How would you handle the North hand after using Stayman and failing to find a heart fit? The simple route to follow is to bid three no-trump. A more prudent route would be to bid three diamonds, suggesting game-forcing values and a doubt about strain or level. In other words, either one major is a concern or North has interest in higher things.

If North had chosen the diamond call, South would have signed off in three no-trump because he has both majors stopped — but you can easily imagine that South’s spade ace-king could be the ace of hearts and diamond king, in which case North-South might make slam in a minor but go down in three no-trump.

That said, after a top spade lead against three no-trump, how should South play? Declarer has eight sure tricks and needs a ninth from one of the red suits. In which order should he go about playing those suits? The answer is slightly counterintuitive, in that he must try a heart toward the king first, and fall back on the diamond finesse if necessary.

Yes, technically, playing a heart could allow the defenders to run four tricks on him — even five tricks on a really terrible day. But the point is that South can afford to lose four heart tricks. He can still fall back on taking the diamond finesse sooner or later, for his contract.

By contrast, if declarer takes the diamond finesse and it loses, there is no fallback position. The defenders set up spades and are ready to win the heart ace and cash out.

At the Gold Coast teams tournament last year, Frances Hinden and Graham Osborne came all the way from England, and who did they get to play? The Scots team. In that match, Osborne played four hearts nicely here.

There is only one lead by West to defeat four hearts — a small trump. After Victor Silverstone’s lead of a top diamond honor, Osborne won the ace and ruffed a diamond, trying to score as many of his small trumps as possible, then crossed to a top club to lead a third diamond, ruffed by Derek Diamond and overruffed in hand. Now a club to dummy allowed declarer to ruff another diamond. The spade ace and a spade ruff produced a five-card ending where declarer was down to two losing spades and the A-J-10 of hearts, with the lead in dummy.

Osborne now led a diamond from dummy, and when East ruffed with the four, he discarded a spade. No matter which black suit East led next, Osborne could follow with his remaining spade, to ensure two of the last three tricks.

Had East retained both of his trumps in the five-card ending (together with one spade and two clubs), declarer would have needed to lead a club from dummy and pitch a spade as East won his jack.

At that point, West has one spade and four hearts and must pitch his spade to leave his partner on play. In turn, that means West will have to ruff his partner’s plain-suit winner at the next trick and be endplayed to concede two of the last three tricks.

What do you think would be the relative fates of four hearts and three no-trump? At the Gold Coast last year in a teams match, one East-West pair pre-empted to two spades, but it didn’t prevent their opponents from finding their way to four hearts by North.

It looks natural for declarer to cash the diamonds to pitch the spade loser, then play on clubs. The defenders can shift to trumps, but then declarer arranges to ruff out the clubs. Alternatively, the defenders can force declarer to ruff in hand — but he can ruff diamonds low and, if necessary, a third round of spades high.

What you cannot do, however, is play three rounds of trumps early — which was what happened at the table. Now the 4-1 club break meant that the defenders could force the North hand and leave declarer short of entries to set up clubs, so he ended with just nine tricks.

In the other room, Danny Sprung had the delight of playing three no-trump here on a spade lead. He ducked the first spade, won the second and cashed his hearts. After the last heart was played, East held three cards in each minor. West came down to three spades, the bare club queen and two diamonds. That was fatal; declarer could play three rounds of diamonds, which endplayed East to lead clubs into dummy’s tenace for the ninth trick.

West’s problem was that he did not know who had the last spade — and I’m not sure how the defenders could have signaled to get this right.

When this deal was originally written up at last year’s Gold Coast tournament, the author commented that after a diamond lead and continuation against four spades, it would be necessary to handle trumps very carefully. If West had passed his partner’s opening bid, it might be best to win the second diamond in dummy and play East for the spade ace-queen by leading a low trump from dummy. This neutralizes the trump promotion.

Let’s revisit that statement; it might be necessary, but would it be sufficient? Over to Terry Brown, who told his tale of woe. In round one of the open teams, he arrived at the table and was greeted by Don and Judy Scown of Forster, New South Wales. On the evidence provided by this deal, Brown hypothesized that Forster Bridge Club must be full of hucksters, con-artists and flim-flam merchants.

On the auction shown, Don led the diamond 10 against four spades; Judy won the ace and returned the suit. Brown now won in dummy and led a low trump — well played!

Not to be outdone, Judy hopped up with the ace(!) and returned a third diamond. Yes, maybe declarer should have ruffed in with the jack — would you have thought of it? Terry discarded, West scored his trump eight and Judy still had the trump queen to come, for one down.

As Brown remarked, be warned! Make sure to keep your wallet hidden if you go to Forster. There are some horse-thieves out there after your hard-earned cash.

The format of the Gold Coast tournament, which lasts for just over a week at the end of every February, is a three-day pairs event with qualifier and final, and a five-day teams event with three days of qualifying and two days of finals.

In the early stages of last years pairs tournament, I thought Joan Butts (one of the leading teachers and players in Queensland, where the event is held) did very nicely here. Johnno Newman opened a gambling three no-trump in front of her, and when Matt Brown took the low road by bidding four clubs, pass or correct, Newman duly bid four diamonds.

This was passed back to Butts, and she bravely bid four hearts to end the auction. (Five diamonds would have been a cheap save, even at unfavorable vulnerability.) The defenders led two rounds of diamonds, and she ruffed the second. What would you do now?

Butts read the position correctly when she led a spade to the ace to take the heart finesse and draw a second round of trumps. Then she played a second spade. The defenders could take their spade winner, but they had no way to get more than one trick out of the club suit; declarer had an 88% score on the board.

Of course, if declarer takes an early spade finesse, West gets the spade ruff to defeat the game. Declarer knew not to take that finesse, since West’s gambling three no-trump opener had practically denied a side ace or king.

Players come from all around the world to the Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane every February, both to escape winter in the Northern Hemisphere and to play in a fun event.

At one table, Roger Lee of the U.S. (with Michael Whibley of New Zealand) finished in four hearts from the South seat, like everyone else in the field, and if ever there was a pairs deal that proved the merits of protecting partner, this was it.

Put yourself in the East seat, when partner leads the club queen. Declarer wins in hand — as you drop the eight to encourage the lead — and draws two rounds of trumps. Plan the defense, bearing in mind that you are playing pairs.

At nine of the 14 tables, East did something other than signal forcefully for diamonds with his first discard. Declarer now led a spade to the king and ace, West exited with a club, and declarer got rid of a diamond loser to claim 10 tricks.

You could argue that West should have seen the need to cash the diamond ace without being helped. But what if declarer had begun with a 1-6-3-3 shape with king-third of diamonds and ace-third of clubs? Now cashing the diamond ace would throw away an overtrick unnecessarily, while exiting in clubs means that declarer would have to lose two diamond tricks eventually.

I do think West must take a fair share of the blame; but when East can make his partner’s life easier, it is up to him to do so.

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.