In important events these days you can watch the experts on the internet, but you can also attend the tournament and watch them play live on close-circuit TV, with commentators watching the players’ every move.

Today’s deal was played under just such conditions 50 years ago by Montreal expert Sam Gold. He was able to outplay the analysts, who of course could see all four hands.

Gold had done well in the auction, since he reached a vulnerable game with decent chances rather than trying for a penalty double of two spades, a contract that is hard to defeat by more than one trick, even after a trump lead. But while Gold was planning his play in three no-trumps, the commentators said that finding the right line to bring home nine tricks would be beyond most people. But Sam proved them wrong.

After winning dummy’s spade ace, a low diamond went to East’s ace, more or less confirming him to have singletons in each red suit. East returned the spade jack to Gold’s queen, and Sam next ran the diamond 10 through West. When this held the trick, a diamond was led to the king, and the heart ace cashed, removing East’s lone heart.

Now Gold came back to his hand with a top club, and took his master diamond for his seventh trick. When he exited with a high spade, East could score his three remaining spades, but then had to lead into the club tenace in dummy and concede nine tricks.

While North-South would have made four hearts here, pre-emptive action by their opponents steered South to a contract where he needed a little help from the defense.

When West showed a long broken minor at his first turn, East took the advance sacrifice in five clubs. South was jockeyed by the vulnerability into trying for the diamond game rather than defending, and collecting 500.

West led the club eight, and South won East’s queen with his ace. Next he crossed to the spade king, and led the diamond queen to the king and ace. The 4-0 trump break was bad news. It looked as though, unless the heart finesse was right, there would surely be at least three losers in the form of two hearts and a trump.

But from the bidding it seemed very likely that the heart finesse was wrong, so South tried a different tactic. He cashed the spade queen, and crossed to dummy with the heart ace. Then he cashed the third top spade, discarding a heart, and ruffed dummy’s last club. Finally came a low heart from hand. West had made an expensive, if pardonable mistake earlier on, because he had followed to the first heart lead with his two.

As a consequence he was left on lead with his heart jack, and was obliged to concede a ruff and discard. One of declarer’s hearts from hand went away, as the club was ruffed in dummy, and the game was home.

When you bid them up you have to play them well. A pushy bidding sequence (North is really worth no more than an invitation to game) saw South arrive in four spades, against which West led the diamond jack.

Declarer rose with dummy’s ace then ran the spade jack, which held. East did well to break the rules by not covering, as the chances of West having the spade 10 was relatively low. A finesse of the trump queen was also successful, and declarer pulled East’s last trump before leading a club to dummy’s king. However, he now had no convenient way to exit dummy.

He tried a heart to the queen, but West took the king then played a diamond to East’s queen. East played the heart jack, ducked by declarer, then astutely returned a club for West to take with the ace – on any other return South’s club loser vanishes on the 13th heart.

Having won the diamond lead South should have played the spade jack, and have overtaken with the queen, then led a club towards dummy. If West ducks, the king wins, and another spade finesse puts South back in hand, ready to lead another club, after cashing the trump ace.

The best West can do is duck smoothly, but declarer has no real option but to go up with the queen, hoping that the ace is onside. Assuming he does so, he will mae his contract in comfort.

Sometimes a slam will be easy to play, while at other times things do not quite work out as planned. Here when West overcalls in diamonds, North stretches a little to show his diamond shortage, and South guesses to bid slam in competition.

When West leads the diamond king against your six hearts it appears you have an easy route to 12 tricks. You ruff the lead, and opt for simplicity, when you play the heart king and jack, expecting to take five trump tricks, six clubs and one spade in due course. But when you play the second top trump from dummy, East shows out. What now?

Clearly if you draw trumps the defenders will be ready to cash out the diamonds when they get in with the spade ace. If you play a spade toward your king, you will survive if East has the spade ace. But as the cards lie today, West will win and return a diamond, and the hand falls to pieces, since you can no longer draw trump.

The solution is easy when you see it, though. What you must do is to lead the spade queen from dummy at trick four. If it holds, draw trumps and run for home with one spade trick, five hearts, and six club winners. Meanwhile if the spade queen loses to the ace, and West plays another diamond, you ruff and can cross to your spade king to draw the last trumps.

In his team’s loss to the Monaco team at the Vanderbilt tournament last spring, Jeff Aker confronted his world champion opponent with an interesting problem. Have a look at the West cards, and see how you would have dealt with it?

Your low club lead goes to the eight and declarer’s queen. At trick two, the heart king appears on the table. Make a play, and a plan. Would you win or duck – and what will you do next?

At the table, West ducked the heart king, then won the next heart as East discarded the club jack. West next led a low club. Declarer ducked the trick, won the next club, then cashed the diamond ace and diamond queen, followed by the top two spades, and put West on lead with a heart.

At this point West could cash his heart and club winners, but then had to give dummy the lead. That meant nine tricks for declarer: three diamonds and two winners in each of the other suits.

The key to the defense is that West has to see the endplay looming. He must win the second heart and cash the heart ace before exiting in clubs. Then he cannot be subsequently endplayed in hearts. This is particularly hard to see, since it appears that you are building tricks for declarer, but if the diamond king is an entry to dummy you will not prevent declarer establishing the hearts.

Vlad Isporski (a regular player and also non-playing captain on the Bulgarian national team) spotted the winning line in five diamonds. Yes, three no-trump would have been far less dramatic, but who cares about efficiency when we can have the aesthetic delight of a squeeze?

Isporski told me that East had implied good values and a spade suit. In five diamonds, you get a spade lead and observe that if the diamond queen doesn’t fall you need something good to happen in hearts.

You win the spade ace, cash the club ace and club queen then lead a heart from dummy. East wins the heart queen and is endplayed. He has nothing better to do than exit with the spade king, and you ruff, cash the top diamonds (both follow but no queen appears) then lead a third club.

East must discard rather than ruff in. so you win the club king, cash the spade queen, and have now reached a four-card ending — three spades, one heart, two diamonds and three clubs having been played.

When you ruff the club seven in dummy, East is squeezed in three suits, one of which is trumps. If he overruffs, he can lead a heart and surrender his trick there, or play a spade for a ruff-sluff and let you discard your heart loser.

So East must discard, but pitching a heart will unguard his king, while letting a spade go allows him to be endplayed with a trump to lead hearts at trick 12.

On this deal from a regional knockout at the spring nationals at Dallas last year it might seem a little unfair to write up the only board on which Ishmael Del’Monte’s team lost IMPs. But it did feature outstanding play by the Australian star, who was South on the following deal.

Against six hearts West led the spade eight, suit preference for diamonds. Del’Monte won the spade ace and played a club to dummy’s ace, followed by a heart to the king. Then came a club ruff, the heart ace and heart queen. On the second and third round of trumps, East had to pitch first a diamond then his remaining spade to keep the club king and five diamonds. Now a diamond to the queen brought the bad news for declarer.

A further club ruff brought about a five-card ending where dummy had a losing spade and four diamonds, while declarer had a trump, diamond two losing clubs and a small spade. Since West was down to all spades, Del’Monte could safely exit in that suit. West won and had no choice but to return a spade now, squeezing his partner in the minors! Declarer could ruff and depending on West’s discard, either cash his clubs or take the winning diamonds in dummy.

Beautifully played, but why did Del’Monte’s team lose IMPs? At the other table, North played six hearts doubled on a diamond lead. West got his ruff but declarer claimed 12 tricks in a canter.

The problem with being given a play or defend hand is that you are automatically put on notice to bring your ‘A’ game. Well, you have been warned!

At the table, during the Dallas spring nationals, can you spot the best line to make the optimistic contract of six hearts after a diamond lead? Would you play a round of trumps or do something else?

Best is to ruff a diamond with the trump ace at once, then draw a round of trumps with the king. If they split, you will cash the spade ace, draw trumps in three rounds ending in dummy, and take the spade finesse.

But trumps are 4-0; West having four. So you lead a club to the queen, forcing an entry to dummy in that suit. You then ruff a second diamond with a high trump, draw trumps ending in dummy, and now run the spade jack. This ensures the contract against five-one spades when West has a small singleton.

As declarer discovered to his cost at the table, if you play to ruff a club in dummy you cannot draw all the trumps before playing on spades, and West can ruff in on the second spade. (And even if West was 2-4-5-2 he could discard his second spade on the third club).

For the record: if you play a heart to your hand at trick two the contract becomes unmakeable — and a low club opening lead beats the contract by force.

It’s hard to imagine not getting to three no-trump on this deal from the Dallas spring national tournament. Typically, after North had shown the red suits South got to play the no-trump game, leaving West an awkward opening lead. Let’s say he leads the heart seven. Declarer wins the heart queen, East encouraging, then plays a diamond to the queen, on which East if using the Smith Echo can play low to suggest that he is happy for his partner to make the obvious shift.

Now declarer leads a low spade from hand, and to defeat the contract, East must win the first or second spade and shift to the club queen – a play that was rarely found, although world champion Ricco van Prooijen of the Netherlands did exactly that.

But say West hops up with the spade ace at trick three to play another heart, forcing declarer to win and run his diamonds.

The last diamond forces West (who has one spade, two hearts and three clubs left) to reduce to five cards, and whatever he does is fatal. If he pitches his spade, he is endplayed with the heart ace and another heart to lead clubs for declarer. If West throws a heart, declarer can cash two heart tricks. And if West lets go of a club, declarer plays a spade, unblocking the queen when East wins the king. Now the defenders can only take two club tricks, whatever they or declarer do, so dummy takes a spade and a heart at the end.