This hand came up at our club last night. I was playing with a new player who passed with the west hand because he didn't have twelve points :-)
Sitting East I opened 1NT and my partner gave me a 'game option' of  3 to which I responded 3NT. This made ten tricks on a diamond lead which wasn't quite a bottom board as two pairs only managed to get to 3.
Most players will open 4. This is normal with an 8-card suit and few points. I guess this extends to a 9-card suit too.
My partner asked me what the odds are on getting a 9-card suit. There are some people who know these extreme odds but I had to look it up.  0.009%

5 proves to be a very good save for north/south especially given the favourable vulnerability. If you have a system whereby a double is always for take-out over a pre-emptive bid North can respond 5.
It doesnt make of course but its good fun trying and is a great save for a top board having the comfort zone of keeping it to less than four off if doubled against a making 4 = 620

This is the traveller:

Some Wests wont be able to resist competing over 5 and soldier valiantly on with 5. "but I had 9 spade cards, Partner and NO HEARTS" - Ooops.

This hand came up at our club on Tuesday and tested Declarer's suit management.
South opens 1 and North responds up the line with 1
After opener rebids 2 (denying four spade cards) North confidently bids 3NT.
A lovely contract! What can go wrong? The lead of the King of Hearts. Ooer! 
Luckily declarer has seen all this before. He counts his top tricks. Just seven. Where are the others coming from. Well yes. The club suit.
As friendly as our club is the club honours are unlikely to drop in the first two rounds. It is too much to ask for the QJ to fall kindly. Even in our lovely club.
And so we need to duck a club into the 'safe' West hand - win any return and then enjoy all of the rest of our clubs.
Hold on a min? You did duck the first two rounds of hearts on trick one and two before winning with the Adidn't you? Am sure you did.
The old rule of seven tells you how many times to duck before you win your trick.
Add up the amount of heart cards between your hand and the dummy (I make that five) and take away from seven. Two? Duck twice then. This strategy deprives poor old west of a heart card to return to partner when you duck a club round to his Q. Nine tricks are now assured. More if West daftly discards  two spade cards when the clubs are running.

Some intrepid Easts may well open 1with this holding. Not quite rule of twenty but excellent rebidding options with a half decent four-card diamond suit and of course a quality heart holding. If he does open 1South will overcall 2 and North (after thinking that there must be a lot of points in this pack) bids 3NT anyway.

Geoff and Chris were most unfortunate on this hand from their Wessex League match. They know that slam must be on - but which slam. South surmised that it must be spades and were beaten by the break. The Q is unlikely to come down on a kinder break anyway.
In fact the diamond slam can't be broken. How to bid it? Really hard. It may go something like this. South will open 2 and North will relay 2. South now bids 2 This is now totally game forcing so everybody should relax and show the shape through.
If North rebids 3 now (the higher of two 5-card suits) South needs to make the really awkward 4support bid. If South persists with 3 now showing six cards North would make the equally awkward bid of 4 saying 'look partner will you please stop bidding spades and choose one of my minor suits'
North's hand improves with the support and they would go on to bid six.
The play is quite simple. After drawing South has a ruffing finnese in the spades for 12 tricks.
Easy when you can see all four hands isn't it :-)

Mike and Jeanne helped steer their team to a top position with this quite thin slam at the new Open Teams event on Friday. They were the only pair to bid the slam.
At first sight there appears to be a diamond loser and a spade loser. After winning the club lead, declarer draws trumps and starts on diamonds. When they ruff out 3/3 declarer can now ditch the losing spade.
I think that Jeanne did very well to drive on to the slam after a rather tepid 2H response. All Sunderland now need is a striker!

Very well bid!

At the inaugural Open Teams on Friday Jonathan did well to bid this 6©.
I love slam tries. One partner bids it the other tries to make it:-)

After 1© Jonathan bided his time with a 2§ response. Phil used the text book 3© to show six heart cards and 15+. This was enough for the good doctor who now drove to 6©.

That is only half the story of course and Phil did well to make this. It requires spades to be set up for a club discard and the long(ish) diamond disposes of the other club loser.
Well bid. Well Made.

You would think that 7NT would be a top board.
So when 7NT was entered into the magic bridgemate you would be forgiven for thinking that North had entered the score incorrectly when it turns out that this is not a top.
But no. A pair bid to 7© (which is also unstoppable) and were doubled. Tick.
Well done Chris and Gerry for entering a rather magnificent +2470.

This deal came up on Tuesday 2nd July. Board Two. The thing is how to bid to the slam in spades or diamonds. North opens 1♠. South has just enough values to respond 2♦. Do we agree 3♦?  Is this forcing? Well yes it is. But is it better to show the sixth spade by jumping to 3♠?  Maybe. Still forcing? Yup.
In fact this bid will uncover the spade fit and the superior scoring of 6♠ rather than 6♦.
Two pairs found the diamond slam. Well done to Richard and Chris and Jerry and Chris for finding any old slam anyway :-).

At the club last week Derek asked about the Rule of Fifteen. We deploy it exclusively in 4th seat after three passes.
If we cannot open 1NT and we are considering opening a suit there are one or two pitfalls of which we should be aware.
By opening in 4th seat after three passes we may just be opening a can of worms. Or even Pandora's box!

Take a look at our featured hand.
If we open 1§ as we would in any other seat there is every chance that the opps will find a major suit fit and pinch the contract. Whilst they did not have the values to open the bidding they may just summon up the points to overcall your 1§.
You now wished that you hadn't opened in the first place!

RO15 gives us a guide whether to open in 4th seat after three passes.
Add up your high card points + the amount of spade cards you hold. If the sum of this doesn't add up to fifteen, pass and get on with the next board.
Much better than entering -110 or -140 to your scorecard.

5th March 2013 - Board 13

This is similar in principle to the last Hand of the Week that I wrote about.  Should you open...
(a) 1♥ (11 HCP, but comfortably satisfying the 'rule of 20'),
(b) 2♥ (strong, eight 'playing tricks') or
(c) 4♥ (pre-emptive - a long suit with not much outside)?

In terms of playing strength alone, (b) is most accurate - you have, for sure, eight tricks given that hearts are trumps.  However, 'Acol Two' bids should be reserved for hands where you hold overall strength in High Cards, not just a good long suit.  The same applies, if you play Weak Twos, to an opening 2♣.  Indeed, you could get in trouble with the law for opening 2♣ on such a hand.

Although the hand is perhaps a touch too good, you should open either 1♥ or 4♥.  At this vulnerability, the latter shows a similar playing strength to the Acol Two (do you know about the 'rule of 500'?), but based on tricks from a long suit rather than overall high cards.  If you open 1♥, you shouldn't bid any less than 4♥ on your second turn.  In principle this shows c. 18 - 19 HCP and a good 6-card suit, but the hand is worth that in playing strength.

For reasons cited in the previous article, I prefer the 4-level opening.  You are almost certainly going to bid up to 4♥ anyway, and most of the time you make life more difficult for the opponents by doing so now rather than later!

The principle disadvantage in opening 4♥ is that on the rare occasions (such as this) when partner has a strong hand, you have taken away bidding space to explore a slam.  But if the auction starts 1♥ - 1♠ - 4♥, partner is in no better position to proceed!

So what should South do on this occasion?

29th January 2013 - Hand 11

What should South open, Angie asked.  4♠ (weak with 8 cards) or 1♠ ('rule of 20')?

The hand is good enough for either bid.  Certainly too good for a 3♠ pre-empt - the hand is at least a trick better than a standard 3♠ opener!  Any hand that is too good for a pre-empt should be worth a one-level opening.  But is this better than opening 4♠?

North opens 1© and South rightly responds 2©. North should now rebid 2NT. This shows a strong, balanced hand 17/18 points. What should South do now?
South can add value to his hand now for his single diamond ace and sign off in 4©.
Had the South hand looked something like this:

ª J 8 5
© 10 9 8 7
¨ A J 4
§ J 7 4

He would have settled in the no trump contract because he has no ruffing value. Sometimes, even with a four-card major suit fit the combined hands play better in 3NT because they only make nine tricks anyway.
North did well to rebid 2NT. He had a balanced hand so he bid it like a balanced hand.

Tuesday 3rd January 2012, hand 2

"I was West with only five points, and I know I should not have bid at all", Christine confessed to me.  "But with a void in hearts and not being vulnerable..."

And so she bid 2♠, and ended up playing in 3♠ down one.  But this turned out to be a top score, as North-South can make various part-scores (& other East-Wests went further down in different contracts).  Even if North-South had doubled 3♠, this would have been an equal top for Christine.

So was Christine just lucky, or was her bid not quite as bad as she thought?

November 1st, Hand 4.
"How should this hand be bid?" Angie asked.

North / South have a comfortable game on in either No Trumps or Clubs.  Slam in Clubs is an excellent prospect, and as the cards lie, both 7♣ and 6NT can be made.  And yet two pairs managed to stop in a part-score.  It's never easy reaching slam, especially a minor suit slam, when your combined point count is only 31, so I would forgive any pair for stopping in game, but to play in a part-score...

Actually the hand does present a couple of problems in the auction:

North opens 1♦; so far so good.  Should South respond 2♣, her longest suit, or 1♥, the major?  I have often taught that if you can respond at the 1-level, you should do so.  If you don't, there's a strong possibility that you miss your heart fit.  Certainly with a weaker hand it's correct to respond 1♥, but on this occasion it's fine to bid 2♣, because you are strong enough to bid 2♥ next time (if partner just rebids 2D.  If she bids anything else it's unlikely that you'll miss out on the potential 4-4 heart fit).

Now North has the real problem.  Partner has bid her second suit, so she'd like to show support.  She should, if possible, try to convey to partner that she has more than a minumum opening hand.  So what are the options?
3♣ - shows club support, but implies minimum values (c 12-14 HCP)
4♣ - shows club support, and the extra values.  But it by-passes 3NT, which could very well be the best contract!
2NT - shows 15-16 HCP, but implies a balanced hand - what about that singleton heart?
2♦ - shows a minimum hand, and denies club support, so is a worse option than bidding 3♣.
3♦ - shows the strength of the hand, whilst still keeping 3NT as an option, but it does imply a better suit, and denies club support.

Of the above, 4♣ is the only technically correct bid, and if North does indeed bid it, then it should be quite easy for South to advance to 6♣.  You might think that this is a bit of a gamble, but it's seldom right to play in 5♣ at 'Pairs Scoring'.

If North bids anything else (she cannot, of course, pass), 3NT is likely to be the resting spot, though South might yet be interested in a slam if North does show her strength.

So how did you stop in a part-score? (& how do you avoid such accidents in the future?)

Responding to a take-out Double.
July 19th, Board 17

When partner doubles an opponent's suit bid, she is asking you to bid your best suit .  She is basically saying 'I've got opeining values, and I'm happy to play in any of the other three suits'.

Board 17 presented a problem to West.  Her best suit happens to be the opponent's bid suit!  She cannot bid the suit herself - you know that's going to end in disaster: partner has told you she hasn't got many hearts, and there's a stack of them sitting on your left.

With a weak hand, sometimes the best option is just to bid whichever one of the other three suits you prefer, even if you only have three cards - 'the best of a bad job'.  On this occasion, playing in 1♠ would not have been a bad thing - certainly better than playing in hearts!

With a moderate hand (such as this one) and with a good stop in the opponent's suit, how about bidding 1NT?  If you don't have a suit fit, No Trumps is normally the best option - but when the opponents have bid a suit, it's best to have some strength in that suit to stop them taking the first umpteen tricks!  On this occasion, 1NT also works well.

What about passing the double?

Competitive Bidding: Balancing

Allowing the opposition to play in their comfort zone is a bit too friendly really.  Even in our very friendly club!

June 28th, hand 1:

North opens 1♥ (11-19 HCP and a 4-card heart suit).  South responds 2♥:  a 'limit bid', showing 6-9 HCP and 4-card support.  North should now pass, knowing that the partnership does not have the values for game, and a fit having been established.

In the meantime, neither East nor West should have felt that they could compete.  East was simply too weak to speak over 1♥.  West is a little stronger, but by the time the auction reached him he would have to have overcalled at the three level.  This would have been quite dangerous without knowing that North had a relatively weak hand.

But now the auction is about to die out.  East is in what we call the 'Pass Out Seat' (also called the 'protective' position).  If he does pass, North is going to be allowed to play in the comfort zone - in a fit at the 2-level.
Don't let him get away with this!!

When the opposition have settled for a part-score, you can assume that they have no more than 23 HCP between them, and they could have a lot less.  You and your partner must have at least 17 HCP between you.
If you are in the Pass Out Seat, you should strive to compete, even if you are a few points short of what you think you need - if you don't have the points, partner must have them!

Here, East should Double, showing tolerance for any of the other three suits.  West will bid 3♣ (he shouldn't get excited - he knows that East couldn't scrape up a double first time round).
3♣ is likely to make, but North will probably compete to 3♥.

What have East-West acheived by this? North is no longer in the comfort zone - he now has to make nine tricks for his contract.  On this occasion he will probably only make 8 tricks.  Had East not competed, North-South would have scored +110.  By competing in the Pass Out Seat, East has turned this into a positive score for his side.

13th June 2011, hand 13:

4-4-4-1 shapes can be awkward to bid.  I don't mind it so much when the singleton is red - I open the suit below the singleton and everything should fall into place.  But black singletons make the rebid more of a problem.  The recommended method is to open the middle of the three suits, and (unless you get a surprise response from partner) bid the lower of the three on the second round.  Partner might expect you to have 5 cards in your first suit, but this is the least of the 'lies' that you can make under the circumstances.

In contrast, West's bidding looks much easier.  Bid your longest suit on the first round, and your second suit on the second round.
East is delighted that partner has bid one of his four-card suits, so he also bids it to show 4-card support, and West is happy to bid game - when partner has opened the bidding and you have an opening hand yourself, you should be in game!

This is all very well, if you have never heard of 'Fourth Suit Forcing'.
The problem is that when three suits have been bid, it is so unlikely that the partnership has a fit in the fourth suit that it's not worthwhile keeping that as a natural bid - Most partnerships use a bid of the fourth suit (2♥ in this case) as an artificial bid, asking partner to describe their hand further.

In fact the bidding might still be exactly the same as above, but for different reasons!

If you want to know more about 'Fourth Suit Forcing', click on 'Show Answer':

7th June

My bridge partner (Peter – surname retained to protect the not so innocent) and I (Steve) set forth to our regular Tuesday night gathering at the local bridge club with an increasing sense of confidence.
[Ed: just in case you haven't already got enough clues as to their identity, here's a picture!]
Although very much “improvers” we have worked hard to move our game forward.  Latest results were promising with a couple of recent wins under our belt.  We had even started to think that we both had a decent and similar understanding of the bidding systems we were using. Little did we know that Board 4 was about to shatter that illusion.

Philip played this hand in 1, which struggled to make, whilst there is clearly a better fit in spades.  He asked whether the bidding was correct.

The simple answer is 'Yes'.  It is not uncommon for correct bidding not to find the best contract, in particular when one of the partnership is too weak to describe their hand sufficiently.

1 is the correct opening for East in the 'Standard English' system.  There is a school that would have opened 1, but that would have been scarcely better on this occasion.

South has a hand that would have opened 1NT, but the hand is not suitable for any overcall or a take-out double.  If any South bids 1NT regardless (which should show 16-18 HCP as an overcall) I hope that they were suitably punished!

Should West respond to 1?  With only 3 points, it is technically correct to pass.
However, I know a lot of players who would bid 1 in the hope of finding a better spot.  East should then bid 3NT, and whether or not West 'corrects' this to 4, the partnership is at too high a level.  This will get West a worse score than simply passing in the first place.

The moral of this is that if you have a misfit and not much strength, it is better to duck out of the auction early - better to play in a poor fit at a low level than in the right fit at too high a level.
If you look at the traveller and see better scores, shrug your shoulders; other pairs have got that through inferior - but lucky - bidding, or perhaps with some help from the opposition.

15th March 2011 - Hand 22

Angie asked how the bidding should go on this board.

Without interference form North-South, it should be relatively easy to bid to 3NT.

If you don't play weak twos, the uncontested auction should start (from West) 1♣ - 1♦ - 1♥, and now East should be happy to bid 1NT, as she has some cover in the fourth suit.  West raises to 3NT, which should be comfortable as the cards lie, and indeed 11 tricks are quite possible.
Angie opened a weak 2♦ with the East hand, which seems very reasonable to me.  This makes life a little more difficult for West.  I'd like to bid 3NT, but I'd be worried about the singledton ♠K, and I can't really find out if partner can help me out there.  Nevertheless I don't like the alternative of 5♦ (and anything short of game just seems a bit feeble to me), so my style is to just bid 3NT and hope - I'd have been lucky on this occasion!

But what if South overcalls?
If Partner opens 2♦, and South bids 2♥, I'd actually be more confidant about bidding 3NT as West - I'm not afraid of a heart lead from North, which he is now likely to do, whereas otherwise a spade lead would have been quite likely.
Without the weak two, the auction might go (as shown above) p-p-1♣-p-1♦-1♥.  Now West has no really good bid to keep the auction going.  You can't bid your second suit naturally.  Repeating clubs or supporting diamonds would be misleading, and even if you jump (to 3♣ or 3♦), it does not get across the full potential of the hand.  You could double, or bid 2♥, at least to try to get some information out of partner, but you're unlikely to find out what you want to know.
So once again, I would just bid 3NT and hope!

This is hand 16 from August 24th, which TD-on-the-night Richard sent to me.  There is a comfortable slam on for East-West - in fact, as the cards lie, they can make all 13 tricks with either hearts or clubs as trumps.  But nobody bid the slam - and a couple of pairs didn't even reach game.

For a starter, let's look at the East hand.  This is far more valuable than its 17 High Card Points suggest.  It's worth at least 8 tricks in its own right, which would make it worth a traditional Acol 'strong two' opening, if only the main suit weren't clubs!  I personally would not open this with a game-forcing 2♣, but start with a quiet 1♣, hoping to get across my strength later.

If partner can make the slightest squeak in response to 1♣, or even if partner opens ahead of me with a 'Weak Two' opening, then I would immediately assume that game is on, whilst thinking about the possibility of a slam.  If West opens with 1♥ (the hand is just short of the 'Rule of 20' mark, but some players will think it's just too good for a Weak Two), then slam is a serious prospect.

However, it often happens that it's very hard to find out whether West has just the right cards for you.  Suppose the auction starts 1♣ - 1♥ - 1♠ - 3♥.  The last bid from West shows a 6-card heart suit and a better-than-minimum response (about 9-11 HCP) - not dissimilar to a good Weak Two opening.  If West were to hold ♥ Q J 10 x x x, and a few diamond honours, slam is a poor prospect.  But with West holding ♥ K Q x x x x, the slam looks very good.

Blackwood is not much good in cases when you have a void - what use is it to know that partner has the ♦A?

I fear that the only sensible way to reach the slam is to trust your evaluation of the hand and just go for it!  Or is it the only way...?

When we started to learn bridge, we were governed by point counts, but over the years we learn that points alone are not the only criteria.
With a shapely hand like this, I want to explore game, partly because we like to bid games when playing teams.  I know we must have an 8-card fit in one of the majors, because partner can't have two doubletons when he opened 1NT,  so how do we find out which?
If you don't play transfers you can bid 3♠ (forcing).  Partner will bid  4♠ with 3-card support, but if he bids 3NT (showing a doubleton spade), you can rebid 4♥ in the safe knowledge that he must hold at least three hearts.
If you play transfers, you can start with 2♥, showing a 5-card spade suit, and follow up by bidding 4♥ to show the 2-suiter.  Then partner can pick the best suit.

The play.
Dummy was slightly disappointing - a minimum hand with no shape.  But those two aces will at least be useful!

North on lead faced the ♠3.  Why select a trump lead?  Trump leads are much under-rated. Often you lead a trump if you fear that declarer is going to ruff tricks in dummy, or even set out on a cross-ruff.  This is less likely on this auction, so perhaps there is another reason - Maybe North didn't like the alternatives because he has honours to protect in the other suits!

South won the Ace of trumps and returned a small trump.  When both follow to the second round, you know that there is only one outstanding trump, a master, so there is no point wasting two of your own trumps in drawing a third round.

Win in hand and finesse the ♣Q.  When this holds, discard a small diamond on the ♣A.  Imagining that North has the ♥K, I want to lead a heart from hand towards dummy's queen, so I need to return to my hand.  I could get back to my hand by ruffing a club or a diamond but that might leave me short of entries later.  I return to hand with a small heart to the Ace, but notice that South plays the ♥J.  This gives me an alternative line:
It's now twice as likely as not that North holds the ♥10.  So I lead a small heart to dummy and try the ♥9.  When this draws South's ♥K, we have ten tricks in the bag.  South can play his trump master when he likes, but dummy's ♥Q will draw the last heart, and declarer's remaining hearts will be winners.

Why is it more likely that North holds the ♥10?  Take a look at the 'Principle of Restricted Choice'

Your hand record probably tells you that you can make 12 tricks on this hand (whether you are playing in hearts or No Trumps), if the hand is played by West.  But East has a problem in the auction.  Firstly, he knows that partner has a balanced hand, 15-16 HCP.  So they probably don't have enough points to be considering slam - Game should be enough.  But also he doesn't know whether there is a heart fit or not.  When partner rebids 1NT, you know that he has a balanced hand, but that might mean a doubleton heart or a trebleton.  (Partner won't have 4 hearts, otherwise surely he would have bid 3♥ not 1NT!)

A quick poll round the office tells me that a 3♥ rebid shows exactly this type of hand.  Just as a 3♥ response to an opening 1NT shows a game-force and precisely 5 cards in the suit, so does the 3♥ bid over a 1NT rebid.  If you have a 6-card suit you should simply decide whether to play in a part-score (by bidding 2♥), or in a game (by bidding 4♥).  If you had a second 4-card suit, you might be able to make the situation clearer by bidding that suit, and sometimes players 'invent' a second suit for the purpose, e.g. by bidding 3♦.  I don't recommend it on this hand!

Opener should, on this occasion, prefer to play in 3NT rather than 4♥.  I would expect a spade lead from North - declarer will try an honour from dummy, which will win the trick.  Now declarer has plenty of time to unblock the hearts, and try the club finesse.  This loses, but it establishes four club tricks in addition to five hearts, two diamonds and two spades.  Tricks to spare!

Board 21.  Dealer North; NS vulnerable.

Gill chose to pass with the North hand - balanced, with 12 points, but she didin't like the look of three bare aces.

You might have been taught that you shouldn't make a pre-emptive bid when you also have 4 cards in an outside major.  However, it's OK to do so in third seat, as the risk of missing game in the other major is severely reduced.  On this occasion the 4-4 fit is missed, but the 7-2 fit turns out to be better anyway.

A vulnerable pre-empt should, in principle, tell partner that you are two tricks short of your bid.  i.e. when you bid 3♥, you expect to make 7 tricks with no help from partner.  Given this, it is easy for Gill to bid 4♥, with her three certain tricks.

What do you do with the South hand if partner opens 1NT?  Do you think that your hand is worth a game, and if so, would you explore the possibility of 4♠ instead of 4♥?  There are many occasions when it is better to play in a 4-4 fit, even when you have a 9-card fit elsewhere.  Unfortunately this is a time when it is better not to, but that is only because of the bad spade break.

If South acts cautiously, West will surely compete in diamonds, and those Wests that were given the opportunity will have got a good score.  Even if West has to compete at the 5-level, they will get a better score than allowing NS to make 4♥.

We don't always need 12 HCP to open the bidding at the one level. Board 13 was a classic example, North hast 10 points and seven spades.  The hand is too strong to open 3♠ so open 1♠ and repeat spades until partner gets the message.

Listening to the auction at our table, it did rather sound as though we were playing with two packs of cards to have enough points for our auction.  I certainly had my opening bid and East’s 1NT is sound.
South's bid is actually quite a good bid, but most of us probably don't appreciate why!  If South had even a moderately good hand, say about 8 or 9 points upwards, he should double to punish East for entering the auction when North-South have the majority of points.  Thus a bid now shows a weak hand with a long suit.
When West found enough points to make a free bid at the 2-level I decided to muddy the water a little and jump to 3♠.  East having seen me in action before doubled.  As it happens he should have trusted his partner and bid 4♥.

When you have distributional hands, 'bumping the bidding' makes it harder for the opposition to judge their best contract.

I feel that I worked really hard this week to achieve an unremarkable 50% two nights running.  My partners probably feel that they worked harder! On Thursday night board 14 was one of those hands with each side having 20 points and the last man standing probably made their contract as EW can make 4♥ and NS can make 4♠.

The auction did not go like this at our table but might have done on a good night.  East has the easiest bid to find, opening points, a 5-card major and 4-card minor suit.  Some Souths might overcall 1♠ at this point.  West has to do the real work and value his hand correctly, only a measly 7 HCPs but 5-card support for partners suit, a singleton and 8 losers.  All this adds up to raising partner to 3♥, not 2♥.

If NS are ever going to find their game, for sure one of them has to make a noise at some point and this is North's last chance.  If partner has called a spade be bold and bid 4♠ now.  If you only bid 3♠ EW can easily bid 4♥ and the auction may die there.  You should be aware that 
1)  EW are likely to make 10 tricks
2)  East will find it harder to bid 5♥ over 4♠
3)  South might pass 4♥ and you will still have to make a decision

If South did not overcall I would be very tempted to double and ask partner to bid his best suit.  Double would suggest that you hold 4 spades.  West will bid 4 hearts and South should not be shy about bidding 4♠

When partner opens a 'weak 2' its sometimes difficult to know if you should raise to game.  The decision is made easier on this hand when the opposition help out by doubling for 'take-out'.  In a competitive situation, you should raise partner as high as you dare, to take away bidding space from the opposition.
10 tricks are available to NS, who are vulnerable.  But what about EW?
Not vulnerable, they can afford to go up to 3 off, doubled, for -500 if they are sure NS are making +620.  Careful defence holds 4♥ to 8 tricks but if NS are too slow to take their club tricks, they might disappear on the diamonds.

Teams: Tuesday 6th January. Board One
North has a straightforward opening bid of 2NT. South starts a transfer process by bidding 3D  expecting to bid 3S over partners 3H to show his shape through and give his partner three game choices. This is a gameforce showing at least five hearts and four spades. North with max points and an excellent heart fit bids the 'super accept' of 4H. South gets a bit excited because of his nice shape and ask for aces using blackwood. South stops in 5H when he finds that two aces are missing. Unfortunately poor North receives the single diamond lead to the ace, a diamond return for a ruff and the ace clubs for the setting trick.
No justice.

It was a case of two wrongs making a right last night. My partner, Barry Meacham, made some excellent decisons helping us to a 60% win.
On table one, board 2, Tony opened 1♣. Holding both majors my partner might have chosen to double but decided to get the five card major across early by bidding 1♠.
Ian Raynes made an excellent 'trap pass' and Tony made a very good take-out double in the south seat.
Ian had this auction where he wanted it and chose to defend 1♠ doubled, by passing.
I never, ever rescue partners. So I rescued partner by bidding 2♥!
Tony now bid 3♣ and my redoubtable partner raises me to 3♥ (yikes!)
Ian might have chosen to bid the vulnerable 3NT now but decided that discretion was the better part of valour and settled for 4♣ which is where the auction ended.
My partner Barry had been heroic up until now, but more was to come!
The lead often gives away tricks that declarer wouldn't have made otherwise and so it proves on this hand. Barry didnt fancy leading fourth highest spade. The heart holding of AQ looked too dangerous to lead from and underleading the King of Diamonds to a passed-hand (twice) partner looked dangerous also. He chose (wait for it) a singleton trump lead! As you can see by the hand layout, this was the perfect lead which consigns this contract to 1 off.
Well done Barry!

We had quite a few distributional hands last night but, sadly, not all of them lived up to my expectations.

This one did.  East is dealer with an interesting 6-5-1-1 shape.  Surprisingly, pass is the best bid for the moment.  The hand is not good enough for a 1-level opening; nor is it the right shape for a 'weak two'.  It is better not to pre-empt when you have length in a major as well as your primary suit as you may miss a major suit fit.  The suit quality is also very poor.
But after partner bids 1NT you can get excited and go to town. 

By 'bidding' spades first (here we are using transfers) and rebidding hearts at the 4-level partner will get the message that you are at least 5-5 in these two suits.  If you know you want to be in game, tell partner; if you leave him to guess don't be upset when he gets it wrong.  West must have 3 cards in one of these suits after opening 1NT and can either pass 4♥ or correct to 4♠.  It is important to bid spades first.  If you started with hearts, you would need to rebid 3♠, which is still forcing to game but indicates 5/6 hearts and only 4 spades.

4th December - Board 5

There are some interesting bidding decisions on this hand, such as North's Rebid.  North is not strong enough to reverse, but 2♣ would be an underbid.  1NT, even though the hand isn't quite balanced, looks best to me.
'Roman Key Card Blackwood' helped NS to reach the slam.

Missing three kings and the club queen, Declarer has options to take finesses in all four suits.  Which finesses should declarer try?

I ran a poll around the office on what East should open after pass from North.  3 votes for 4♠ and 4 votes for 1♠.  2nd in hand, it does seem better to open 1♠.  Why?  Partner's hand is undisclosed.
Pre-empting is supposed to make the auction difficult for the opposition, not for you and your partner.  Note that the hand is too strong for 3♠.  Because your outside suits are short, you need to find partner with top cards, minimum 3 aces or the AD plus A K in the same suit if you want to make the contract.  On the other hands you are not vulnerable against vulnerable and if NS have a game on you can afford to go 3 off doubled and still make a small profit, 620 – 500 = 120.

This was the auction at our table and some pairs make 3NT on a heart lead.  After West opens 1 East has an easy response with 2 (10 points +  and some diamonds) A nice easy rebid of 2 from West shows at least four heart cards and five spades cards.
Is 3 by East now forcing?  Had she been a bit stronger she could have bid the fourth suit - this would be game forcing. The fourth suit is always artificial and asks for further and better details about partner's hand - such as has she got clubs stopped or has she got a fifth heart or if all else fails support the diamonds.
West has got a bit of a stop with the Q but once the defenders lead a club (the unbid suit) they get in again with the ace hearts and clear the suit for one off.

So back to the question of whether the 3 bid is forcing. East says no and who can argue with that.

Most players got to 6NT on this hand on Tuesday evening down at our club. There are various ways of bidding it.
For sure West will start with 2.
This shows either a game forcing hand or 23 points plus which is not yet game forcing.
Acol is starting to pinch Standard American ways of using a 2relay with any holding in response to 2.They call it a 'waiting' bid. Quite descriptive.
It keeps the bidding low and uncomplicated whilst giving the star of the show plenty of space to further describe his hand.
After our star rebids 2NT showing a fairly balanced hand with a 23-25 count East can now embark on all the gizmos that he would use opposite a 1NT opener such as Stayman (some use puppet stayman) or transfers.
In this case he may use a simple quantitave raise to 4NT. Note that in this sequence this is not Blackwood - just like it wouldn't be opposite a 1NT opener.
It simply is an invite to go to 6NT depending on the range of West's 2NT rebid. Given the added value of the lovely diamond holding East may bash on to 6NT straightaway anyway.

On the lead of the Q declarer can count 12 tricks if the diamonds break unkindly or 13 top tricks if they do.
Well done to everyone who bid it.

Whilst East has not got 23+ points he is well worth a 2 opening. This hand is enormously powerful with it's two fab pointy suits and should be treated as a game force.
West relays 2 and now East has got all the time in the world having announced his great hand with a 2opener. So he responds 2. This is now totally game forcing.
West, with his outside ace clubs is too strong to sign off in 4 and so responds 3. Note that this is a stronger bid than 4.
After a round of Blackwood East now bids 6.

Very well bid E/W winners Gay and Jill and also Paul and Alan for getting to the rightspot.

South leads the Aand is disappointed when the K doesnt stand up. But then that is why East added value to his big hand when he opened 2

At our table the auction did not go like this but in an ideal world it might.  West has a clear opening bid of 1♠ intending to rebid 2♥ if partner does not support spades.
Tip: always think about your rebid before making your first bid.  Norths club suit is not very strong but six cards headed by the Ace plus 11 points are good enough for me to have one go.  East should not bid 2♥ directly as this would show a five card suit, but indicate four hearts to partner with a double.  South should pass and West can show medium interest by bidding 3♥.  East might pass, or as its teams and we try very hard to bid games at teams, might raise to 4♥.
If South was on lead it would be easy, just lead partners suit and hope for a ruff.

Contract 3NTs, Lead ♥6
A very simple hand.  The auction is not perfect as we teach you to open 1♠ on this hand.  I still prefer 1♣ as I know we will not miss a 4 - 4 major suit fit.  And after 35 years old habits die hard!  Anyway we are in the correct contract of 3NTs.  One of the first things you will have been taught is the 'Hold Up'.  You do not have to win a trick just because you can.  Sometimes we need to cut communication between the opposition.  If West is short in the suit East leads, all I had to do is wait one or two rounds before winning my ace; that way, next time West wins the lead she will be unable to return partners suit, East can’t get in and cash all his lovely winners.  But at the table East lead the ♥6, I played the 7 and West contributed the King.  I was so delighted to see the King that I happily put down my ace and won the trick.  2 seconds later I realised that I now did not have a stop in hearts and could not make my contract without losing the lead at least once.  Two off for -200. 
I'm quite pleased that Sue has pointed out that I'm missing the spade ace as well so East with the long hearts can always get in.  I can cash the ♥Ace and 5 clubs and then I'm stuck. 
The principle is still correct - it is often right to hold up to the 2nd or even 3rd round when holding empty suits headed by the Ace in NTs

Board 2 April 8th

East opens 1NT. Some Wests will blast 3NT. The thing is with such great shape you may miss the diamond slam. A jump bid of 3shows at least six diamond cards and a lot of shape and the potential for a slam in diamonds.
With just five diamond cards and a flatish hand you would indeed sign off in 3NT.
It is now important to support partner's diamond suit even though it takes you past the 3NT level.
Some may even bid a sort of super-accept 5 showing four diamond cards and close to max points.
We have used ordinary blackwood here but Roman Keycard Blackwood would give the extra security of locating the K.
Note that 6NT goes off. There are only 11 tricks available. The diamond slam concedes a heart for +920.
Some intrepid Souths may overcall 2.  A 3response now would be totally forcing - it is not a sign off.
The best lead against the diamond slam is probably a trump as you do not want to risk underleading the major suit kings into a NT hand. The slam makes on any lead however.

Well done Peter and Stephen!

The auction was 'spot-on' at our table.  West correctly opened a spade preferring her 4-card major to a 4-card minor.  East does not have (a) enough points, or (b) any other reason to reply at the 2 level, so responds 1NT.  West has quite a nice hand, but very flat, so rebids 2NT and waits to see if East is top or bottom of his range.  East of course passes.  Note; North should not be tempted to interfere over the 1 Spade bid.  The opening lead was the club 5, and declarer should sit and count his tricks.  Barbara and Phil were the only pair to make 2NTs on this hand.  Plan the hand before reading the answer.

At this game it’s important to count shape not just points.

With West’s hand I prefer to open 1♠ and rebid my clubs, mainly due to the priority of finding a major suit fit, but also because opening spades makes it slightly more awkward for the oppo to bid their red suits if they have them.  On a bad day partner may have just red-cards and/or worse, no points, but the hand is probably worth 8 or 9 tricks, even if partner has nothing, provided that we play in the right fit.  
North should double 1♠ for take-out, despite having only 3 hearts.  It won’t be the end of the world if South ends up playing in a 4-3 heart fit!

East’s hand improves vastly after partner opens 1♠.  Knowing that they have a fit, East should value his void even more than an Ace!  Or, if he uses the ‘losing trick count’, he finds that it’s an 8-loser hand (one trick better than a minimum responding hand).  Normally the hand would be worth a raise to 3♠, but when North doubles, East should bid one level higher, to ‘pre-empt’ the opposition.

As the cards lie, 12 tricks are available with careful play:

Board 16 saw two slightly unusual bids at our table: North opened 1NT with a 5-card major and East chose to pass on his 18 count (which including a solid 5-card suit).  Perhaps he had given up hope of partner having any points!   You know that North has at least 12 points, so add your 18 and 12 and subtract from 40:  South and West have a maximum of 10 points between them.  Being an eternal optimist, I would hope to find partner with at least half of this!  As usual I would have been disappointed; West has just one.  Over 1NT, double is for penalties and shows a strong hand of 16 HCP or more.  If North opens 1♠, East would should still double but now the message would be different:  It would be for take-out and probably shows 4 cards in hearts.  South should raise spades to the 3-level.  After a TO double. with 4 card support you should pre-empt the bidding to make it difficult for the opposition to find their fit: after all you have found yours.  So raise to 2♠ with 3-5 points, 3♠ with 6-9 points and 2NT with a hand that would have raised to 3 had RHO not doubled.

I don't get to play much at the club but I managed to play one hand last night just to stand in for a late arrival.
Using RO20 Derek was quite right to open the bidding with the North hand.
With two five-card suits he opens 1♠  the senior of the two long suits.
East overcalled 2♣ . I double showing length in the unbid suits. Derek responded 2♦ .
Note that if I responded 2♦ after the club overcall I would be denying four heart cards. 
I absolutely do not want to be in 5♦  if 3NT is making the same amount of tricks and so I cue bid 3♣ . This asks partner if he has a club stop.
Derek now responded 3♥ . I know he cannot have four heart cards because he would have responded hearts immediately after the double.
His heart bid also denies a club stop.
So it is just a matter of now bidding 5♦ . Most people get there. On the lie of the hand 6♦  actually made.

¨

East opens 2♣. Partner responds 2♦ (relay) and East rebids 2NT showing 23-25 points and a bit in every suit.  West has got some bits and pieces - but can’t count the combination for the magic 33 points needed for a small slam – settles for 3NT.

Although loathed to lead away from isolated, lonely honours into a strong hand South may still lead the 2♥ and East wins.
North has a job to do here. When wondering what to throw on the long clubs he MUST keep diamond length otherwise declarer will make some very expensive overtricks. A top priority for defenders is to keep length with what you can see on the table or what is known to be in declarer's hand.
On best defence Declarer can make 11 tricks.
 

Interesting board this and very competitive. With favourable vulnerability E/W must sacrifice to 5♣ to get a good board. After all you can afford to go three off doubled if N/S is making a vulnerable 4♥.

In fact they are making 4♥ with an over trick. Our Aussie visitors sacrificed 6♣ over 5♥ (am presuming the auction) Even though they are doubled they managed to keep it to two off beating all those who passed 4♥.
It is worth remembering that in match pointed pairs the contract is irrelevant. You are always playing for the best score. If the vulnerability was reversed 5♣ doubled can only afford to go one off now (which it does) but margins are very fine.

I did a hand commentary on boards 1-12 from Tuesday's duplicate primarily for my 3rd term beginners to enjoy and also sent them to the club players with one or two advanced bidding options.
This has proved so popular with our club players that I intend to do hand commentaries every week for our Tuesday session and email them to the players the next day.
Am absolutely sure that some of you will have your own ideas on how to bid a hand too which may well differ from my suggestions. There is often no right or wrong. It will simply be my own interpretation of the deals.
I do hope that this gives added value to our club and that our less experienced players benefit as a result.

The club at Bicester does not have the facilities for a dealing machine and its a great shame as  the hands were definately not flat and uninteresting.  No less than three grands were bid on different boards.
After some thought, I opened this hand 2♣, but I never knew why.  How can partner tell me what I want to know, the location of the ♥ & ♣ jacks?  If I had been playing pairs I would have bid 7♥ and crossed my fingers. But at teams and with this form of scoring I can't take the risk of going down in a grand when a small slam is almost certain.

The B Team played their first match this week, away to Bicester.  This hand did not bring in many points from my point of veiw!  I'm West  in 4♥ and get a diamond lead.  On causual analysis I can see 4 posible losers, 3 spades and the club king.  Blinded by this fear, I decided I needed to ruff my losing spades.  I won the ace of diamonds in dummy and took the oportunity to take the club finese which was wrong of course.  North returned a second diamond which I ruffed in hand lead a spade to the ace and gave gave up a spade, North winning again.  A third diamond and now I'm in real trouble ending up 2 off for -200.  How would you have played it?

Not everybody bid the slam on this hand.  Indeed, not everybody made 12 tricks!

If your target is 12 tricks, then you have to avoid losing two club tricks.  Discarding two clubs on dummy's ♥AK won't actually help - you still have three clubs in both your hand and dummy's, and only one winner!
You can try the diamond finesse (a 50% shot) for an additional discard, but there is a better chance (about 75%) to avoid losing two tricks in the suit by taking a deep finesse twice:
Having drawn trumps, try running the ♣J.  This will lose to East's King.  But when you regain the lead, try again! Lead a small club, intending to play the ♣9 if West plays a small card.  Then a 3rd round of clubs will draw all the opponents' clubs, and you only have winners left.

But it's actually possible to go one better!  Yes, you can make all 13 tricks if you can discard 4 clubs on dummy's hearts.  To acheive this, you need to establish the suit by ruffing twice, & to acheive that, you need several entries to dummy.  You have both minor aces as entries, but that's not quite enough (one entry to ruff for the 1st time, one entry for the 2nd ruff, and a third entry to get to dummy to run the now-established suit).
Where is the 3rd entry?  Its the ♠9!  But you need to draw trumps before you run the heart suit, so this should be one of the earlier entries:

Let's assume that West leads a diamond.  Win that with the Ace, and immediately ruff a heart (don't bother cashing the ♥AK yet).  Now play a small spade from your hand, winning with the ♠9 in dummy.  Ruff another heart, before drawing trumps.  Now use the ♣A as the entry to play your remaining hearts, discarding all your club losers.  Your 13 tricks were 7 spades (including the 2 ruffs), 4 hearts and the two minor aces.

The timing of the hand actually isn't as simple as I suggested.  This line works because the defenders' hearts break 4-3.  What if they break 5-2?

This is not a great overcall for North to make - only 6 HCP and a 6-card suit missing three top honours.  Nevertheless I believe that most Norths chose to do so.

What should East do now? Some chose to bid 2♥, but this just shows a hand that wants to compete: 'I just fancy my chances playing in 2♥'!  Almost as if you'd responded 2♥ directly to a 1NT opening - a weak take-out - you expect opener to pass.

East's hand is too good for this.  With 15 HCP you must be considering game, but which one?  Mike chose just to bid 3NT - a brave choice without a genuine diamond guard, but a winning choice.  It takes very careful defence to beat 3NT, but the expected diamond lead makes it easy for declarer to rack up 10 tricks (in fact Gill made 11).

The correct bid by East is 3♥.  Again, just like responding directly to 1NT, this is forcing, promising a 5-card suit (precisely) and asking opener to choose between 3NT and 4♥.  As West, without the overcall I would have chosen to play in 3NT despite the 3-card support for partner - the 4-3-3-3 shape means that it's unlikely that there are more tricks available in the suit contract.  But only having the single diamond stop, and not knowing that partner also has one, I might have chosen the 'safe' option of 4♥.

After a diamond lead from South. North needs to switch to a top spade to defeat 4♥.  If he doesn't, then the same 10 tricks are available - 4 hearts, 4 clubs and 2 diamonds.

Tuesday 28th February 2012

This famous hand was used by card sharps on the steam boats to relieve the rich of their cash. The unwary South was given a hand to admire, as you can see. South is the dealer and gets very excited. Determined not to lose out on big winnings with his 'no loser' hand opens 7H.
The card sharp in the west seat doubles and happily takes his winnings.
On a diamond lead South can only make six tricks and no game can be made.