At teams one of my least favorite contracts is two no-trump. The chances of making precisely eight tricks are remote, and even if three no-trump is a poor contract, it may make after a poor opening lead or a misdefense.

Here was a good example of how the smallest of differences in spot cards can make game playable. In this case the key card was the diamond nine, when West started with the diamond queen against three no-trump. East took dummy’s king with the ace and continued with the diamond 10, which held the trick. He then switched to the heart two; take over from here.

It looks obvious that West started out with Q-J-8-x-x in diamonds and that the defenders cannot unscramble their five tricks. If you can score five club tricks you may make your contract without a finesse. But can you see any extra chances?

Best is to win the heart switch and cash the club ace and king. Here West’s queen comes down, leaving a defender with the master club — and you hope that it is East. Since that player’s switch to the heart two looks most consistent with a four-card suit, you cash your other top hearts before exiting with a club. East can cash just one more heart trick before having to lead a spade into dummy’s tenace, giving you a second trick in that suit.

In today's deal it is unclear what North's correct call should be at his second turn, after his partner shows a strong hand with hearts. A jump to four hearts would be hugely premature, so maybe North should bid a natural two no-trump, then follow up with four hearts. South clearly expected a little more in the way of shape for the raise in hearts, but then again, had North's king been in any of the side-suits, slam would have been very playable. As it was, after the lead of the diamond queen against six hearts, the slam looked virtually hopeless. Not only would declarer need a very favorable lie of the black suits, but he would also need to handle his entries very carefully.

For want of anything better to do, declarer ducked in dummy at trick one. West held the trick and continued diamonds, letting South ruff high. He followed up with the heart ace and king, then carefully led his heart four to dummy’s seven.

Now declarer needed to take two spade finesses and remain in dummy to play clubs. South was up to the task: he led the spade queen, and when East defended well by ducking,.declarer unblocked the spade jack from his hand, and the spade 10 held the next trick, leaving South in dummy. When the club finesse succeeded, declarer had his 12 tricks. Yes this was lucky, but to a certain extent South had made his own luck.

They say that anyone can take a finesse, but an expert would always rather play for a squeeze. True enough if a little cynical; but in today's deal the expert's line wins, while the 50 percent line of the finesse leaves the palooka with egg on his face.

Both tables in a teams match reached six diamonds here. The club king was led and both declarers thoughtfully ducked in dummy to avoid having the ace ruffed away.

Both declarers ruffed the next top club and drew trumps. The first declarer cashed the three top spades, ending in dummy, then threw a spade on the club ace and ran the heart queen unsuccessfully.

The expert player drew trumps ending in dummy, ruffed a club and ran all the trumps. He then threw the heart jack on the last trump and followed this with the spade ace, king and then queen. The last of these reduced West to a singleton heart, since he had to keep two clubs to match dummy’s length.

But next came the club ace, which also squeezed East down to just one heart, since he in turn needed to retain the spade jack, to counter declarer’s spade eight. Now declarer could discard his spade eight and play a heart to his ace, knowing his heart two was good.

This line of play is guaranteed to succeed, since West cannot have four spades to the jack, to go with his three diamonds and seven clubs.

And yes, if East had ruffed his partner’s winner to play a heart he would have broken up the squeeze.

Against four hearts West leads the spade king, which when dummy comes down with the queen and length, is clearly asking East to give count in the suit. When East indicates either a singleton or an even number of spades by playing the eight, West continues with the spade ace, everyone following. How should the defense continue?

The defense has been facilitated for West by the auction. If West counts his own hand and dummy, he comes to the grand total of 19 HCP. South has opened with a forcing two-club call. How many defensive tricks can one reasonably play partner for? I’d say zero would be a realistic number!

However, giving up now would be unduly pessimistic. If you can arrange for East to cooperate, you might find him with just enough in the way of trump spots to come through for you. Lead a third spade — in this position I’d play the highest of my spades to ask partner to ruff high — and keep my fingers crossed.

If East can ruff in with the heart 10, it ensures that West can make not one but two trump tricks from his heart K-9-4. Declarer must overruff, of course, or he is down at once, and now South’s trump holding has been weakened so that the nine is promoted to a second natural winner. This maneuver is called the uppercut and is almost as painful to the recipient as its boxing equivalent.

Whenever you play a small slam with no top losers but only 11 winners, one of your first thoughts will be to construct an endplay to force an opponent to give you a 12th trick. Sometimes the idea is to build a trick from the intermediates, rather than just going for an endplay.

Here, South plays in six hearts after a transfer auction in which North’s excellent trumps and aces argue for driving to slam. When the diamond 10 is led to the ace, declarer should cash two high trumps, then strip off the diamonds. Next he leads the spade two to the ace, then advances the spade nine from dummy, planning to play low if East does the same.

Should West win the trick, he is endplayed to give you two tricks in spades or to lead a club into your tenace. If East covers your spade nine with his jack, you win the trick and plan to ruff a spade in dummy, hoping to bring down the spade queen, as would happen here.

If the spade queen does not put in an appearance on the third round of the suit, you will come back to hand in trumps and lead the fourth spade, planning to discard a club from dummy if West produces the master spade. At that point the defense would be endplayed to lead clubs or give you a ruff-sluff. Finally, if all else fails, you can take the club finesse.

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.