A couple of slams floating around last night. Hand 15 could be bid in quite a few ways. For those who play splinters you could bid 4♣  after partner opens 1♠ , partner will then cue bid 4♦  then you can bid Roman Keycard Blackwood and jump to 6♠ .

It is possible to bid the Grand Slam (which I do say don't worry about Grand Slams at bridge clubs as generally you will get a good score for bidding a making slam), so I'm not encouraging you to do this, but for those who are interested how you might be able to bid it I think a response 2♥ finds out the type of hand partner has opened on. When opener rebids 2NT then North knows quite a lot. South will have a balanced hand of 15-16 points and unlikely to have 3 hearts as the 2♥  reply shows 5 hearts. Now North can bid 3♠ , South wll think this is just asking whether they have 4 or 5 ♠  so will bid 3NT. However, now when North goes on to bid 4♣  this should be a cue bid agreeing spades. South can cue bid 4♦  and North can now go into Roman Keycard Blackwood, finding out South has 3 keycards. North knows there are no club losers, no diamonds losers (the Ace and King and then can trump), there won't be a trump loser, AKQ and a 9 card fit. Given South did not raise the hearts it is likely that South has only a doubleton heart which means the hearts can be trumped in the other hand. This does have a risk that South chose to bid 2NT with 3 hearts, but then he may have the Q♥  to cover the loser, or even the J♥  which would mean the Grand is on a finesse. His RKCB response showed 3 keycards, which is only 11 points so there is room for the Q♥  even if South has 3 ♥.

Having had a look at the results Thursday 8th September, I thought this hand looked interesting as no pair ended up in the "ideal" contract.

South will open 1♥  and North has to respond 1NT (6-9 points and not strong enough to chnage the suit at the 2 level and cannot bid a suit at the 1 level). South may pass 1NT, but it is not ideal to play in 1NT. South shouldn't rebid 2♠ for 2 reasons. The first is because this is bidding above your 2♥  barrier and showing 16 or more points and secondly responder has denied he has 4 spades by not bidding 1♠ . South's only rebid is 2♥ . While partner my enjoy the challenge of playing in a 5-0, you may wish to save them from this pleasure by bidding 3♣ . The downside is minimal, you might be playing in a 6-0 fit at the 3 level rather than at the 1 level. However, the upside is great - you may find a 9 card fit! You have already said you don't have a strong enough hand to respond 2♣  so this must be weak with long clubs. This has the potential to make 11 tricks by North, scoring 150 which would even beat those who were fortunate to play in 2♠  making 9 tricks!

Hand 16 provided a perfect opportunity to bid in the protective seat. I noticed that 7 tables hand played the hand in 1♥  so I thought I would look at this hand in this section. West and North will start off passing and East will open 1♥ . South has nothing to overcall so will pass and West, with less than 6 points will also keep quiet! North is now in the protective seat. The problem you are presented with in the protective seat is like no other, if you pass, your pass ends the bidding! Here if you pass 1♥ , you will be defending 1♥ , like it or not. By passing on the first round (although this should not make a difference to your bid in this particular case) North has limited his hand to less than 12 points. He can now bid with the "safety" that his partner knows he hasn't got more than 12  points too. A bid of 1NT in the protecive seat shows 10-14 points with a stop in the suit opened and a hand not suitable to bid a suit or make a take out double. Here this is perfect and even more perfect (if that is possible) you have limited your hand so cannot have 12-14 points, so your partner will not bid on unless sensible to do so i.e. if they are unbalanced. 

If North bids 1NT, East now has a problem. He cannot bid his 2nd suit, as this is spades and he would have to bid above his barrier when his partner has denied 6+points, or he can rebid a horrible 5 card heart suit, which bearing in mind you are vulnerable and North has chosen to bid NT rather than a suit, would fill one with dread...partner may not have any hearts! The best East can hope for is either West can come up with a bid of a long suit he holds or a bid of 2♥  if he has some support, but a weak hand or he can defend 1NT and hope this goes down. If East were to go one off in 2♥  this would be worse than 1NT making 7 tricks, so not worth the risk. 

Bidding in the protective seat when you are a passed hand has the added security that your partner knows that you didn't have an opening bid. This gives you an extra opportunity to bid and I'm not one to turn down those opportunities lightly! 

Gill and Gina did very well to get to game on the East/West cards and were the only pair!! I can see why their results have been very good in recent weeks. It's a difficult game to get to on the East/West cards, but the hands fit together very well. The bidding becomes slightly easier playing various bits of system over a 1NT rebid. However, I think that without this Gill and Gina had a very sensible auction. The 2C response showing 5 spades and 4 clubs improved the 1NT rebid a lot so jumping to 3♠  is a good attempt at inviting to game. The responder couldn't be better to have responded 1S followed by a non forcing 2C so the 3♠ is enough encouragement to bid game. It becomes slightly easier if you play something called checkback, which allows you to find 5-3 fits over 1NT, but without that I think the above auction is a good alternative. 

Hand 6 was both interesting to bid and play. South should open 1♥  (opening the hearts when you have exactly 4♥  and 4♠ , the only exception to opening the higher ranking of two four card suits). As North I would respond 2♦  expecting to rebid 3♣  if partner rebids 2♥ . To your surprise as North, South rebids 3NT showing  a balanced hand of 17-19 points. Adding points together, you definitely have 33 points, so can't be missing two aces, and you definitely don't have 37+points for a Grand Slam, so you know there are enough points to have a play for 6NT, but unlikely to have enough for a certain 13 tricks. 

It's always horrible leading to a slam, but the Q♥  looks a safe lead (even though South has bid them) as it will give nothing away. South has 5 diamond tricks, 2 hearts, 3 spades and 2 clubs, so enough to make 6NT, but those who are greedy would like to make a 13th trick. This is possible if you guess where the ♣ Q is. If you finesse the right way you will make 13, if you guess the wrong way you can still make 12 (assuming you take the finesse before you set up a 2nd trick for the opponents!). However, there's a more interesting way of making the 13th trick rather than just guessing. If South choose to win the heart lead in dummy with the K♥ , he can then cash the 5 diamond trick, throwing from his hand a small heart and small spade. While in dummy you can cash the ♠ Q, then you can cross to the ♣ K. Now follow this by playing the ♠ A, throwing a heart and then play the ♠ K. Would you want to be West? This is trick 10, you have 4 cards left J10 hearts and Qx clubs and you have to choose one to throw. If you throw a heart then declarer has the ♥ A, which falls your Jack and then the ♥ 9 will be a trick or you throw a club in which case declarer has the ♥ A and then ♣ A, which falls your Queen (because you threw one away) and then the ♣ 10 as the 13th trick. There's no card you can throw!! Far more satisfying way of making 13 than just guessing where the Queen is, squeeze an opponent out of a trick 

West is likely to lead the ♠ 6, 4th highest of his longest and strongest (nothing else to go on in the bidding). Declarer has a decision to make at trick one with the spades. First, he should count his definite tricks and then decide the best suit to get those extra tricks from. South has 2♥ (Ace and King), 2♦  (Ace and King) and 3 ♣ (Ace, King and Queen). He needs at least two more tricks. One may come from spades and another from either clubs (if they are 3-3) or from diamonds. South should play the ♠ 9, as this ensures one spade trick however the cards lie. If South played the King and this was beaten by the Ace, then East could return a spade and Q10 might be with West, which would mean South would miss out on a spade trick. After the ♠ 9 is played from dummy, East should win with the Q. and return the ♠ 5. West should win this as he may not get another chance, and return a spade to knock out the Jack. South should throw a heart from dummy and East will throw a diamond. (East needs to hold onto the clubs, otherwise a club trick will be lost and throwing a heart will reduce him to just one heart, which will make it more obvious he holds both minors.) South now can try 3 rounds of clubs, finding out they reak 4-2. Next South can try the ♦ K, this shows up the ♦ J. This can be either the singleton Jack or QJ doubleton. If it is the singleton Jack then now South knows that East has 4 clubs, 2 spades, 5 diamonds and now only 2 hearts. He can cash ♦ A, to ensure he knows this is the situation. Now he can cash ♥ K and ♥ A, eliminating hearts from East. Now South can play the ♣  to put East on lead with the ♣ J. Now East can cash the ♦ Q, but has to lead a diamond into dummy for declarer's final trick. 

Declarer could make 10 tricks if he knows the lay out of the cards beforehand as he needn't cash 3 rounds of clubs and set up the ♣ J, so therefore not losing a club trick. However, there is no way that South will know that East has the 2-2-5-4 shape until he plays 3 rounds of clubs and 2 rounds of diamonds to confirm this, by then it is too late to make the 10th trick. So, while the computer tells you that you can make 10 tricks it would not be the most sensible way to play it. 

It is very satisfying to bid and make a slam, but to make it on an end play is even better. Hand 6 on Thursday provided this opportunity. Just a note on the bidding. The 2NT response to 1♥  is something called Jacoby and shows a game forcing raise of the suit opened. Here is shows enough points for game and 4 card ♥  support. Now North can be interested in a slam and North can show his 2nd suit in ♦  (some people play bids after the 3 level after Jacoby shows a singleton, but it is perfectly fine to agree to show suits if you prefer that). Now North/South can cuebid and North can bid RKCB to ensure the trumps are covered and then can bid 6♥ . Do not worry if you are not familiar with Jacoby, cuebidding or RKCB. They are just extras to help with difficult slams!

In terms of the play, it doesn't matter what West leads. Probably the most difficult lead is 10♣ . Declarer should win with the Ace and draw two rounds of trumps with the A ad K ♥ . Declarer will be disappointed to find the ♥  break 3-1, so now has a ♥ loser. He could now rely on finessing the Q♣ . However, there's a better chance. He can play ♠ A and then trump a spade. Then play 4 rounds of diamonds, throwing a low club from dummy. Now he can play a heart, putting East on lead. East either has to lead a spade, which will give declarer a chance to trump in one hand and throw away in the other or East will have to lead a club into the KJ. Either way, the 12th trick is complete. 

Hand 10 looked a routine 3NT. Nice to see all pairs got to game  Pity it can't make! Some hands can be like that, there is no way of knowing in the bidding that 3NT isn't makeable. It is a perfectly reasonabe contract. However, if you always lead your 4th highest then declarer has a chance. Assuming East is declarer, then the 4th highest lead would be ♦7, which as you can see was found at most tables. North now has to hold onto the ♦Q to avoid giving declarer two diamond stops. If North does play the ♦Q then, East can win with his King, lead a ♥ towards the King, South should duck. Now East can cash 3 spades, cross to the ♣K and cash his K♠ and lead ♦8. South is now cornered. He can rise with the ♦ A, but then the ♦J is set up and he can't cash ♥A as this will also set up the ♥Q. South could duck the  ♦, but the ♦J is declarer's 9th trick. Even if North judges to play low on the first diamond lead, the defence is far from simple as the diamonds are now blocked. Declarer has 4 spades, 2 clubs and now one diamond. He can certainly make one heart trick so is just looking for his 9th before North/South find their 5th. 

Far simpler for the defence is if at trick one, South chooses to lead the ♦10, top of a near sequence of 3. Now when East doesn't play the ♦J, North knows not to play the ♦Q, as the 10 will be good enough to force the King. Now when declarer leads a low heart, South can take his Ace, lead a diamond to the Q and a diamond return will give the defence 3 more diamond tricks, one down. 4th highest of your longest and strongest is a good guide on leading to a NT contract, but not ALWAYS right. Often a near sequence of 3 cards is enough to justify the top card of the near sequence, so here the 10 from A10973, this will help partner know whether 3rd player should play high or not and may save a bit of guesswork 

According to computer analysis on this board the optimum contract is 7NT.....you deserve more than all the match points if you bid that one, and will probably give them all away the next time you bid a grand on a hand like that!! In theory you can make all the tricks, it may help if you know there is a sinlgeton ♥K and singleton ♦Q during the bidding in order to bid the Grand! It also helps that the clubs break nicely! In the real world, you'd be happy to get to game and make it with possible overtricks. Our opponents did well to get to a game and make it, so well done Peter and Louise, and thank you for our 2 match points (2 more than the previous board!)

North/South can try and make life difficult by bidding and supporting spades, but East/West should still manage to get to game. If South overcalls 1♠, West can bid 2♣. Even if North is aggressive by bidding 3♠, East can still bid 3NT, he knows West has 9+points so there must be enough points for game and he has a spade stop and a high card in partner's suit to try and set that up. A few of you got to game, but only two pairs managed to bid and make a game. In 3NT, South will lead ♠K. East has one ♠, one ♥, two ♦ and three ♣, total 7 tricks. Given your stop in spades is removed straight away you need to try and make without losing the lead. You have a few options, the clubs may break, the diamonds may be kind or the heart finesse may work. If the clubs break 3-3 or there is J9 in one hand then the clubs will provide two more trick for your contract. If not you can try and negotiate the diamonds, although less likely given you have the same number of cards, but missing the Queen as well. When you play the ♣Q, you see the ♣9 played, then on the ♣10 the ♣J is played and you play your ♣K so now you know that the clubs are 4-2 and the ♣A and ♣8 are good enough to draw out the 7 and your ♣6 will score also. To maximise your tricks you should throw two spades away as these will never be tricks. You now have 9 tricks, you should be satisfied at making your game. Now you can attempt to cash your other 3 tricks, when you lead a ♥ towards th ♥A the King is played . You can now see 2 more heart tricks, it would be 3 if you had the ♥9 in dummy not in your hand, as if you finesse the 10 you can't get back to the ♥Q.  If you are the greedy sort, you may cash the ♦A first and seeing the Queen fall you can caplitalise. Now the odds in diamonds favour finessing the Jack, brave enough? Cash your ♥J, cross to ♥Q and play ♦9 towards K107. When North plays low, are you still brave enough to finesse?? If you are 13 tricks are yours, you win with the ♦9 and can lead the ♦8, through the Jack again.