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.

Deals from the Common Game are played virtually simultaneously across North America and provide a splendid opportunity to compare results from city to city or club to club. Today’s deal was a problem I was given from one of these tournaments, and it required some thought for me to come up with the winning line. See if you can find the optimum strategy to make six hearts when West meanly leads a trump.

It looks relatively clear to win the heart queen at the first trick, preserving dummy’s small hearts to ruff losers. Next, you cash the three top spades, pitching diamonds at every turn. Yes, if a defender ruffs in, your chances go up in smoke, but you are going to need some good news somewhere along the way, and spades will break in friendly fashion two times in three.

When the three top spades stand up, you play the club ace and ruff a club, lead a diamond to the ace and ruff a club, then ruff a diamond in hand and draw trumps, losing the last club trick to one defender or the other.

As you can see from the full layout, the real danger is a trump promotion for the defense in either clubs or diamonds. Specifically, the fourth round of spades or the third round of diamonds from East may promote a trump for West unless you are very careful in your choice of early discards.

For more information about the Common Game, visit thecommongame.com.

In today’s deal, South heard West pre-empt in clubs over his one-spade opener. Now, when North cue-bid four clubs, this was a forcing raise in spades but did not promise a club control. South signed off in game to end the auction. When West led the club queen, East won the ace. South could take the club return, draw trumps and ruff dummy’s last club in hand; but now what?

Either a good guess in diamonds or finding the heart queen onside would see declarer safely home. Or, if hearts broke 3-3, one of dummy’s diamonds could be discarded on the 13th heart.

Accordingly, South continued with a heart to the jack and queen. Back came a deceptive heart four, to West’s 10 and dummy’s king. Declarer could now have run the heart seven, playing East for a four-card suit. But West was perfectly capable of contributing the 10 from the 109. So eventually South played a heart to his ace, then guessed poorly by leading a diamond to the king and ace. Down one.

The diamond guess was unlucky, but declarer had missed a 100 percent line. After drawing trumps and eliminating clubs, he was right to play on hearts. But he should have covered the three with the seven to endplay East.

If a heart is returned, dummy’s jack and king can be cashed, and South re-enters his hand with a trump to discard a diamond on the heart ace. If West puts up the heart 10 at his first turn, dummy’s jack is played, and East is again forced to clear up the heart position.

This month, I’ll be running a few more deals from Kit Woolsey’s excellent new book, “The Language of Bridge.” Woolsey’s book focuses on one of the most difficult areas of the game, communication between partners.

Almost all books for beginners and intermediates focus on the problem faced by the individual. But really, it is only declarer play that is an individual sport. Both bidding and defense do sometimes involve unilateral decisions, but more often, the partnership must make the decision together. Knowing when to help partner decide what to do, and when to make the decision single-handedly, is one of the great challenges of the game. Here, for example, you defend against four spades after your partner has opened a weak two-bid in hearts. You lead the heart ace and get to see dummy. When partner encourages with the 10, you have to plan the defense.

Partner is encouraging in hearts, but do you know what four tricks you will take to defeat the contract? The answer is that you must first cash your diamond ace. Then, even if partner encourages in diamonds (which he will do if he has the diamond king), you now play another heart. This sequence of plays should make it clear to partner — you hope — that you want a third round of hearts for a trump promotion. If you had not cashed your diamond ace, partner might have played a third round of hearts prematurely, allowing declarer to discard his singleton diamond and avoid the trump loser.

Even if playing a 16-18 no-trump, many Norths would choose that opening call — inflation has set in at bridge as in all walks of life. Regardless, North-South will end up in three no-trump; but, as if to justify the upgrade, West holds a natural spade lead, and that puts the game in jeopardy.

Should South win or duck the opening lead? If he ducks, West continues with the spade jack, and declarer wins in dummy with the king. Declarer now leads a low diamond from dummy; when East takes his ace, he has no spade left to play, and whatever he shifts to will not cause declarer a problem. East will most probably try a heart. Declarer can win in his hand and knock out the diamond king, and can then easily win the rest of the tricks. (For the record, though, if spades had broken 4-3, the defenders could have scored only two tricks from each of the spade and diamond suits.)

There would have been a completely different outcome if declarer had taken the first spade trick. East would win the first diamond and would be able to lead his remaining spade. It would then be too late for declarer to hold up, for West would be able to win the second round of spades and continue with a third round. No matter what declarer did, West would set up the spades and regain the lead with the diamond king to cash out his spades and defeat the contract.

They say that the looker-on sees most of the game. As a kibitzer at my club, I often wonder whether the players consider the consequences of their actions. All too often, the board is completed and the players move on, blithely unaware of the opportunities missed and chances gone begging.

Today’s deal saw me as North, dummy, with the sort of hand that Terence Reese would have described as a king better than his usual rubber bridge collection. I transferred my partner into two spades, and West hit on the lead of the diamond seven, rather than the club eight. (The latter would have been my choice, if only because it might have been a little easier to read).

East won the diamond king and ace and pressed on with the diamond 10 — the best defense, though she announced afterward that she thought she was defending no-trump. South ruffed with the spade queen, and West over-ruffed and cashed the heart ace, then led a club. Declarer carefully won that in dummy to lead a spade toward the 10, and could no longer be prevented from making eight tricks.

As usual, no one said anything germane to best play and defense in the post mortem. My partner had played it nicely, but how would you comment on the defense?

West missed a trick when he over-ruffed the spade queen; if he had pitched a club, he could ensure that he either would get a club ruff or could ruff the fourth diamond with the spade nine once declarer was out of trumps.