These days it is considered normal to open a no-trump with a five-card major, so long as your hand is balanced and falls in the appropriate range.

Even hands with a five-card minor and a four-card heart suit, or with five clubs and four diamonds may be appropriate for a strong no-trump, so long as the hand is at the minimum end of the range and has an honor in each of your doubletons. If not, some other treatment of the hand is probably more appropriate.

When you open one no-trump, you often lose your 5-3 major fits; but as today’s deal indicates, that may be no bad thing! Witness what happened to the majority today, who were playing strong no-trumps. They located the 5-3 spade fit and played four spades, often doubled and down at least a trick.

Sartaj Hans of Australia was the only South player to make a game here; he played three no-trump after West had shown up with the majors. He was treated to a low spade lead and exploited dummy’s assets to the full by putting in the seven, holding the trick. With the knowledge of unfriendly splits around the place, he then made the expert’s safety play of leading a low diamond from the board at once toward his 10, trying to guarantee four diamond tricks for his side.

Whether East went in with his jack to shift to a heart or ducked, that was a sure nine tricks for declarer.

At matchpoints or point-a-board teams, scoring every trick counts, and an overtrick can have the same impact as making a grand slam. This will explain the goings-on in today's deal, which comes from the Warren Buffett Cup, the bridge event played between Europe and the USA along the lines of golf's Ryder Cup.

Against three hearts, Norberto Bocchi led a top club and switched to a diamond to the eight and queen. Declarer, David Berkowitz, continued with ace and another diamond and East, Giorgio Duboin (the hero of the tale), was in. He switched to a spade, covered by the jack, queen and king.

All that was left for declarer was to draw trumps, so he ruffed a club and led a heart toward dummy’s king. Had East won this and played another spade, declarer would have won in dummy and made the no-cost safety play of running the heart nine, a play that Duboin knew would succeed.

Instead, Duboin ducked the heart king! Now declarer continued with the heart nine, covered by Duboin’s 10. South could have guaranteed his contract by playing the queen (losing at most two heart tricks to go with a diamond and a club), but it looked certain to him that West had started with ace-doubleton of trumps, in which case he would make an overtrick if he ducked. So he ducked the heart 10, and now Duboin had to come to two more trump tricks to beat the partscore.

English international Margaret Nygren found a play in today's pairs deal that deserved to generate more than a matchpoint top for her side.

Against four spades, reached after a conventional response by North to show spade support, Margaret’s diamond-10 lead looks ineffective, but it had the effect of starting to damage declarer’s communications.

The lead was won in dummy with the ace, declarer unblocking the king. The spade three went to the seven, nine and queen, and West continued with a second diamond, won by dummy’s queen.

Next came the spade four to the 10, jack — and five! Margaret appreciated that declarer still retained the trump two, with the early play marking her partner with a top club, or declarer would have pitched a heart loser from dummy on a club. Had she taken her spade king, the defenders would have had two hearts to cash for down one but declarer would have had an entry to dummy via the spade six, to access the diamonds.

South now changed tack and played a low club to dummy’s queen. East captured this with his king, then led a low heart to South’s queen and West’s king. Margaret now exited with her spade king, at which point, according to West, declarer nearly fell off her chair. Dummy was now well and truly dead, and with declarer having to play entirely from her own hand, she ended up with just seven tricks.

Nygren’s brilliant ducking play in trumps had exchanged one trump trick for three elsewhere.

Today's deal demonstrates that there is always something new under the sun. On the surface of it, your contract of six spades comes down to establishing clubs or finding the diamonds to lie moderately favorably — a combined chance of about 75 percent. Can you do better?

Against your slam West leads the heart queen to your ace. You draw trump, throwing the heart seven from dummy, and lead a club. If West plays the five or four, declarer would cover, giving up an early club trick to facilitate establishing the suit. He can win the club return and ruff a club, coming to 12 tricks unless clubs are 5-1, in which case he falls back on the diamond finesse.

However, when West produces the club nine, you call for dummy’s ace. After cashing the club king, you play the club two and, once East follows with the 10, throw a diamond from hand.

No matter what East does now, the contract is safe. You can ruff the club queen and then have two discards for your own diamonds. A heart return provides the extra entry to set up the clubs, while a diamond back surrenders the 12th trick immediately. If West had produced the club queen, the suit would have split 3-3 and therefore the heart king and a long club would have provided discards for your losing diamonds.

The timing for releasing the trump ace can be the key to the success or failure of a contract.

The final contract in both rooms was four spades. In one room, on the lead of the heart jack, declarer won in dummy, then ran the spade 10. Whether West takes the ace now or on the spade continuation does not matter. Declarer comes to his contract, losing just two diamonds and the trump ace.

In the other room Leonid Podgur also led the heart jack. Jeff Meckstroth won in hand, played a club to the ace, then a spade to the king, which Podgur ducked in tempo. The tempo was important, for had Meckstroth been given any reason for suspecting a holdup, he had two other lines available. The simple one would be to return to dummy and run the spade 10. Or he could have cashed dummy’s club king, ruffed a club low in hand, then played the heart queen followed by the ace. Now a trump from dummy to the queen and ace endplays West into either opening the diamonds or playing the fourth heart. East can ruff with the spade jack, but now a diamond goes away, and only one diamond trick is lost.

In fact, Meckstroth, believing the spade ace was with East, simply entered dummy with a club to play another spade to the queen and ace. Two trump and two diamond tricks saw the game off.

Sometimes it takes a precise order of play to succeed in a contract, and in today's deal you need to have your wits about you in four spades.

West led the heart king to South’s ace. If the game is to make, there is only one card for declarer to play at trick two — the spade 10. Had a spade been played to the jack or queen instead, declarer would lack the transportation to repeat the finesse. When the 10 holds, South finesses again in spades, then cashes the spade ace.

While it would not be wrong to cash the club ace next, it becomes essential to play a diamond to the 10. (If instead a diamond is played to the king, West will withhold the ace, and as it is vital not only to set up diamonds but also to access them, South will lack the entries to do both.)

Since it would clearly do West no good to duck, West must win with the diamond jack and return a heart. As the diamond ace is still out, South cannot afford to use his last trump to ruff this. So South must discard a diamond.

The defense now has no winning options. West can try another heart, but declarer is able to ruff this in dummy, then overtake dummy’s second diamond. Whether West takes the ace on this round or the next, declarer still has a trump with which to access the established diamonds.

Intermediate cards, such as 10s and nines, are very welcome in many contracts. On other occasions they can be a hindrance; blocking the smooth running of a suit. Look at today's deal, for example. Against three no-trump West leads the heart six, East playing the queen. What is your plan?

The original declarer counted five diamond tricks and four outside top cards, thinking that the only possible problem was a 4-0 diamond break. He won the second heart and led the diamond three to his ace. Giving his partner a reassuring nod, he continued with a low diamond to dummy’s king. If the suit had broken 2-2, he would have survived this piece of carelessness. He could have cashed the diamond nine on the third round, then crossed to dummy’s diamond queen to score a fifth diamond trick. Unfortunately, West showed out on the second round, and there was no way for declarer to recover. Whether he led the nine or the seven to dummy’s queen on the next round, he would have to win the fourth round of diamonds in his hand. Four plus four did not equal nine, and he was one down.

Since the diamond nine and seven were potential blocking cards, they should have been played under dummy’s king and queen. This leaves the way clear to lead the diamond six on the fourth round, following with the two from the South hand. The lead remains in dummy, and nine tricks are readily available.

In today's deal from the NEC tournament held last year in Yokohama, both tables reached five diamonds, Justin Hackett on a club lead, Valio Kovachev on a spade lead. The key to the defense is that when East gets in with the heart king, he must return a trump to kill the crossruff. The Bulgarian East missed this and played back a spade, but Justin drew a round of trumps himself, prematurely, on winning the spade ace, and that was fatal. In the ending, after declarer had trumped two plain cards in dummy, East could ruff a winning heart high and return a second diamond to leave declarer with a losing spade at trick 13.

In the other room a spade lead forced declarer to rush to take his discards. After he gave up a heart to East, Tom Hanlon accurately played back a trump, but Hugh McGann erred by discarding a spade — he could surely have afforded a club. Now, when declarer ruffed two spades to dummy, he had set up his long spade and at trick 13 would be left with a winner, not a loser. So the declarer who should have succeeded went down, and the one who should have been defeated made his contract.

Most of the expert declarers in five diamonds brought home their game when East did not find the diamond shift. Paul Gosney of Australia was one of the few defenders who found the diamond shift at the critical moment to beat five diamonds by force.