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.

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.