My great friend Patrick Huang must be one of the strongest declarers never to have won a world team title. But today's deal from last year's NEC trophy in Yokohama shows that virtue is not always rewarded, and sometimes the best line of play can leave you with egg all over your face.

How would you play four spades on a heart lead? Huang followed a line that combined technical expertise with table presence. He won, advanced the spade jack, and went up with the ace when Louk Verhees (part of the Anglo-Dutch winning team) ducked smoothly. Now he stripped off the clubs and exited with a heart, confident that he would come home whenever the diamond queen was onside or he had an endplay. Alas, not tonight. With the diamond honors wrong, he had found the only lie of the cards where this approach would fail.

In the other room, after South had opened one no-trump and North transferred into spades, he jumped to three spades. That got him into a congruent position, and West here also led a heart. The difference was that when David Gold advanced the spade jack, Liu covered. That was the end of the story, with 10 tricks for declarer and a game-swing for his side.

Only five declarers out of 50 duplicated the unsuccessful line found by Huang. But if you switch the diamond queen and spade king, it looks like the only winning line, so it is really hard to criticize it unduly.

In today's deal from the NEC event held in Yokohama last February, Kyoko Shimamura took the slow route to four spades. West led a club to the ace and East then shifted to a low diamond. West won her king and returned a thoughtful low heart, trying to remove dummy's entry and needing her partner to have no more than the heart nine to have a chance to set the game. No luck — but a nice play.

In fact, at double-dummy, East needed to cash the diamond ace at trick two, then shift to a heart, with West covering declarer’s card to remove dummy’s entry.

At another table, Heather Dhondy received the equally testing defense of two rounds of diamonds. She ruffed, drew trumps, then played the club jack. East, Yukiko Umezu, won and exited in diamonds. Dhondy ruffed and led a heart up, but Etsuko Naito riposted by winning the heart ace to leave the hearts blocked, then played a fourth diamond. Declarer ruffed with her last trump, but (depending on whether she had unblocked the heart king or not) had to concede a club or a heart at the end.

Vlad Isporski for the Bulgarian All Stars also received the defense of two rounds of diamonds. He pitched his club instead of ruffing, and now when West won and made the mistake of leading a club instead of a trump, Isporski could ruff away the club ace, draw trumps, and lead a heart toward the king, leaving the defense helpless.

All the deals this week come from the NEC tournament held last year in Yokohama. When this board came up at upwards of 50 tables during the qualifying stages, ,many East-West pairs stopped in a spade partscore and made 140, which looks close to par.

But Federico Goded of Spain was full of admiration for his opponents here — not just because of the coup they had achieved in the bidding and play but because of the confidence that they had exhibited in both phases.

Matt Mullamphy, South, had overcalled three clubs to show the red suits. This was doubled by West to show cards and interest in defending against at least one of the suits. But when Ron Klinger passed three clubs doubled to show a real club suit, Mullamphy let it go as if without a care in the world, even though he was about to be declaring a doubled three-level contract with a trump suit of the doubleton 10!

Perhaps Miguel Goncalves should have seen the impending danger and have led a trump, but he actually led a top spade, and now the shift to a low trump came too late. Declarer ran the trump shift to his hand, crossed to the diamond ace to ruff a spade, and now could not be prevented from taking six club tricks, two diamonds and a spade ruff for an impressive plus 470. As we’ve remarked before — easy game, bridge.

In the finals of the 2011 NEC tournament in Yokohama, Japan, both tables in today's deal reached six hearts on a spade lead, but in one case with North declarer, and in the other case with South.

For the losing Chinese team, Peng (North) won the spade lead in dummy, cashed the diamond king, then drew three rounds of trump ending in the North hand. Next he led a spade up, and David Gold, for the Anglo-Dutch winners, hopped up with the spade queen and returned the suit to eliminate any pressure in the endgame: down one. In fact, once declarer had cashed the heart ace and king, he could no longer make the hand.

Ricco van Prooijen showed how to do it at the other table. Sitting South, he won the spade lead in hand, played one top trump from hand, then led the diamond king, and crossed to a trump in dummy as East pitched a spade. Now declarer ruffed a diamond high, played the club ace, ruffed a club, and ruffed another diamond with his last high trump.

Next he ruffed a club to dummy, and East had either to let go a spade — in which case declarer would draw the trump and play on spades — or pitch a diamond, his actual choice.

Van Prooijen drew the last trump, cashed the diamond ace, and led a spade toward his jack at trick 12, with East down to the Q-10 of spades. Contract made.

To mark the fact that the NEC championships are taking place now, all this week's deals come from last year's event in Yokohama. A field of 64 teams reduces to eight, using a Swiss Teams formula, with a knockout event to follow. The field normally includes up to 16 of the world's stronger teams and a contingent of local Japanese squads.

In today’s deal, game was bid and made seven times — eight if you count the result of three spades doubled making nine tricks by one East-West pair. David Bakhshi of England as South was one of the careful declarers who brought home three no-trump via a nice exercise in counting.

North, David Gold, did not think he had enough for a vulnerable pre-empt; however, his delayed route into the auction persuaded his partner to take a shot at the no-trump game.

West led a high club spot to East’s ace for a shift to the spade nine, covered by the 10 and won by West’s jack.

West now went back to clubs, leading declarer to conclude that the spades were 4-3 and that West had started with five clubs, else East would surely have continued the suit at trick two or put in the queen at trick one.

That being so, Bakhshi cashed the heart ace and king, and when West showed out, he knew to take the diamond finesse against West rather than to play for the drop, since West had to have three diamonds to make up his 13 cards.

Today's deal shows how you can achieve remarkable results with smoke and mirrors.

Even if North had passed, you might still reach a delicate four -spade contract from the South seat. Looking at the East and West cards, you would assume the contract was doomed, but West gives you a respite when he leads a club at trick one. It does not appear at first glance that this will be quite enough of a helping hand.

If you win the trick cheaply and cross to a top heart in dummy, then take the spade finesse. West wins, and knowing you have the missing club and spade honors, he rates to shift to a diamond, doesn’t he? East can help his partner in the decision-making process if his side is playing suit preference in trumps. He would then follow with the spade two on the first round to emphasize diamonds over hearts.

But now see what happens if you take East’s club jack with the ace at trick one, then cross to dummy with a heart for the losing spade finesse. If West can resist underleading the club king for his partner to make the diamond switch, then he is certainly a better man than I. Of course, if the spade finesse succeeds, you still make 10 tricks by pitching a diamond on the hearts.

Incidentally, the same sort of play can arise when you have the A-K-J in the suit they lead. Winning East’s 10 with the king can create the same illusion.

After this relatively long auction to six spades, West knew enough to lead the heart three. How would you plan the play?

When trumps are 3-2 and clubs no worse that 4-2, you can make the contract by winning the heart ace, cashing the club king, drawing trumps ending in hand, and ruffing a low club. You will make four trumps, the red aces, five clubs and a club ruff.

However, whereas trumps are a favorite to split, clubs rate to be 4-2 rather than 3-3, so you should try to protect against the expected as well as unexpected bad breaks. If one player has long spades, you hope it is East — but you still need to be careful.

After winning the heart ace and cashing the club king, you need to manipulate the trump suit. Suppose you carelessly play the spade ace followed by the six to your king. When you continue with a club ruff, you will be left with the bare spade 10 on the table. East will not cover when you lead it, and you will have no safe way to draw his last trump. One down!

The winning play after cashing the spade ace is to lead the spade 10 to the king. You ruff a low club with the nine and then play dummy’s trump six, finessing the eight in your hand. You can then draw the last trump with the queen and claim the contract.

Against four hearts, West leads the spade king. Good deceptive declarer play is to drop the spade eight on this trick, trying to persuade West that East's spade five is high, not low. But West was not born yesterday. He refuses to take the bait, instead switching to the diamond queen. Plan the play from here on.

The first key point to bear in mind is that since West passed as dealer and has already shown up with 10 points, East must have the club king. If you take an early club finesse, East will win his king and shift back to spades, setting up four winners for the defenders. How can you avoid the need for taking the club finesse?

The answer is rather subtle: duck the diamond queen, win the diamond continuation, and play the heart king and a heart to the jack. Cash the diamond ace (discarding a club) and club ace, and take the ruffing club finesse.

It would not have done West any good to cash the spade ace at trick three, since you would have the rest of the tricks without needing to work hard. But note that West might have worked out to shift to the diamond jack so as not to give the show away. It would not matter if East was confused about the location of the diamond honors since he does not need to know what is going on.

Sometimes the problem in a bridge deal becomes evident at trick one; on other occasions the difficulties only become apparent later. Into which category does today's deal fall? You are South in six spades on the diamond queen lead, and I'll give you the hint that trumps do not break 4-0.

I hope you decided that the problem resides solely in hearts. If you can avoid losing two tricks in that suit, you should make your slam. With trumps to spare in both hands, you should be looking to strip the hand of the side-suits, eliminate the trumps, then force the defenders to help you out.

So win the lead in hand, draw trumps, then play a diamond to the ace and ruff a diamond. Now cash three rounds of clubs, ending in dummy, and exit with a heart, planning to cover East’s card. If East plays a low, you can put in the seven and claim the balance, but what if he plays the eight? You try the queen, but it loses to the king. Back comes a low heart — should you put the 10 up or play low from dummy?

The correct answer is to play low from dummy. East is more likely to the eight or nine than both cards. This is an example of the principle of Restricted Choice, where if East had the 9-8, he would have had a choice of cards to play at his first turn.