This week’s deals all come from the Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane. This is one of the most enjoyable events on the calendar, with sun, sea and sand all augmenting a venue packed with cheap accommodations and excellent restaurants. The bridge is of an excellent standard, too.

Michael Rosenberg and Ross Harper, two expatriate Scots, constantly threatened to break into the top three in the main pairs event, eventually finishing second. Here they benefited from some careless declarer play.

Harper led a diamond against three no-trump by South, reached after that player had upgraded his hand into a 15-17 no-trump — a perfectly reasonable call.

Rosenberg took the king and shifted to the spade queen. We should all be familiar with the idea of ducking the first round of the suit when we hold the ace facing king, but is this the time to put that notion into effect?

That play might be necessary at trick two to try to neutralize the defender’s spades if the suit breaks 5-2. But since West appears to have the diamond ace, it may be safe enough to win the lead and play on clubs at once. At the table, though, declarer won in hand and guessed very badly when he led a diamond, maybe thinking West would duck. Harper was having none of that; he took his ace and played back a spade, and now Rosenberg had the entry to run spades when he got in. That was two down, and all the matchpoints.

Note that if you do duck trick two, then on a heart shift you may well find yourself forced to guess the ending well.

When North, playing the forcing no-trump, produces a constructive raise of hearts, South makes a help-suit game try of three clubs, asking North to decide whether what he has is right for game. North’s two builders in clubs make up for his bad trump holding, so he takes a shot at the heart game.

When West leads the spade queen, declarer must duck, or else East would win and continue the suit, leaving declarer with four losers when trumps did not behave. It is often incorrect to cover when declarer wants to keep East off lead, but here ducking the lead prevents either defender from continuing spades without surrendering a trick.

West has a difficult play now, but accurately shifts to the diamond seven. Declarer wins the ace in hand, then takes the heart ace; the sight of the king persuades him to try for an endplay if trumps do not break, by cashing the diamond queen and leading a second trump.

If trumps break, declarer is home; when they do not, East wins his two hearts, but now South’s small extra chance kicks in, since East has no third diamond left to lead and must open up one black suit or the other. Either way, declarer’s two clubs will disappear on dummy’s winners.

If declarer leads a third diamond instead of the second heart, East discards on this trick and the fourth diamond. Declarer can do no better than play a trump. East cashes his hearts and exits with his spade ace, leaving South with an eventual club loser.

South has a tricky call at his second turn, and rather than rebid two no-trump with two small in an unbid suit, he invents a diamond suit to show his extras through a reverse. Yes, a simple rebid of three clubs would not be that much of an underbid.

The continuation over a reverse in an uncontested auction is one that is the subject of much controversy. In the past, everything that sounded non-forcing would have been construed as such. But a more popular style these days would be to use a call of two no-trump (or even two hearts) as artificial and setting up non-forcing auctions. Thus, North’s call of three clubs shows a game-forcing hand with support, and when South re-raises himself to four clubs, North decides to take a shot at slam.

After a heart lead, South wins the ace and is faced with a possible loser in trump and an immediate loser in hearts. Instead of taking an immediate club finesse, South follows a line to give himself an extra chance with almost no risk. He wins the heart ace, cashes his top spades, then leads a diamond to dummy and plays a third spade. Whether or not he should let this run if a small spade appears from East on the third round of the suit, the sight of East’s queen is enough to gladden declarer’s heart. He ruffs with the ten, cashes the club ace, and leads a diamond to dummy to play the winning spade, pitching his heart, and losing only to the club king.

Note: six clubs is easier to make than three no-trump!

When West overcalls two hearts over one spade, North has just enough for a negative double. South is close between an invitational jump to three spades and bidding game, and his 100 honors in spades persuade him to go high.

West has a natural lead of the heart king, and South wins with the ace, since he can see no reason to duck. Declarer will need to find a way to bring the diamonds into play, but it may be best to disguise his intentions initially by playing the spade queen. When West ducks, the queen scores, and declarer craftily continues with the 10. This time, West decides to win and cash the heart queen. When everyone follows, West knows that to have any chance to defeat the contract, East must hold precisely the diamond ace — since if declarer has both top diamond honors and has played sensibly, the contract will be cold.

Furthermore, East needs a minor club honor, and now desperate measures are called for because declarer is threatening to take five spades, three diamonds and two aces. The desperate measures in question are to shift to the club king at trick four. If declarer ducks, the diamond ace will be the defenders’ fourth trick. If dummy wins the club ace, East can simply duck the first diamond, and the defenders will eventually come to a trick in each minor.

For the record, if South plays on diamonds at trick two, he should still be defeated with accurate defense.

The contract of three no-trump seems perfectly normal, but when the lead of the spade 10 from West goes to the queen and king, the contract may need careful handling. South must develop the diamonds to make his game, but the play to trick one strongly suggests that West may have well led from a suit headed by A-10-9. If East is allowed to lead a spade later, West will be able to run the rest of the spades. This may defeat the contract.

Establishing the diamonds safely is simple: South must cross to dummy, with a club rather than a heart, of course, and must lead the diamond queen, planning to duck the trick around to West. However, when East covers (as he surely will), declarer wins and goes back to dummy, again with a club, to take another diamond finesse, this time leading to the nine. When both opponents follow and the nine wins, declarer can cash out for at least 10 tricks, with five diamonds, three clubs and two major-suit winners.

There is no danger if West wins the first or second diamond trick and leads another spade, as long as diamonds are breaking. Likewise, if West is able to score his diamond 10 and continue the attack on clubs, declarer can unscramble his nine tricks in peace and quiet.

One problem may arise if West can take the second diamond and play a heart: Declarer will have to hope the heart king is with West, since otherwise the blockage in diamonds prevents declarer from running that suit.

Today’s deal came up in a teams game, where both tables reached the perfectly reasonable spot of six no-trump. In the first room, when the player sitting East saw his partner lead the spade nine, he won his ace and shifted to a club in an attempt to break up any pressure on his partner. A nice try — but not good enough; South won the ace, cashed the ace and king of diamonds, then ran all his major-suit winners ending in dummy. The three-card ending saw dummy with the diamond jack and two clubs, while South had the K-Q-8 of clubs in hand. West had to abandon control of clubs, and the club eight took trick 13.

When the teams scored up, South from the other room proudly announced plus 1440 as if expecting a swing in. When asked why, South explained how the defense had gone at his table, on the same lead. East had ducked both the first and second spade, so now South ran four rounds of hearts, pitching a diamond from hand, and forcing West to consider his last seven cards. He had to keep three diamonds and four clubs, so he let go of his remaining spade. Declarer cashed his clubs and threw West in with the fourth club, discarding a spade from the board, to force a diamond lead away from the queen for the 12th trick.

“Was that how the play went in your room?’ asked South. “For all intents and purposes,” responded his teammate, demonstrating once again that truth is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Today’s deal sees North stretch just a fraction to treat his hand as a game-forcing spade raise, then sign off upon finding short hearts opposite. South has more than enough to drive to slam (though pessimists could use Blackwood first if they prefer), since even facing the most unsuitable hand, there will probably be play for slam on most leads.

West is fortunate to have been dealt a sequence on lead, and that gives declarer no help. How should he play to combine his chances for 12 tricks? He has two slow losers (in clubs and diamonds) and two queens whose value he can exploit if he uses them efficiently. He can take a heart finesse and discard his diamond loser from hand, or he can lead to the club queen: If he finds West with the king, he can pitch his diamond loser from dummy on his top club.

It looks logical to win the diamond lead and draw trumps ending in hand, but then declarer has to commit himself, and the order of his plays is critical. He must play West for the club king by leading toward the club queen. If this fails, he still has time to take the heart finesse. Conversely, if he finesses in hearts first and loses, there is no second chance. He cannot avoid a club loser.

As the cards lie, West will take his king and return a diamond, but declarer can win and unblock clubs, then ruff a heart to hand to pitch the diamond loser from the North hand on the club ace.

Today’s deal is the last of this week’s themed hands, in each of which declarer has to play a single suit to best advantage with length in one hand and a singleton in the other.

As I look through the hands, I am struck by the fact that such similar combinations have such disparate solutions. No wonder bridge players go gray so early!

In today’s deal, South opens and closes the auction with a call of two hearts. When West leads the club 10, he appears to be relatively short of clubs — the threat of trump promotions is a real one. Declarer must start to draw trumps at once, and he can afford to lose two trump tricks but not three.

He wins the club lead in dummy and leads a heart to the king. If this loses to the ace, he will regain the lead and play the queen of hearts, then the nine. But when the heart king holds, declarer must decide which trump to lead next.

If East has the bare heart ace left then, declarer must lead a low heart from hand; but there is a much better chance that one defender or the other is left with a bare jack or 10 of hearts. (Note that to give himself a chance to set the contract, West would have to duck the heart ace if he started with A-J-fourth or A-10-fourth of hearts.) By leading out his remaining top honor, he can pin the jack or 10 and remain in control, losing just two trumps and three plain-suit top cards.