The Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane is currently under way. It attracts amateur and professional players from all round the world, with separate categories for novices and intermediates as well as Seniors. Last year youngest ever world champion Michal Klukowski put in an appearance. Here he is at work.

When his partner drove him to six no-trump at pairs after he had shown a balanced 20-22, he received a passive heart lead. Klukowski went for the big prize, by trying for 13 tricks, but in the process he found the best route to 12 winners.

He won the heart lead in hand and led a spade to his king, trying to steal the overtrick. Then came three more rounds of hearts, the club king and a club to the ace. Had the suit broken, he would have been home with 13 tricks. As it was, Klukowski cashed two diamonds pitching a club on the diamond king, and then advanced the diamond queen, and awaited West’s discard.

If he pitched a spade Klukowski would discard a club and duck a spade to the now-bare ace, if a club, Klukowski’s clubs would be good in dummy.

Nicely played, but this wasn’t a top – the bulletin claimed that it would not divulge the name of the defender who had decided to lead a ‘safe’ club seven and thereby allowed declarer to run the whole suit without loss. I suppose safety is in the eye of the beholder.

On the first day of the Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane there is a two-session qualifying event. The top 28 pairs go through to an all-play-all final, as do the next 28 pairs, and so on and so forth. It is a very satisfying format, and it always seems to lead to a desperately close finish.

In the second session of the final, only two declarers were successful in five clubs here. One lucky declarer was helped by a top diamond lead, but Hugh McGann received the more neutral spade lead. He ruffed, drew trumps while eliminating spades in the process, then played ace, king and a third heart.

He had now reduced to an ending where he had nothing but minor-suits in his hand, while dummy still had two trumps, three diamonds and a master heart

When East won the third heart he could see that a ruff-sluff could not be right from his side’s perspective, so he chose to shift to a low diamond. When McGann played low from his hand and the queen appeared, he could claim the rest for a shared top.

East should probably have shifted to the diamond 10 – incidentally, a play that would beat the contract by force if he had a three-card holding including a top honor. Declarer must cover the 10 with the jack, and West can win deceptively with the king and return a low diamond.

This gives declarer a guess that he should probably not get wrong, of course. But any guess is better than none.

The Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane Australia sees a steady stream of repeat visitors from all around the world. One such pair are Andrew and Bill Hirst of the UK, with Andrew at the helm here.

West gave declarer a chance in his ambitious contract of three spades by leading the diamond ace and another diamond… should East have discouraged the lead at trick one – and what should West shift to if she does?

After two rounds of diamonds, East was end-played. She exited with a low heart round to dummy’s jack. Declarer cashed the spade ace and king; now see the effect of playing a third spade.

East is back on lead and can’t exit with a heart, be it a high or low one. If he does, declarer plays hearts for no losers then leads out the club ace and another club and doesn’t even have to guess the suit. When East wins, she will have to concede the rest.

A ruff and discard is not much better in this ending. But after winning the spade queen East does a little better to lead a club. If she leads the club king, declarer can win and pass the club nine round to East to endplay her again. If instead she leads the club 10, it lets declarer win dummy’s queen. He leads another club and must duck when the king appears, to endplay East for a third time!

In practice, declarer missed the point of the deal, and failed to bring the contract home. This turned a near top into a well below average result.

Today’s deal from last year’s Gold Coast Congress from Brisbane was compared to a Euclid theorem. Get it right and the world would be your oyster. Get it wrong and you might be told to find a different game…

At one table East thought he had a one diamond opener and that kept his opponents out of the marginal game — they climbed only to two spades, while three no-trump in the other room came home in comfort.

But in the reporter’s featured match, both tables reached four spades. One table did not put up much of a fight by leading the club six. The other room gave declarer a real challenge on the auction shown. After East has opened a weak two or three in diamonds, your task is to bring home the game on the lead of the diamond jack followed by two further rounds of diamonds.

It is all too easy when I give it to you as a problem – I hope. Simply discard a heart loser on the third diamond, then win the heart return and ruff a heart, finesse in spades, and draw trump. At this point the only remaining challenge is to negotiate the clubs. Since you now know East began with six diamonds and only three major-suit cards, he must have four clubs. So you should finesse against East and rack up your game.

Would you like to speculate on how many pairs out of 35 made four spades on the lead of the diamond jack? Would you believe only nine? Maybe the deal is harder than I realized.

Today’s deal looks very straightforward, but you will have to keep your wits about you to make the right play, after North makes a calculated overbid when he bids four spades over four hearts. Technically, the call is unjustified, but once in a while you have to stretch in auctions where the opponents preempt.

To start with, when the defenders lead two rounds of hearts, you must take care to ruff the second heart with a high intermediate, preserving an entry to dummy. Play a spade to dummy and a second trump. East wins his king and exits with the club queen, which you duck. When you win the club ace and ruff a club, everyone following, you can trump dummy’s remaining heart high, at which point you have now achieved a complete count on the hand… haven’t you?

Since you’ve seen all the spades appear, and East has discarded on the third heart, and West has followed to three clubs, you have seen 12 of his 13 cards.

That lets you lead a diamond to the ace. Because you have retained the spade seven in dummy and the six in hand you can lead a diamond towards your hand, and when East splits his honors you can cross back to dummy and repeat the diamond finesse.

If you had not unblocked in trumps, you would not have an entry to dummy at trick 11, and East could split his honors to defeat the contract.

Today’s deal sees an interesting problem for East. You may care to focus just on your own hand and North, the dummy, while covering up the other two hands.

After overcalling one spade over one club, you see your partner lead the spade seven. What is your plan to find a way to five tricks on defense?

It looks logical to take the first spade with the queen and shift to hearts – and perhaps the heart jack is the best card. But realistically can this ever beat the contract? If your partner has decent hearts, the club suit is surely running for declarer.

No, paradoxically, East must duck the first trick rather than taking his king or queen, playing the most encouraging spot card in his methods. Declarer will win cheaply and play a club towards dummy’s queen. West will rise with the ace to return a spade. East can then win the second club and run the spades.

This duck compels declarer to win the first spade, while your partner still has a spade to return when in with the club ace. Note that your play will not give declarer a free trick in spades, since the auction marks him with a second spade guard.

Also note that your partner must win the first club and knock out declarer’s last spade stopper while you retain the club king as an entry. If your partner holds up in clubs, you will be forced to win the club king before your spades are established.

After South overcalled one spade over one heart, North-South were playing a style where new suits in response to a one-level overcall were encouraging but not forcing. Thus North had to start with a cuebid of two hearts. This call showed a strong hand with at least game-invitational values, but was not forcing to game. South had a minimum so rebid his spades, which did not guarantee a sixth spade, and now North-South flirted with diamonds before settling in four spades.

Two rounds of hearts were led, which forced South to ruff. As declarer, what would you do now?

If declarer goes to dummy and takes a spade finesse, he will be disappointed with the result. West will score his queen, and now another heart lead forces another ruff. Now declarer cannot draw all the trump, and West will be ready to ruff in on the diamonds, and cash his long heart for down one

The safety play is to cash the spade ace and king early, without conceding the tempo by finessing, and then simply to lead and continue diamonds. The defense takes one heart trick and two spade tricks, but declarer has enough entries to dummy to pitch his clubs on the diamonds.

Could the defense ever work out to find the club shift at trick two? I think not, but that would allow the defenders to jump ahead in the race to establish the clubs before the diamonds can be set up.

You play six diamonds on a heart lead, and decide there are not enough entries to set up the spades. So it looks right to play on clubs.

One possibility is to take the club finesse, if necessary playing to ruff the fourth club. With the layout as in the diagram, you cannot succeed from that point on.

Another approach would be to cash the top clubs and ruff the third round low. You would be planning to ruff the fourth round of clubs high, if the queen did not fall.

The problem is that if you ruff the third club low, you risk seeing East overruff and returning a trump, when you can kiss the contract goodbye.

Can you do better? Yes you can. It looks wiser to ruff the third round of clubs with the king. You can then return to hand with a heart ruff and trump the fourth round of clubs with dummy’s remaining trump. Unless trumps break 5-0 or someone ruffs in with a singleton trump – not likely by any means – you essentially just need the first two rounds of clubs to stand up.

If you decide to follow that approach you cannot also guard against a 6-1 club break by taking one top club then crossing to dummy’s spade king to lead the second round of clubs from dummy. If you do, you might run into problems against a 5-1 spade break when the defender short in clubs has five spades. Now you would lose both an overruff on the fourth club and a spade ruff.

The art of deceptive defense comes in many forms. Sometimes you need to misrepresent your hand to your partner to get him to make the right play.

However, it may be even more satisfying to trick declarer into doing the wrong thing. Sometimes you can signal deceptive attitude about an honor in a critical suit. Equally, you may try to persuade declarer that you are threatening a ruff or over-ruff, or give false count to make declarer think a suit is breaking when it is not.

After South opens one spade and your partner overcalls two hearts, you defend to four spades. When your partner leads a top heart, you do best to signal a high-low in hearts to simulate a doubleton. If your partner leads three rounds of the suit, do you think declarer will be able to bring himself to ruff low? If he ruffs with the king, jack or 10, then you will have a trump trick and a club to come.

How would declarer play if you told the truth in hearts? Imagine that after your partner leads three rounds of hearts, declarer ruffs the third one low. His best play is then to cash the spade king, and take three rounds of diamonds finishing in dummy. Assuming they stand up, declarer discards a club from hand, then passes the spade jack. This line succeeds so long as West started with a singleton spade or the doubleton queen and two or three diamonds, since either the finesse will win or West will be end-played.