In baseball a hitter is regarded as a huge success if he only fails seven times in 10. I occasionally have had to wonder if my own success rate hovers around the same average.

This hand comes from the Macallan tournament two decades ago. At one table Alfredo Versace declared an apparently awkward six heart slam here on the auction shown. After the lead of a top spade, Versace ruffed three diamonds in dummy, using a trump, club and spade ruff to reenter his hand. When he laid down the top trumps he ended up with all 13 tricks.

By contrast, I declared six clubs, which looks easier to make, but I had received an enterprising pre-emptive jump overcall in spades from Lars Blakset with the West hand.

After a top spade lead I set about the same cross-ruff, ruffing three diamonds in dummy, using a top heart and a spade ruff as reentries to hand. When the heart 10 fell I now thought I knew East, Jens Auken, had begun life with precisely 2=4=4=3 pattern. So I led dummy’s high trump and overtook it (setting up East’s 10) and played two more rounds of trump to leave East on lead.

If he had three hearts left, as did both dummy and declarer, he would be endplayed to lead a heart round to the jack, and I could finesse the heart nine on the way back, for a very elegant 12 tricks.

But Auken produced an impossible spade, down went the contract, and my chance of a brilliancy prize went up in smoke.

Today’s deal saw South compete to three spades at his first turn by virtue of his nice shape. When his partner doubled four hearts to show extra values it was relatively clear because of his lack of defense to remove to four spades.

At the table the defenders led the club king, and continued with the queen, then jack, overtaken by East for a trump shift. What happened at the table was that declarer won in hand and ran six rounds of trumps, on which West carefully discarded four hearts, baring his heart king, then finally a diamond, trying to simulate a man who was being forced to unguard diamonds. At this point declarer had to make a pitch from dummy with the ace-queen of hearts and ace-queen-third of diamonds left. He got it wrong when he discarded the heart queen, playing for the diamonds to run, and now had to go down.

Declarer would have done better with a slightly counter-intuitive strategy here. He should win the spade ace and does best first to cash the heart ace, then run all the trumps.

For this line to succeed, all declarer requires is for West to hold the heart king, and at least three diamonds to the king. By cashing the heart ace early, it saves you any guess as to which cards West has kept. If the heart king is not discarded, you will know to pitch the heart queen from dummy at trick 10, and hope that the diamonds will be running.

When South opens one heart, West does his best to disrupt his opponents by pre-empting to the three level. It now looks natural for East to sacrifice in four spades over four hearts, but had he passed, might it have ended the auction?

As it is, South seems to have enough to compete over four spades to the five level, and maybe even to look for slam. The five club call lets North show some suitability and a diamond control, with a return cuebid of five diamonds, and that should be just enough for South to bite the bullet and bid slam.

In six hearts, after a top spade lead, all you simply need to avoid losing a club, and must leave playing the suit as long as possible. Win the spade lead, draw trump by cashing the ace and leading the eight to the king, then play a diamond toward your queen. When East ducks, you win your queen and duck a diamond. East wins and returns a spade. You ruff high, lead the heart seven to the jack, and ruff a diamond high, as West follows suit again.

At this point you should count out West’s hand. He apparently started with seven spades, three or more diamonds, and two hearts, so he does not have room for more than one club.

So the winning play is clear: lead a club to the king, then follow up with a club to the nine. Next cross back to dummy with your trump three to the four, to lead a club to the jack.

Although defenders must not exchange information illicitly, they can legitimately try to use the size of the card they play to indicate their attitude to the suit led. Sometimes they can also pass on their count in the suit led (high for even low for odd).

Suit preference signals may also come into play, where the size of the card played indicates interest in the higher or lower of the other suits. Exactly the same principles exist when discarding rather than following suit.

Sooner or later, though, you will find that honesty is not always the best policy. Sometimes you may encourage your partner to continue leading his suit, for fear that he will shift to something worse. Equally, you might discourage your partner’s lead, when you can see that his obvious switch will be the right defense, even when you like the suit led.

In today’s deal you defend four spades after your partner opened two hearts. You should see that if you encourage West’s opening lead of the heart king by showing a doubleton, your partner will surely lead out three rounds of the suit, trying for an over-ruff. That lets the contract make, since declarer can ruff high, then discard a critical club loser on the diamonds – which maybe should not come as a total surprise to you.

If you discourage hearts at the first trick, implicitly showing an odd number of cards in that suit, then maybe partner will find the club switch at trick three?

I normally like to use deals where virtue is rewarded and carelessness punished. That is the case, in a way, with today’s deal; however, although it came close to deciding an international match, it did not quite do so. The margin of the match was just one IMP in favor of the team who failed to bring home game here – so you could argue that at a different vulnerability the unsuccessful declarer might not have slept well that night.

At the unsuccessful declarer’s table, the heart nine was covered by the 10 and ace. South took an unsuccessful diamond finesse, and East won to shift to the spade six, second highest, denying a decent suit. When Declarer won in hand and crossed to the diamond ace to pass the club jack. West lost no time in winning and playing back the heart eight, and now the defenders had five winners.

In the other room when the heart nine was led, declarer correctly ducked in dummy. He won his heart ace and led the diamond queen for the finesse. East won and played back a spade, just as in the other room.

But South made no mistake when he won the spade ace, then played the club ace and another club. West could win and play the heart eight through dummy, but when dummy covered with the 10, the contract was safe.

South had one heart, four clubs and two tricks in each of the other suits, nine in total.

Do you like South’s response of three no-trump to the opening one club bid? I cannot say I’m too enthusiastic about it, myself. The point is that your heart holding suggests that partner might be better off as declarer. And when your RHO passes over one club, wouldn’t you want him on lead rather than LHO – who might have a better idea of what to lead against a final contract of three no-trump? I’d prefer to respond one diamond here and let partner get no-trump in at his own convenience.

After a spade lead by West, declarer finds himself distressingly short of straw from which to put together some bricks. He plays the spade jack from dummy, and the first blow comes when East covers with the queen. South cannot afford to duck, for fear of losing four heart tricks on the go.

If clubs break 3-3 declarer needs only three diamond tricks, but if not, he will need some help in the diamond suit, both from a friendly lie of the cards, and friendly opponents.

When South leads the diamond queen from his hand at trick two West must not cover with the king, for that would allow dummy to win the ace and for declarer then to successfully finesse the nine. If West ducks the diamond king, then although declarer can set up three diamond tricks, he cannot do so without losing a trick in the process. The defenders simply set up spades, and declarer has just eight tricks when clubs do not behave.

The following deal from the final of last year’s Gold Coast Pairs tournament produced both a good story and a missed chance.

Playing five diamonds, on the lead of ace and another spade, Liam Milne found the best way to put pressure on his opponents. Having trumped the second spade he crossed to dummy with a diamond and led a club towards his hand.

At his table East split his club honors. So Milne won and drew a second trump, then led a second club towards his hand. At the table East went up with his remaining honor and when his partner’s jack fell, declarer had the discard he needed. Incidentally, had West discarded the heart jack on the second trump, East might have worked out to duck the second club.

Against the same contract Barbara Travis (who had shown 5-5 in the majors) led the spade ace and shifted to the club jack, giving South the chance to be a hero.

The winning line is to take the club ace, lead a trump to dummy to ruff a spade, then repeat the process. Having stripped the spades you take the heart ace and king,

Now you lead a club from dummy, and when East wins the trick he is endplayed. If he plays a spade, declarer ruffs in one hand and pitches the losing heart from the other hand. If he leads a club whether it is a high or low one, declarer can set up a club winner and cross to hand with a trump to take the rest.

There are very few tournament directors currently playing with national titles to their credit. In Australia, Richard Grenside was for many years one of the world’s top directors, because he could understand the players’ problems from an expert’s perspective.

Grenside has largely retired from directing but is still an enthusiastic player. Here he is in action with his wife Sue from last year’s Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane Australia. Incidentally, this is one of the world’s most enjoyable events, combining a great event with a spectacular location for relaxation, eating and drinking.

As is typical in any auction where Richard is bidding, nobody held back, and the consequence was that he reached a grand slam where there appears to be an inevitable loser.

However, in seven spades Grenside won the club ace and played a diamond to dummy’s ace. He ruffed a diamond high in hand and played a spade to dummy. He ruffed another diamond high and entered dummy again with a trump. A third diamond was ruffed with the spade king, Grenside’s last trump. He then crossed to dummy with a heart to the queen, pitching the club loser from his hand on the spade ace. Unsurprisingly, plus 1510 was a big gain for his team.

The play Grenside used is called a Dummy Reversal. By ruffing three times in the long hand and using the short hand to draw trump, Grenside manufactured six trump tricks out of five.