furthering the Danish Schaltz family's illustrious bridge tradition — he is the third generation of bridge players to be capped internationally. In this deal he sat East in the Youth Individual tournament at the first World Mind Sports Games.

Against two spades West led the club queen, taken by declarer’s king. South, eyeing dummy’s trump void philosophically, played the spade ace, then a low spade, won by East with the 10. Martin Schaltz now tabled the heart queen, which declarer instinctively ducked. South naturally expected East to hold the heart jack as well, with the ace in West’s hand. His thinking was that with the heart 10 on the table, he was “guaranteed” a heart trick. If East continued with the heart jack, he would cover; the ace would win, establishing dummy’s 10. And should East next play a low heart, South would duck, and West’s ace would beat the air.

But none of this logical reasoning allowed for Schaltz’s trickery. East continued with a low heart, South confidently ducked — but it was West who won with the jack. Back came a heart to East’s ace, and only now did Schaltz give his partner the club ruff. West cooperated in this fine defense by returning his fourth heart, enabling East to ruff with his last trump, the queen.

With the spade king and the diamond ace still to come, it was the defenders who made the requisite eight tricks, leaving declarer three in the mire.

In the following deal Paul Lavings of Australia displayed both good table presence and a fine knowledge of the percentage tables.

He and his partner were playing a weak no-trump, which led to his declaring four hearts from the South seat. Lavings won the lead of the club nine with the ace and drew trumps in three rounds. What would you have expected him to do next?

The natural play is to lead out the top diamonds and gulp when the suit splits 4-1. But the correct way to plan the play is to realize that if diamonds break 3-2, all approaches will succeed. If the suit splits 4-1, with West having shortage, there is no chance of playing diamonds for one loser, and that is also true if East has the singleton four. If East has a singleton eight, you have a legitimate play to hold your losers to one, and if he has a singleton honor, you have a pressure play to make West’s life hard.

Realizing that, Lavings placed the diamond nine on the table at trick five. When West covered and the eight appeared from East, it was a simple matter to lead a low diamond from the board to the six in hand and subsequently finesse against West’s remaining honor. Declarer’s play had a psychological edge too. Had West begun with J-10-8-4, for example, it might not have been that easy for him to duck the diamond nine. If he splits his honors, declarer has again managed to hold the diamond losers to one.

I'm always pleased when my correspondents send me deals, and even happier when they contain educational points. Today's came from Rich Mannheimer, who was generous enough to let me have a deal where he described his role as that of the goat, not the hero.

Six diamonds looks like a splendid contract here; ideally South would like to get North to be declarer, but after a Gerber auction, South settled for declaring what he thought would be the best slam, albeit the wrong way up.

If the defenders find a passive lead, then declarer can simply establish an extra spade winner for his 12th trick. How should you play the hand on a club lead, though?

At the table declarer won the club lead, drew trumps, then led a spade to dummy’s queen. East won his king and cashed a club winner, and declarer claimed the rest.

It was only in the long watches of the night that South woke up slapping his forehead and realized that while the play in spades might look like a blind guess, he had given up a 100 percent line for a 50-50 shot.

If you win the club lead and draw trump, then play a spade to the ace and pitch your club loser on the spade queen, you have guaranteed the contract. Even if West can win the spade king, the defenders no longer have a club to cash. Moreover, South can subsequently pitch his slow heart loser on dummy’s spade winner.

In today's deal you are East defending three no-trump on an uninformative auction. West leads the diamond jack, and you have to decide whether to put up your queen or play low. What should you do and why?

The lead leaves room for your partner to hold seven points at most. If he started out with the K-J-10 of diamonds, there will not be room for him to hold much else, and it will be hard to beat the game.

However, if your partner started with J-10-9-x-x in diamonds and he has either the club king plus the heart jack, or both the king and jack of hearts, then you can succeed by putting up the diamond queen at the first trick. If declarer takes this, you will win your club ace and clear diamonds while partner still has a club entry. So South will duck and you must then switch to a heart.

It will do declarer no good to duck the heart trick, though this is his best chance. When he wins the second heart in dummy and plays a club, you must duck the trick. Your partner should win his king and continue hearts, and now declarer will lose five tricks.

Note that if you play low and leave your partner on play at the end of the first trick when declarer ducks, your partner will surely continue the attack on diamonds. Now declarer can go after clubs. The defense cannot both set up and cash diamonds, so the contract will come home.

Today's deal from the World Mixed Pairs in Verona demonstrates how sometimes all that is needed to make a seemingly impossible game is a little clear thinking.

Cover up the East and West hands before reading on. At many tables South reached four hearts after East had stretched to open one diamond. West led the club queen. How would you tackle the play?

If West has club length, then East must have all the outstanding honors outside clubs. Accordingly, you must aim to play off all your cards in spades and diamonds before throwing East in with a trump. So, win the club ace and play the diamond queen. If East ducks this, continue with a second diamond. Say East wins and plays a spade. Win in hand, cash the heart ace then take your spade and diamond winners, ending in the dummy. There is an outside chance that East holds a second club, so lead a club toward your king. East cannot profitably ruff, so your king wins, and only now do you play a second trump. East can make two trump tricks but must then give you a ruff-and-discard for your contract.

At one table, where declarer set about the hand in this way, he made an overtrick! In desperation East unblocked the heart king under the ace, then ducked when declarer led a trump away from dummy, hoping that his partner had started with the doubleton jack. No luck! East still got endplayed, this time for the overtrick.

On the way to today's club slam, North's jump to three no-trump showed about a strong no-trump. When South made a slam-try with his four-club call, North believed his excellent controls more than made up for his singleton trump.

West led the diamond king. Declarer won in dummy and did not relax despite the likelihood that he had at least 12 top winners. Instead he made the expert — and necessary — play of immediately ruffing a diamond, on which East discarded a spade. Declarer’s precaution was aimed at scoring his small trumps should clubs not behave. Now he played three rounds of clubs, and with a certain trump loser, it looked as if the contract now depended on the heart finesse.

But South had a better plan. He entered dummy twice in spades, each time to ruff a diamond in hand, as East discarded two hearts, and next cashed the spade queen. There were two possible plays now. South could have tried to throw East in with the winning trump, to endplay him in hearts, but he knew East still had a spade left, so that player would be able to cash a spade winner.

South found a more elegant solution. He entered dummy with the heart ace and, when the king fell, claimed his contract. But had the king not fallen, declarer would have led the diamond nine from dummy. If East ruffs in, South can discard his last heart, while if East pitches his spade, South makes his trump nine en passant.