On this deal from round seven of the European Championships in Croatia last summer, England’s David Gold demonstrated that suicide at the bridge table can be very painful indeed.

The Israeli East-West pair had saved in five diamonds doubled for down one, but England defended four hearts. West selected the club four as his opening lead, putting declarer, Alon Birman, in with a shout.

He won with the ace, crossed to the heart ace and then correctly overtook the heart jack with the king. When West discarded the diamond three, declarer continued with the heart 10, West pitching another diamond, dummy reluctantly discarding the club five.

Gold correctly ducked this trick; not an obvious play. When declarer continued with the heart eight, West pitched the diamond queen and declarer threw the spade five from dummy. Gold calmly took this and returned his remaining trump.

What could declarer spare from dummy now? The only option was a second club, and now his 10th trick had vanished. Declarer ran his three remaining club winners but now needed to establish a diamond trick. If the diamonds were 7-2 with the ace right, then the defenders could simply duck the first diamond and run the suit when in with the spade ace. If they were 8-1, Gold would have taken a diamond ruff earlier; so declarer played for his only legitimate chance when he ducked the first diamond, hoping East had the bare ace. Alas for him, that was not the case, and England had plus 100 in each room.

Roy Welland was once a regular in contention for the US International team – he lost the finals of three consecutive US team trials. But he now spends much time in Germany and in partnership with Sabine Auken he has recently made it on to the German team that qualified in Opatija last year for the 2015 Bermuda Bowl. Roy has a talent for the unorthodox in the auction, but is no mean card-player either, and he demonstrated it in today’s deal.

After a light but entirely understandable response of one heart to his partner’s one diamond opening bid, Welland found himself in four hearts on a top club lead. He won, played the spade king to the ace, won the low heart return in dummy and played the diamond ace and guessed well when he led a diamond to the eight. He had correctly assumed that West would not be able to bring himself to duck the king. East won the diamond 10 and exited with the club king. Welland ruffed in dummy, then played the diamond queen, covered by the king and ruffed, to bring down the jack.

He next led a trump to dummy, and, trusting the opponents’ count card in spades, he reconstructed the West hand to have a 3=2=3=5 original distribution.

Accordingly, he next cashed the diamond nine to pitch his spade, ruffed a spade to hand, and ruffed a club to dummy. To prevent this trick representing declarer’s 10th winner, East had to overruff, but he then had to lead a spade into dummy’s tenace, to concede the contract.

Since the European Open Championships start next week in Tromso, we shall be looking at some entertaining deals from last year’s European Championships, in Croatia.

The problem in today’s auction came when declarer, Tihana Brkljacic, thought the rebid of three diamonds was game-forcing, while North intended it as invitational. There were a number of missed opportunities for the defense in defending three no-trump, but the trick is to take advantage of your opponents’ errors.

West led the spade queen, so declarer won her king and ran the spade nine round to East’s 10. A club switch would have put paid to declarer’s chances but, East could hardly be blamed for switching to ace and another heart, to the queen and king.

West should have ducked the second heart, but having won her heart king, she realized that she could not afford to continue the suit. Rightly assuming that declarer held the diamond king for her opening bid, West placed her partner with the club queen and duly switched to the club king.

South now won her club ace and crossed to the diamond ace to cash her three spade winners, discarding a diamond and two clubs from hand. Forced to come down to four cards, West was squeezed out of her remaining club, so could no longer get to her partner’s club winners. At this point declarer could lead a diamond to her king, and exit with her last diamond. That endplayed West to lead into the jack-eight of hearts at trick 12, to concede the contract.

At the bridge table, you soon find out that some people are inherently untrustworthy… but sometimes with the best will in the world you have to believe Zia Mahmood… don’t you?

In a recent Lederer Teams tournament John Mohan protected in the West seat after the opponents’ bidding had died in two spades. Zia’s bid of three clubs might not have been the majority choice, but it created a bit of excitement. Victor Silverstone didn’t double three clubs with his minimum hand, so Zia never got to demonstrate that his three clubs had been merely lead-directional.

Mohan obediently led a club against three spades. Left to his own devices Silverstone would almost certainly have made the contract, playing East for the spade queen and West for the diamond ace and the heart king-jack. Indeed, there is little else he can do, and both Vlad Isporski for the Spring Foursomes Winners and David Horton for Australia made nine tricks in spades in this way. However Zia won the club lead with the king and switched to the heart two!

From Silverstone’s point of view this was clearly a singleton, so he rejected the spade finesse and cashed the trump ace and king, getting the bad news. He exited with a club to the ace and Zia played the heart three, by now, a real singleton.

Silverstone won in dummy and led a spade. Zia went up with the queen, played a diamond to his partner’s ace and Mohan had no difficulty giving Zia his heart ruff for down one.

Today’s deal saw West give declarer something of a roadmap home in his three no-trump contract. The defenders did have an outside chance to defeat the game, but it was one that was easier to spot in the post mortem than at the table.

Against the no-trump game West was playing attitude leads, whereby the smaller the card led the more he liked his side’s chances in that suit. So he led the spade seven, and East encouraged as dummy’s ace won. Declarer now played the ace and king of clubs, West discarding a heart, and next tried a low diamond from dummy, which went to the five, seven and nine. West now returned the spade six to East’s king, and South won the third spade and cashed his master club.

West was squeezed out of a spade on this trick, since he could not throw a diamond or a heart, so declarer played two more rounds of diamonds. West had a spade to cash, but declarer had the rest, since the diamonds were now established.

To defeat the contract East had to work out from the auction and the size of the spade led to trick one that his partner had jack-fifth of spades. Had he ducked the second spade, declarer’s best bet would have been to win and exit in spades. But the defense should still prevail – so long as they do not cash out the spades, or West once again gets squeezed in the red suits in the ending.

At the Dyspeptics Club South has been experimenting with some of the modern conventions, despite North’s cynical comment that he would do better to master the art of crawling before trying to learn how to run sprints.

Today’s deal was an example of South putting into practice a modern gadget, whereby he showed a good club raise with short hearts by jumping in a suit where a simple bid of that suit would have been forcing. The partnership reverted to spades, and South – who had no diamond control – eventually settled for game. His four club call was in the hopes that North could co-operate, perhaps with the diamond ace instead of the heart ace, when six clubs would have been a highly desirable spot.

Having settled in four spades, South received a top diamond lead. When East discouraged, West shifted optimistically to a heart. Now declarer could draw trump, and discard his second diamond loser on the hearts.

When North asked a not-soinnocent question “Did we miss anything?” it was East who commented grimly that somebody had missed something – and it wasn’t North-South. Do you see what he meant?

South’s revealing auction had suggested at least four clubs. The only way that West could have set four spades was to find his partner with a club void. After a club shift at trick two West has the diamond entry to deal his partner a second ruff and defeat the game. This defense might cost an overtrick, but it was surely the only shot to beat the game.

On this deal from a teams-offour match, one declarer had an easy run and made a comfortable overtrick in his game contract. The play had seemed straightforward enough and he was not expecting to gain on the board. But West, his team-mate at the second table, found a way of inducing declarer into error.

Clearly the diamonds had to be developed in three no-trump, so after winning the lead of the club three lead in dummy, both declarers led the diamond two to their king. At the first table West took his ace and led another low club, but now, after winning in dummy, it was easy for South to come to hand with a spade in order to lead a second diamond. When West followed with the three, declarer inserted dummy’s nine. East won, but had no more clubs to play, and so South had 10 tricks.

The second West found a much more imaginative defense. When the first diamond was led to the king, he allowed South’s king to hold. Declarer continued the suit, and this time West followed with his jack.

From South’s viewpoint, this was entirely consistent with West having started with J-10-3 of diamonds and East with the doubleton A-8. If that were the case, it would be fatal to play dummy’s queen on the second round, so West’s jack was allowed to hold. West now cleared the clubs, and coming back on play with the third round of diamonds, cashed his established clubs for one down.

When you first learn to play bridge the power of the trump suit is sometimes difficult to grasp. One takes ruffs whenever one can – and that is not always a good idea. It is by no means obvious that as declarer you generate extra tricks more easily by taking ruffs in the short trump hand than with your long trumps. Worse still, just when you think you have the situation under control, along comes a hand like today’s, where the key is to ruff in the long hand. The deal cropped up in the annual Parliamentary match, won that year by the House of Lords, and sponsored by the London Export Company.

With the tip we have just been discussing in mind, plan the play in four hearts on the lead of the spade king. On the surface of it, the deal looks extremely straightforward. You will succeed if trumps break 3-2 but appear to have little extra chance if they are 4-1. However, you never know; once you see the point of the deal, you will win the spade ace and ruff a spade. Now try your three top trumps.

When East shows out on the second round, you should allow yourself an inward smile, because your thoughtful play at trick two has paid off. Next play the diamond ace, a diamond to dummy’s king and ruff another spade. Now a club to dummy’s ace allows you to ruff your last spade. In total you have made four outside tricks and six trump tricks – 10 in all.

Every year in the United Kingdom there is a series of home Internationals, the Camrose Trophy, the Lady Milne Trophy, and the Teltscher Trophy for Seniors.

Today’s deal comes from the trials for the Lady Milne, the women’s event, and I should start by letting you plan the play for yourself: you are in five clubs, and West leads the diamond ace followed by another diamond. How would you proceed?

At the table one should maybe not criticize declarer unduly for following an uninspired line. She ruffed the diamond lead and played the heart ace and king. To declarer’s dismay East ruffed and played a trump. Declarer could win, ruff one heart in dummy and discard one on the spade ace, but had to lose a heart at the end.

Do you see how she could have avoided this undignified fate?

South should have ruffed the second diamond and played the heart ace followed by a low heart. West can win the trick and play a trump. However, declarer is now able to win and play a spade to her king, ruff a heart with the club jack, then cash the spade ace discarding a heart. She can ruff her way back to hand, draw trumps and claim her contract.

The key here was to count your tricks. To bring the total to 11 you need only one heart ruff, so long as you score both your ace and king. The line declarer adopted was the best line for 12 tricks, but not for 11.