Sometimes your contracts appear to play themselves; in such cases all declarer has to do is go with the flow and keep track of the cards being played and tricks being taken. Surprising things may then happen at the denouement.

Per-Ola Cullin was declarer on just such a deal. At matchpoint pairs he played four spades, winning the club three with his ace. A diamond to the king was followed by a heart ruff, then the diamond ace and diamond ruff. The next heart ruff brought the king down and a diamond from dummy was ruffed by East with the spade seven (the fatal error) to be overruffed with the eight.

When the heart king fell on the third round of the suit, Cullin played off the spade king, then led a club and ruffed it with the spade ace, on which West was caught in an unusual squeeze. If he discarded a heart, declarer would next play the heart queen and 10. This would either win the trick or promote the trump 10 to declarer’s 12th trick. At the table, West discarded his diamond, but was then thrown in with the spade jack and had to lead away from the heart jack into declarer’s tenace.

East’s ruff with the spade seven was the defenders’ fatal error, since it was virtually impossible for the play to promote anything for partner. Had East retained his trump, West could successfully have discarded a heart at the critical moment.

Last year's Gold Coast tournament in Brisbane, Australia, consisted of a huge Swiss Team event, which reduced the field to four semifinalists after three days.

The winner of the Swiss qualifying event was Hugh McGann’s team, which extracted a concession after three of the four sets of their semifinal. The other match was far more exciting. In the second set of the semifinals, the North-South pairs at all four tables had played three no-trump on a top-spade lead. This contract appeared to hinge on the diamond finesse, with the opponents ready to run spades if it lost. A flat board at minus 100? No!

For the losing semifinalists, Barbara Travis won the spade lead as East, Ashley Bach, who had opened with a pre-empt (which could be a five-card suit) followed with an upside-down spade nine under the king, showing three cards. This was all the help Travis needed, as East had signaled with his only entry (a mistake that many of us might have made).

Declarer rattled off five clubs and watched the discards of West, Michael Cornell, very carefully. He could afford one diamond, but then, if he pitched a spade, declarer would simply set up diamonds, while if he pitched a second diamond, she would play ace and another diamond. And if Cornell pitched a heart, the play made at the table, she would cash the heart ace, then endplay him in spades, forcing him to lead into her diamond tenace. Very well done, indeed.

Pablo Lambardi had a great declarer-play problem from the 2013 Gold Coast Swiss Teams in Australia.

Five clubs might look easy to make — any self-respecting West would lead the spade king and give you an easy task. But declarer was faced with the lead of the diamond queen, overtaken by East and ruffed. Lambardi knew spades rated to be 6-0. Since he had four spades to dispose of and no easy place to put them, he took the heart finesse, then cashed the heart ace — one spade down, three to go!

He next played a spade from dummy; East defended strongly by ruffing and returning a trump. Lambardi now had a choice as to how to dispose of one of his two remaining losing spades. If East had started with a doubleton club, the play would be easy. South could win the club ace, then lead a spade to the ace and ruff a spade. But if East had three clubs, he would discard when the second spade was led, then would overruff dummy. Lambardi decided correctly that East rated to be 0-3-7-3. How should he play now?

The answer is simple — when you think of it! Lambardi won the club shift in hand and led a low spade. If West won the trick, he could not prevent declarer from ruffing his remaining spade with the club ace. If East ruffed in, he would have no trump left to lead, so declarer could take his ruff in peace and comfort.

Today's deal sees a truly challenging missed opportunity from the 2013 Gold Coast Pairs final.

Against Kelvin Ng’s contract of four hearts (reached after a limited one-heart opening) Barbara Travis led a club. Ng won in hand and led a spade, guessing successfully to put in dummy’s jack when Travis played low. Howard Melbourne won his ace and returned the club queen to dummy’s ace. Ng now unblocked dummy’s diamonds and cashed the spade king to pitch a club from hand, then led a spade to cross back to hand. On this trick Melbourne discarded his club, and declarer ruffed with the heart three, a play he would later regret. Now declarer cashed the diamond ace to discard dummy’s club, and led out a high trump. Travis took her ace and could lead her club to let Melbourne overruff dummy, then exit with a diamond.

Declarer had no choice but to ruff in hand, and was unable to overruff in dummy. Thus he could no longer take the trump finesse. So he lost a third trump trick for down one. To make the contract, declarer had needed to ruff the third spade with his heart seven, leaving himself with the heart three at the critical moment, so he could ruff low in hand and overruff in dummy at trick 11.

An easier line would have been to win the club lead in dummy to cash the diamonds and play a second club at once, planning to pitch dummy’s third club and ruff a club.

This hand, submitted to the Australian Gold Coast bulletins by Sue Lusk, demonstrated nice technique by her brother Bruce Neill from the Teams Qualifying event.

South had declared four spades on the spade-jack lead, which seems to be a moderately helpful start for declarer. East had won the spade ace and continued with spades.

Declarer could now have crossed to dummy and played a diamond to the 10, hoping for something good in either diamonds (the diamond jack doubleton or tripleton in the East hand) or the less than likely chance that the defense would not be able to play a third trump.

Declarer, however, had a seemingly better plan. He played the club king, a club to the ace, and a club ruff. It was at this point that Neill found the best defense by not accepting the “Greek gift” of an overruff, but simply discarding a heart — a diamond discard would have been fatal.

This left declarer without recourse, since if he played on diamonds, it would allow the defense to play the third trump, leaving declarer with one spade loser, one heart loser and two diamond losers.

Had West overruffed, he would have been endplayed to lead hearts or diamonds, either of which would give declarer a trick. Declarer would run the heart around to his queen, while an overruff and diamond shift would allow declarer to score two diamond tricks and a diamond ruff. Moreover, South could pitch his losing heart on the eventually established fifth club.

At the Gold Coast tournament, held in Brisbane, Australia, last February, there were not only Open and Senior events, but also Novice and Intermediate events, with everyone playing the same deals at the same time. Altogether, about 500 teams were competing simultaneously in a single room at the Gold Coast conference center.

The winners of the intermediate teams were confronted in the finals with this problem both in the bidding and the play. Each table got the auction right, playing the small slam from the South seat after learning that the trump king was missing. At one table the opening lead was a club, solving that suit for declarer. The trump finesse was offside, but the result was a straightforward plus 980 for the losing finalists.

Against Alan Currie, the declarer for the winning team, the opening lead was the spade queen. Currie won the spade ace, then played the heart jack from dummy, going up with his ace. He next played the diamond ace and a diamond to the king, followed by the spade king and a spade ruff. He now exited with a heart and claimed the rest of the tricks, not caring which opponent won the trick.

No matter whether it was East or West, that person would have to play a club, solving South’s problem in that suit, or play another suit, allowing him to ruff in hand and discard a club from dummy. Either way, he had 12 tricks in a well-played contract.

Four spades was a popular contract on this deal from the Gold Coast Teams qualifier. Not surprisingly, few managed to make it, since there appears to be a loser in each suit.

But sometimes appearances are deceptive. Let’s shift to Ishmael Del’Monte’s table, where the defenders led a heart to the king and ace and a low club back to the king and ace for a second club. Del’Monte ducked in dummy, and East put up the jack. South ruffed, then led the spade jack, ducked all around, as East threw a heart, and played a second trump.

If West had ducked, declarer would win in dummy, and cash the diamond king and ace plus the heart queen, then crossruff clubs and hearts. This way at trick 12 he scores the last trump in dummy en passant, with the defense’s diamond and spade winner falling together at trick 13.

So West won the second spade and played a third spade, won in dummy, leaving East to find two discards. One diamond and one more heart were painless enough; but when declarer ruffed a club to hand, then crossed to the diamond king to play the last trump, East was caught in a triple squeeze.

Dummy had a trump, three diamonds and the club 10 left, while declarer had Q-10-8 of hearts and ace-doubleton in diamonds. East had to discard from his doubleton heart jack, doubleton diamond jack and master club, and whatever he threw, declarer could arrange to take the rest of the tricks.

Today’s hand features a frozen suit combination – neither defender can broach the suit without losing a trick in the process.

After West leads the heart king against four spades, you have a heart and a club to lose. If you can avoid a trump loser, then you can afford to concede a diamond trick; if not, then you need an endplay and some good luck. So, win the lead, play a spade to the king, and a spade back to your ace, West showing out.

Now play a second heart. West wins the queen and exits with a heart, East following. You win in hand (discarding a club from dummy) to play the club king. West wins the ace and exits with the club jack, which you win with dummy’s queen.

Because you have three certain losers, you need to avoid losing a diamond. The only way you might achieve that is if East began with king-fourth and West with the doubleton jack, and one of them was forced to open up the suit.

You need to play East for his actual hand, one that is not so unlikely given the bidding. After all, West rates to have a shapely hand to have come in over a strong no-trump at this vulnerability. So now you must give East his trump trick by playing queen and another spade. East wins his king and tries a low diamond, which goes to West’s jack and dummy’s queen. But now you can finesse against East’s king and make your contract.