It is a theme that bears repeating that when playing teams or rubber bridge, your main focus as declarer must be on making your contract whenever possible. Meanwhile, as a defender, the number of overtricks or undertricks is less critical than trying to beat the contract. Today’s deal is a fine example of needing to keep your eye on the ball. To make your contract of three no-trump, you must come to nine tricks; the 10th trick is far less important. With that huge clue, put yourself in declarer’s place and cover up the East and West cards. You are playing three no-trump on the lead of the heart jack.

The first point is that you should win the opening lead because you would not like it if the defenders shifted to clubs or spades at trick two. So you take the heart and duck a diamond; since you have to lose a diamond, you must retain communications if you can.

East overtakes his partner’s diamond seven to play a second heart. You duck the trick and win the third heart, as everyone follows, then lead a second diamond. When West deviously follows with the queen, it would be natural, but fatal, to assume that the suit was breaking, and to put up the king. If you do, you will limit yourself to two diamond tricks, and the contract can no longer be made. Duck the second diamond, and you will take three diamond tricks and two winners in each of the other suits.

Today’s deal comes from the qualifying event of last year’s Gold Coast teams in Brisbane, Australia. It cropped up at the table where Matt Mullamphy and Ron Klinger took on Grant Cowen and Paul McGrath. On a quiet set of boards, where there were few opportunities for swing, this significant opportunity went begging.

At the table North had elected to pass two hearts, pessimistically downvaluing his weak trumps and poorly placed spades. It was a good decision in a sense — since in practice four hearts was likely to go down. But can you spot the line where South in the other room could have made his game, after a friendly club lead into the tenace?

When, as South, you lead a diamond at trick two, West must duck. You win dummy’s queen, then ruff a diamond, cross to the club ace and ruff a second diamond. When no ace appears, you know West surely started with 5=1=4=3 shape. So you cash the heart ace to confirm that your count on the hand is correct, then take the club king and ruff your club winner in dummy.

You have scored the first eight tricks, with the lead in dummy, having reduced yourself down to the K-10 of hearts while your RHO has Q-J-6. Dummy has two diamonds, and you and dummy each have three spades left.

At trick nine, you lead a diamond from dummy; East must ruff high to prevent you from scoring your heart 10. Instead of over-ruffing, you simply pitch a spade and will now score two more trump tricks by force.

In the last session of the Pairs Final from the Gold Coast tournament last year, both Lilley-Nagy and Howard-Nunn did well here in their contracts of two hearts.

As North, on the auction shown, David Lilley judged his partner would not have five spades, but might have five hearts, so let his partner play two hearts. Justin Howard, as South, overcalled two hearts over East’s initial one-spade response and played there.

Zolly Nagy won the top club lead, led a spade to the ace and played a low heart from hand. West flew up with the ace to play the club queen, crashing the jack, then gave his partner a club ruff. When East returned a spade for his partner to ruff, that was the fourth defensive trick, but the heart king was their last trick.

Howard received a far tougher defense. He won the spade lead in hand and led a second spade. West discarded a diamond, so declarer won the king and played a third spade. East took the queen (West pitching another diamond), and the defenders now played three rounds of trumps. When Howard drew the last trump, West had to pitch a club. When he let go a small one, Howard led a club up and ducked West’s queen.

West had to exit with a low club, and Howard won the ace and played a third club, forcing West to win and lead diamonds. Whichever diamond he played, Howard had the rest, since dummy’s club was good.

On the last trump, West had to find the discard of a club honor to avoid the endplay.

Today’s deal comes from the 2017 Gold Coast tournament, held in Brisbane, Australia. It originally appeared with the headline “Neill before the president!”

Avi Kanetkar wrote up the deal from the finals of the pairs events, which was very nicely defended by the Australian Bridge Federation president, Bruce Neill. When South opened a strong (14-17) no-trump, North took his side to six no-trump, exploring for a minor-suit fit along the way.

When Kanetkar led the diamond jack against the slam, declarer had 11 tricks and needed to develop an additional trick from the black suits. South won in hand to lead a spade to the king, which Neill smoothly ducked. Now declarer cashed hearts (Kanetkar pitching a club) before playing the club queen and ace.

Had clubs split, declarer could have cashed four tricks in the minors. As it was, when Neill discarded and the 5-1 club break came to light, it seemed entirely logical to lead a spade to the 10. And that was down one.

Had East won the spade ace, then no matter what suit he returned, declarer would probably have cashed the spade queen and played either for clubs to behave or for the same hand to hold the spade jack and club length. It is worth noting that East does best to return a spade if he began with the ace-jack, trying to persuade declarer to commit himself either to spades or clubs, rather than allowing him to combine his chances.

Today’s deal comes from last year’s Gold Coast pairs tournament in Brisbane, Australia. It is not easy for North-South to bid to their best spot, the 4-4 fit in diamonds, where declarer can use the hearts to discard spade losers. With all the suits breaking in friendly fashion, nine tricks appear to be relatively straightforward. Should North have bid at all at his third turn? I’m not sure. Raising hearts with two doesn’t feel right, while bidding diamonds on such a weak suit also seems too committal.

Hearts rate to be a tougher place to play than diamonds, particularly if hearts were going to break 4-2. After the lead of the spade queen, declarer could see that he was going to be exposed to the risk of a force on repeated black suit leads. He had only seven top tricks and needed to develop diamonds to make his contract.

Declarer David Lilley neatly avoided this problem with the help of an intra-finesse in diamonds. He ducked the spade lead and, at trick three, after winning his spade ace, he led the diamond nine from hand. When West went up with the diamond queen and cashed a spade winner, then played the club jack and another club, Lilley ruffed, crossed to the heart queen and advanced the diamond jack, pinning West’s nowbare diamond 10 and making no fewer than nine tricks.

Had the diamond 10 not dropped, declarer would have given up a diamond and ruffed the next club, playing for hearts to be 3-3.

All the deals this week come from the Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane, one of the most enjoyable week-long events on the bridge calendar. If you like sun, sea and sand, together with great restaurants and a serious bridge tournament where you can still have fun, this is for you.

This deal came up in the Ivy Dahler Swiss Pairs, a one-day tournament run along Swiss lines, where the top pairs are lined up against one another in eight-board matches, with a format akin to a Swiss teams event.

JoAnn Sprung of Las Vegas — half of the winning pair with husband Danny — declared four hearts as South here, after a transfer response to her one-club opening bid. The lead of the diamond 10 went to the jack, queen and king. Declarer knocked out the heart ace, won the return of the diamond nine, then drew two more rounds of trumps ending in hand.

At this point, Sprung had decided that East’s initial pass meant West was heavily favored to have both the missing aces. A club toward the king required West to duck (or give declarer an extra discard). When the club king won, South could pitch her club 10 on the diamond ace, and now a club lead went to the queen and ace, leaving West on lead.

It did not matter what West did now; she could concede a ruff-and-discard by leading a club, or open up the spades, allowing declarer to play the suit for one loser. Either way, the game would come home.

All the deals this week come from last year’s Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane, Australia. Our first deal features a great rarity, where a director call cost 25 IMPs. Cometh the hour, cometh the hand …

Good news: You are in a grand slam. Bad news: They lead an ace in the suit where you have a singleton. Good news: The lead is out of turn! Do you call the director or accept the lead?

Before I give you the denouement, when Molly O’Donohue and Philip Thompson were North-South, they also bid to the delicate grand slam, but in clubs, on the auction shown.

Maybe West should have known not to lead spades — but surely the diamond ace was never going to get away! Be that as it may, while a heart lead might have been the killer for one side or the other, a diamond was led, and O’Donohue wrapped up 13 tricks.

Back to our director call, where our players are veiled in the concealing gauze of anonymity that only a willfully forgetful tournament director can provide. He was summoned to another table where (on an auction similar to the one shown) it was North at the helm in seven diamonds, after East had overcalled one spade. However, West led the spade king out of turn.

North was given his options and, rejecting Goldwater’s Rule (“If they don’t know whose lead it is, they are probably leading the wrong thing”), triumphantly banned the spade lead. So East led the heart ace and continued the suit, to cash out for down two.

When West leads the heart 10 against four spades, the defenders have set up two heart winners for themselves in addition to their two diamond tricks. How should you plan the play as declarer?

There is no reason not to win the first trick with the heart ace, because ducking lessens the chance of an overtrick. Obviously, to have any chance of making 10 tricks, you need spades to be 3-2 with the trump queen onside. If clubs are 3-2 as well, then you will make 11 tricks. However, extra care may be needed if spades break and clubs do not.

After winning the heart ace at trick one, you should lead a low club to dummy’s king and continue with a low trump, finessing the jack when East plays low. Next, cash the trump king, and when everyone follows, you are almost home. However, instead of drawing the last trump, you should now cash the club queen. If both defenders follow, only then will you draw the last trump with dummy’s ace and claim 11 tricks.

On today’s layout, you are in luck when it is West who discards, having started with 2-1 in the black suits. You continue with a club to dummy’s ace in order to ruff a club and establish dummy’s eight as a winner. All that remains is to draw the last trump with dummy’s ace, and cash dummy’s long club.

Note that cashing the spade ace and king early is highly unlikely to work, since you need to get two losers away, not just one.