What would you open on the East hand?  I expect the answers are a mixture between 3♦, 4♦ and 5♦.  Personally I would opt for 5♦, the reason being I don't think 3♦ or 4♦ are pre-emptive enough.  With eight diamonds and a four-card club suit, your playing strength is too good to just open a normal pre-empt at the three level.

If you reveal all four hands, you will see that over 3♦ or even 4♦, South will make the effort to compete in hearts and once he does so, North will push on if West bids.

Not unusually with hands like this it is hard to judge who owns the hand and who is sacrificing.  North-South have a double fit in the majors and East-West have a double fit in the minors.  Ironically it is East-West who can make the most tricks if they are allowed to capture the auction.  In diamonds or clubs East-West can always make 12 tricks.

If North-South were to play in spades they have two losers, one in each minor.  However, if they were to play in a more likely heart contract, potentially East-West could take 5 tricks by ruffing three spades plus a trick in each minor.

It is unlikely that East-West would bid to the six level unless pushed but being allowed to play in 5♦ would be highly unlikely if East only opened 3♦ or 4♦.

The aim of a pre-empt is to buy the contract as you have no defence to other contracts.  In this case, however, pre-empting at the correct level keeps the opposition out of the bidding and finding a cheap sacrifice.

If you play Sudoku, you know you have to work out where all the missing numbers are.  It can be a bit similar when you are defending at Bridge...

Playing West you lead your 4th highest heart, Declarer plays low from dummy, partner plays the Jack and Declarer wins with the Ace.

Apart from your cards and those in dummy, you have also seen the Ace and Jack of hearts appear at trick 1.  There are three missing hearts, the King, the 9 and the 7.

Question 1 - Who holds the King of hearts and why?

Question 2 - Who holds the 9 of hearts and why?

Question 3 - Who holds the 7 of hearts and why?

Most players would open 1♥ on the North hand but what happens after that largely depends on South.  With only four points, some Souths would pass.  However, a more positive view is that South holds four of partner's suit plus a singleton spade and bidding rather than passing may deter the opposition who in all probability will have a fit in spades.

Many Wests will jump to 3♠ and if South has not bid, North, despite holding 19 points, will find it very difficult to bid again.  If South does bid 2♥,  North will certainly bid 4♥.  The question now is whether East decides to pass or bid 4♠.

You will see from the above hand that if North plays in 4♥, he has nothing to lose apart from three Aces but should East-West decide to 'sacrifice' in 4♠, potentially there are three diamonds to lose, two clubs and possibly the King of trumps.  In practice, however, things could turn out very different...

Playing in 4♠ doubled, West received the King of hearts lead so won in dummy and discarded a losing diamond from hand.  A promising start.  Declarer then set about eliminating the heart suit and drawing trumps, hoping to find the King onside.  At trick 2 a heart was ruffed then a small spade led from hand, successfully finessing dummy's 8.  Even more promising!  A third heart was ruffed, followed by another low spade to dummy's Ace.  Dummy's last heart was then ruffed.

Declarer now exited with a low diamond and North foolishly rose with the Queen, cashed the Ace and played a third round which Declarer ruffed in hand.  Declarer and dummy were now left with only black cards.  

At this point Declarer led a low club from hand towards dummy's Jack.  North went up with the Queen but in order not to concede a ruff and discard, he returned a low club.  Declarer played the Jack from dummy and made the rest of the tricks, losing just two diamonds and a club to make 4♠ doubled.

The unfortunate heart lead is perhaps understandable but North's mistake was going up with the Queen of diamonds.  He needed to hope his partner held the King of diamonds and South would then have been able to play back a club which would have avoided North being end played.

The best North-South could have done on this hand was to take three diamonds and a club or two diamonds and two clubs so 4♠ going one down is a good sacrifice against 4♥ making.  However, if South remains silent, North-South would not even have reached 4♥ in the first place and East-West would probably have been allowed to play in 3♠ making.  Always best to try to support partner if you possibly can even if it means pushing the boat out a bit.

Looking at all four hands (board 9 from 15 March duplicate) you will see that the final contract of 5♦ has three losers which illustrates how it is often difficult to get to the right spot after a competitive auction.

East opened light on a distributional hand.  South is too strong to make an overcall or jump in diamonds, hence the initial double.  West's 2NT showed a good raise to 3♠.  North's 3♥ bid was highly competitive which had the effect of prompting South to jump to 5♦.

Not surprisingly West led the Ace of spades but then what?  East is likely to have an Ace but is it the Ace of clubs or Ace of hearts?  If it is the Ace of clubs, East can play a heart back to defeat the contract.  A switch to the King of hearts at trick 2 would be fatal to the defence.  However, if East holds the Ace of hearts, not switching to the King of hearts would be fatal to the defence.

West needs to know what to do. and this is where signals are key to a good defence.

Normally on the Ace of spades lead, if East plays a high card, that would be encouraging a continuation.  However, when dummy has a singleton, encouraging a continuation would be pointless.  Instead, in this situation, a high spade should be showing something in hearts and a low spade should be showing something in clubs.  In this instance East would follow with a high spade, West can now switch to the King of hearts followed by another heart and 5♦ is defeated immediately.

At the table, all pairs who played in diamonds made 11 tricks though ironically the side with game on was actually East-West as, with the spade finesse right, 4♠ makes 10 tricks.  Not surprisingly all pairs who played in 4♠ were doubled and scored +790.

Looking at the above hand (board 20 from the 16 February duplicate), you will see that North-South can make 10 tricks in hearts, 11 if West doesn't lead a club.  North-South have a combined 24 points and the spade finesse secures 4♥ should you reach it.

However, this is one of those hands where there are endless possibilities with the bidding.  Some pushy Norths might open 1♦ and, if they do, they will almost certainly reach 4♥.

If North doesn't open, East will open either 1♣ or 1NT.  If East opens 1♣ some Souths might double, others would pass.  If South passes, West will also pass and North would probably bid 1♦.  South can now bid 2♣ asking for more information and North would then have the opportunity to bid his hearts.  I don't think game would be reached though.

If South doubles, North would jump to 2♦.  This rather embarrasses South which is why I would rather not double over 1♣ but instead I think it is better to pass and wait for North to 'protect'.

If East decides to open 1NT, whether South or North get into the auction depends to some extent what defence they play to an opening 1NT.  Some Souths might have a bid to show the majors.  If South doesn't bid, some Norths might play 2♦ as 'natural' and sometimes both North and South would pass and defend 1NT.

Should East end up playing in 1NT, South is likely to lead one of his majors.  East wins the opening lead, cashes five club tricks and 1NT goes one-off.

The defence to 2♣ has the potential to be much more severe.  South may lead a couple of top hearts, then switch to a diamond.  North cashes three diamond tricks, then switches to the Jack of spades.  North-South take two spade winners but then South can continue with a third spade which North ruffs, making a total of eight tricks before East makes the last five trump tricks.

If North plays in diamonds, he can make 10 tricks for a score of 130 but if North-South manage to find their heart fit, there is no real reason to bid to game and a score of 170 or 200 should be a good result.

As for the actual results on the travellers...

We had 2NT by South making 9 tricks; 1NT by East making 7 tricks; 3♥ by South going one off; 4♥ by North making 10 tricks; 1NT by East going one off; and 1♣ by East going two off.

There is no particular right or wrong with this hand but one thing is for sure, if East opens 1NT, not only is it quite difficult for North-South to get into the auction, if East is allowed to play in 1NT, going one-off should be quite a good result for East-West.

This was board 25 from last week.  Against a fine contract of 4♥, North led the King of Clubs, presumably from King Queen, on which South played the 10 (a singleton?) and Declarer won with the Ace.  It looks like you could get away with two losers, the Queen of Clubs and the Ace of trumps but of course you do not know at this stage how the suits will break.  South's 10 of clubs is potentially helpful as, because Declarer holds the Jack and dummy the nine, there is no longer a need to ruff a losing club.  However, if South has a singleton, that would mean North held seven clubs to the King Queen and, being non-vulnerable, a little surprising not to have pre-empted.  The 10 of clubs is possibly therefore from a doubleton.  On the basis of this, how would you continue to play this hand?

I expect most Declarers would now begin to draw trumps by playing towards the King.  Best defence is to duck though North's play of the eight might set the alarm bells ringing for Declarer.  If Declarer continues with a second trump, South should duck again, Declarer now noting a 4-1 trump break.  If Declarer continues with a third trump, South should win it with the Ace, return a club then partner plays another club which South can ruff.  Eventually, if North holds on to his diamonds, he will come to a diamond trick and 4♥ is one off.  Pretty unlucky!

Note that if South doesn't hold up the Ace of trumps twice, there will be no possibility of a club ruff as dummy would still have a trump to ruff a club and Declarer would then be able to return to hand and draw South's outstanding trumps.

One Declarer tried something a bit different.  After playing a trump at trick 2, he cashed the Ace of spades then played the Jack which was covered by the Queen and ruffed in hand. He then played a diamond to the King followed by the 10 of spades which (correctly) was not covered and ruffed in hand but unfortunately for Declarer, North showed out.

Declarer then played another trump to dummy which South won with the Ace and played back a club.  North won with the Queen and played another club.  Declarer discarded a spade from dummy but South, instead of ruffing, discarded the Jack of diamonds.  This was fatal for Declarer - He drew a third round of trumps, but then when a diamond was played, South was able to ruff and make the Queen of spades for one down.

If you know where all the cards are, in particular the King and Queen of spades, I think you can make the contract.  You can either duck the opening lead or let the 10 of spades run at trick 6.  However, in practice, with this distribution and against accurate defence, making 4♥ is not so easy.

Andy Hughes has pointed out to me that if Declarer returns a club at trick 2, he cannot be defeated by the defence as he can ruff the other club in dummy, losing just a club, the Ace of trumps and a diamond.

I was lucky on board 5.  When partner opened 3♣ I would have been quite happy to pass on the West hand but then there was an intervening 3♠ bid from South.  A pass now is quite weedy and I thought 4♣ was rather boring so I tried a cheeky 3NT as a bit of a gamble!

A spade was led and I was relieved to see the Ace of hearts in dummy.  South won with the Ace and returned the Queen but that was the end of the defence.  To defeat 3NT South has to switch to a heart to knock out dummy's Ace, then there is no entry to dummy's clubs.  This may not be obvious but it is certainly worth a try.

3NT made with two overtricks.  Other contracts were 4♣ by East making 10 tricks (this happened twice), 5♣ by East going one off, 3♦ by West just making, 4♦ by West going three off, 4♣ by East going one off and 4♣ by East making two overtricks.

Nobody played in spades though South can make 3♠ unless East-West find their diamond ruff.

All Easts became Declarer in 3NT on board 5 on what was probably a similar auction to the bidding indicated above.  

As South, do you lead the 10 of spades or 4th highest?  On a low spade lead, Declarer plays low from dummy and if East goes up with the King, Declarer has three spade tricks in the bag.  The 10 of spades lead is better though Declarer can still make three tricks if he plays his spades correctly. 

Declarer immediately sets about the diamonds, knocking out the Ace.  He then wins the return, crosses to dummy and runs the rest of the diamonds.  He should throw his hearts (apart from the Ace of course) and keep his clubs.

Although 3NT is a safe contract, Duplicate Pairs is not just a matter of bidding to the right contract and making it.  If everyone is in the same contract, the best score goes to the pair managing to make the most number of tricks.  On this board, two Declarers made 11 tricks (losing just two Aces) and the rest made 10.  I suspect all those who made 10 tricks took an unnecessary losing heart finesse.

When you count up 21 points as I did on the East hand, you don't normally expect partner to open the bidding but on this occasion partner did!

The reason for the dilly dallying in the bidding was that I wanted to find out about Aces and the Queen of spades, hoping to play in 7♠.  The 3♦ bid was fourth suit forcing and the 5♠ bid showed two Aces and the Queen of trumps.

It was almost disappointing to have to settle for 6♠ but one pair presumably did not ask for Aces and ended up in 7♠ going off on the Ace of diamonds lead.  However, three pairs also went off in 6♠.

After the Ace of diamonds lead, the contract looks as safe as houses with tricks galore but this is exactly the time to play very carefully and look for any possible danger and typical for last night's hands, there was a jinx with a four nil trump break.  

Losing a trump trick is the only way to go off so Declarer should consider this as it would be such a shame to go down in such a beautiful contract!  The missing spades are J1073.  If by some misfortune these are all held by North, it is impossible to pick them all up but if South holds all four missing spades, it is a different matter. 

Jeremy won the second trick in dummy then played the King of spades (key play) and when North showed out, he took two marked finesses through South whose trumps were now nothing more than nuisance value. 

The above hand occurred in a recent match.  First an explanation of the bidding.  The 1♠, 2♦ and 3♥ are natural.  The jump to 3♥ over a 2 level response must by definition be game forcing and therefore South's bid of 3♠ is stronger than 4♠ as it leaves room for cue bidding whereas a jump to 4♠ is a shutout.  This is known as the 'principle of fast arrival' - If you are in a game forcing situation and go straight there, you have no further interest.

As you can see, South has plenty in hand, hence the bid of 3♠ rather than 4♠.  North's 4♣ was a cue bid, East's double announced a club feature, South's 4♦ was also a cue bid.  4♥ and 5♥ were also cue bids.  The 5♥ bid shows second round control.  By inference North knows South must have the Ace of clubs for continuing to cue bid at the 5 level.  The 6♥ bid is a Grand Slam try as North doesn't know whether the 5♥ cue bid is the King of hearts or a singleton.  If South has the King of hearts, 7♠ might well be on the cards.

Against a final contract of 6♠ East made the best lead of a trump.  By looking at all four hands, see if you can make 6♠ against best defence.

Playing in a recent teams match, I opened 1♠ on the East hand and when South doubled, North had a bit of a problem.  He bid 2♦ which his partner raised to 4♦ and that was the end of the auction.

At the other table the East hand opened 1♣ so when South doubled, North bid 1♠, South then jumped to 2NT, North bid 3♠ , South bid 3NT and North removed again to 4♠.  Two very different contracts therefore resulted.

Against 4♦ I led the King of clubs which was taken by the Ace in dummy.  Declarer has some difficulty getting to hand and tried the Ace of hearts at trick 2, presumably intending to ruff the third round.  A good time to false card, I played the 10.

Declarer then played the Ace of trumps, felling my Jack and continued with a small diamond to the 10 and King.  This would have given Declarer an entry to his hand had I held a singleton Jack.  Anyway on winning that trick I played the 9 of hearts which after some thought Declarer won with the King.  He now played the King of spades from dummy which I won with the Ace.

I continued with a small spade, won in hand by Declarer who then played a club towards dummy's Jack.  I went up with the Queen of clubs and played the Queen of spades which promoted John's nine of diamonds.  Dummy ruffed and John overruffed for the setting trick.

At the other table, 3NT would probably have received a club lead and with East holding King Jack doubleton diamond, this enables a vital entry to dummy to take a heart finesse so Declarer would make four diamonds, two clubs and three heart tricks.  However, Andy and Jeremy reached 4♠ which was doubled.  Playing North, Jeremy received the King of clubs lead which he won in dummy.  This is also a precarious contract but as the cards lie, it makes if played carefully.  Jeremy played the King of spades which East won and switched to the King of diamonds.  He now played a club to the 10 and Queen and East returned the Jack of diamonds won by dummy's Queen.  Jeremy now played a club which he trumped in hand.

From the double, East is likely to have four spades headed by AQ.  The key play now is to play the Jack of spades from hand, hoping to pin the 10 in the West hand which is exactly what happens.  East can win the trick but that is it as Declarer can now play Ace, King and another heart which he ruffs in hand then draws East's last two trumps with his eight and nine of spades.  Neat.

Board 5 was possibly the most interesting hand of the week but for me it was a bit of a disaster.  Playing against Jill and Sally, I could have opened 1♣ on the North hand but decided not to.  Sheila therefore opened 1♦.  I hesitated between responding 1♥ and 2♣ and made the dubious decision of 1♥.  This made things difficult for Sheila who didn't now want to rebid No Trumps with her poor spades.  She therefore supported hearts and I bid 3NT.

Ironically if South ends up Declarer in 3NT, a spade lead immediately defeats the contract.  However, Jill was on lead with the East hand and had she led a spade, I would have made many tricks, 10 at least, and if West discards diamonds, even more.  Clearly the heart bidding deterred Jill from a heart lead so she very sensibly led a club.

As Declarer I was surprised (relieved) not to have received a spade lead and prospects looked very good.  I won the club lead in dummy and could count a minimum of nine tricks, five clubs, three diamonds and the Ace of hearts.  The danger hand is West as a spade through my King could spell defeat.  I therefore took out a bit of insurance and played a diamond from dummy at trick 2 and finessed the nine of diamonds into the 'safe' hand.  Not surprisingly this lost but the idea was to insure against a 4-2 diamond break to make an overtrick.

Jill played back another club and when Sally followed, confirming that Jill had led from a 3 card suit, I guessed she must have hearts and hadn't wanted to lead one.  On winning this I played another diamond to the Ace and was disappointed to see the diamonds were breaking 5-1 so I now cashed all my club winners.

If I now played a heart to the Ace and took the King and Queen of diamonds, that would be my nine tricks in the bag but, pairs being pairs, I foolishly got greedy for overtricks.  I did not know the whereabouts of the King of hearts or the Ace of spades and providing the Ace of spades was right, all would be fine for overtricks.  It was also clear by this stage that many more hearts were in Jill's hand than in Sally's so I decided the finesse of the Queen of hearts was a reasonable bet for an overtrick.

Second disappointment as Sally won with the King, switched to a spade through my King which I had previously been playing to avoid, and Jill took another spade, put me back in dummy with a heart and I lost a diamond at the end for one down!

To rub salt into the wound, I felt quite stupid to have lost a diamond to the singleton Jack and a heart to the singleton King!!  Playing rubber or teams Bridge I would indeed have gone up with the Ace of hearts, dropped the singleton King offside and made an overtrick.  Serves me right for being greedy!

There was a wide variety of results on the travellers, 5♣ by North making 11 tricks for plus 600, 3NT by North making 12 tricks for plus 690, 3NT by South going one off for minus 100, 3NT by North (me) also going one off for minus 100, 3♦ by South making 9 tricks for plus 110 and 4♥ by South making 10 tricks for plus 620.

You pick up the South cards and open 2♣.  Unusually you do not hear a 2♦ response from partner and when he actually supports your spades, it all sounds too good to be true.  You soon find out you have all the Aces and Kings and reach an excellent Grand Slam in spades.  All very exciting and when West leads the Jack of diamonds, partner puts down dummy and things look extremely promising.  There appear to be around 15 tricks!!!

You win the opening lead in hand and play a trump to dummy's Ace and another one back to hand.  Shock horror, West discards a club on the second spade revealing a 4-1 trump break.  What seemed like a piece of cake now appears to be an impossible contract but can you see any way of making it?

Well done if you managed to make 7♠ on the above hand.  However, even more cunning is the defence to beat the contract.  Can you see how East-West could have defeated 7♠ despite Declarer's valiant attempt?

You reach an excellent contract of 6♣.  North leads the Queen of spades.  What is your best possible chance of making the contract?

As West you play in 3NT and receive a small heart lead.  South plays the Queen which you win with the King.  Without being greedy for any overtricks, what is your best line of play to 100% guarantee making your contract?

After the above bidding sequence your partner, West, leads the Jack of spades.  As East, what would you play and what would you envisage your partner's spade holding to be?

After East opens 1NT (12-14 points), you end up leading the three of hearts against 3NT after the above bidding sequence.  Declarer plays low from dummy, partner plays the 10 and East wins with the Queen.  Declarer then plays Ace, King and another spade and then from dummy he plays a small diamond to his Queen which you win with the Ace.  What would you play next and why?

East-West bid to 6NT and North leads a small club.  As East how would you play this hand to guarantee your 12 tricks?

I often say that Bridge is a game of mistakes and the winners are normally those who make the fewest.  The above hand is a good example of how easy it is to go wrong.

On the above hand North opened the bidding with 1♦ and after some thought East jumped to 4♥.  South doubled which ended the auction.

South led the Jack of diamonds which North won with the Ace and returned the 3 which Declarer won with the King.  Declarer then played the King of hearts which South won with the Ace and switched to the Queen of clubs.  This was taken by the Ace, North played the 3 and Declarer the 9.

This was Declarer's one and only time in dummy and if he plays a spade towards his AQJ, he is home and dry as Kx were onside.  However, he played a diamond which was ruffed and overruffed.

At this point South had a think about what to play next.  The safest thing to do would have been to play a trump but because North had played his lowest card on South's Queen of clubs which wasn't encouraging, South believed he must have a couple of top honours in spades and made a fatal spade switch and Declarer took the rest of the tricks, making 4♥ doubled.

There was a misunderstanding in the defensive signals.  North's low diamond at trick 2 showed interest in a club switch but his 3 of clubs on South's Queen was now showing distribution (an odd number of clubs).  Personally in these circumstances I would have been less subtle and played a higher club to make sure partner continued clubs but technically, he was correct.  Defence is the hardest part of the game.  It is easy to go wrong and you sometimes need to help your partner to stop them going wrong.

Interestingly enough 4♥ was not often bid.  Results on the travellers were 4♣ by North, making 10 tricks, 2♥ by East making 10 tricks, 4♣ by North going one off, 3♠ by West making 9 tricks, 5♣ by South going two off, 4♥ doubled by East going one off (right defence, wrong declarer play) and 4♥ doubled by East making (wrong defence).  

Board 7 was a bit of a nightmare hand.  Neither North-South nor East-West have any communication between the hands so making any contract is always going to be difficult and reliant on a misdefence.

I was sitting North and pleased to pick up a hand with 20 points.  I debated whether to open 1♥ or 2NT and decided on 2NT which was passed out.  2NT passed out is often a poor prospect but not normally as bad as this one!  I received the Queen of spades lead so won in hand with the King.  I could see things were going to be quite difficult and decided to play the Ace of hearts to see if a top heart might fall.  No such luck when East showed out but small consolation that a heart contract wouldn't have been very happy either!  Not surprisingly I abandoned hearts now and had a go at Ace and Queen of diamonds.  This was won by East's King followed by spade after spade after spade.  They seemed to go on forever!!  I ended up with a couple of tricks at the end for 3 off which rather amazingly was an average score.  

If East plays in spades and North had bid hearts, I suppose South would have led a heart which goes to King, Ace and ruff.  Declarer's only way to dummy is by leading away from his diamonds and eventually ruffing one in dummy.  He can now discard a losing club on the Queen of hearts then play dummy's last spade and finesse against the King.  The defenders would only be able to take two diamonds and a club.  No doubt the Declarer play and defence varied quite considerably.

The results on the travellers were as follows:

5♥ by North going 4 off for minus 1100; 3♠ by East making 10 tricks for 170 (twice); 3♠ doubled by East making 9 tricks for 730; 4♠ doubled by East going 2 off for minus 500; 2NT by North going 2 off for minus 200; 2NT by North going 3 off for minus 300 and 4♠ doubled by East making 10 tricks for plus 790.

After East opens 1NT, many Wests would bid their hearts.  However, why not try Stayman first in case you have a 4-4 spade fit?  If you find out you have, your hand is stronger than ever. 

This was board 2 from the previous week's duplicate and when John responded 2♠, I bid 4♣.  This is not natural and most players would agree it shows a singleton or void club.  John then cue bid his Ace of diamonds which is just what you want to hear looking at the West cards.  With a solid 6 card heart suit and complete control of diamonds and clubs, all you need to do is to check the quality of your 4-4 spade fit.  A jump to 5♠ asks partner to bid to 6♠ with reasonable quality trumps.

6♠ is a very good contract and didn't even require having the Ace of clubs.  If East had held the Ace of spades instead of the Ace of clubs, 7♠ is good.

6♥ is also a fine contract but without discovering a fit in spades and the Ace of diamonds, you are not likely to get beyond game.

Have you heard of Smith Peters?  This is a signalling mechanism used in defence which was invented by my great partner Geoff Smith, renowned in his day as being the best card player in the South of England.  The way Smith Peters works is that if your partner made the opening lead, you 'peter' on Declarer's first lead if you liked your partner's lead.  If you were on lead, a 'peter' indicates to partner that you don't want the suit led back.

On the above hand, following a fairly routine bidding sequence, North led a 4th highest club against 3NT.  Dummy's singleton King won, South playing the  7 which potentially could look quite encouraging.  Declarer then played the Queen of spades which was finessed to North's King, South playing the 2.  

Under normal circumstances, North would probably have continued with another club.  However, South's 2 of spades did not show any interest in the opening lead.  Looking at a good 6 card diamond suit in dummy, the other clue was that Declarer had not tackled diamonds so North decided to lead a diamond through dummy.  Playing a spade back would actually have been safer as North's diamond switch gave Declarer a chance to run it round to his 10.  

At this point, Declarer counted up three probable spade tricks, two hearts, two clubs and the Ace of Diamonds and played the Queen of diamonds for a possible 9th trick.  This was a fatal error as, when this lost to the King, it also squashed the 10 and enhanced North's diamond holding.  South now played a club back which went to the Jack and Queen.  North then played the Jack of diamonds won by dummy's Ace and when he eventually got in with the Ace of hearts, he cashed the 9 of diamonds to take 3NT one down.  

A neat defence as a club continuation by North at trick 3 would have allowed 3NT to make.  Smith Peters helped North not to continue with clubs.  Had South held the Jack of Clubs, he would have played the 5 of spades (start of a peter) to encourage North to continue with clubs.

Have you heard of a 'squeeze'?  It enables you to make an extra trick and maybe achieve what would otherwise have been an impossible contract.  An interesting example happened this week on board 12.

4♥ by East-West is a sound contract, yet only two pairs got to it.  The other two pairs were in 3♥ and 1♥.  However, due to a bad trump break there is a loser in every suit on best defence.  Best defence doesn't happen very often and many players would unwittingly discard a small club from the North hand which is actually a vital trick opposite partner's holding of QJ doubleton.

The opening lead against 4♥ was a diamond.  This was won by the Ace and another diamond returned which was won by Declarer.

Taking stock at this point, there are two Aces to lose plus an unavoidable club though providing the trumps behave, there should be no more losers.  A trump to the King and one back to the Ace revealed the bad news.  Note that South should of course play a low heart and not split his heart honours, otherwise Declarer would be able to return to dummy and play another heart through and end up with no heart loser.

A spade was now played towards dummy's King Queen and North put up the Ace and switched to a small club to the Jack and Ace.

With four apparent losers, there was nevertheless a small glimmer of hope for a squeeze in spades and clubs.  Another two hearts were played with South winning the second one.  At this point South played the Jack of diamonds.  Remaining cards by West, North and East were as follows:

West: ♠8 ♥9 ♣K74

North: ♠1097 ♣108

East: ♠KQ6 ♣65

When Declarer (West) ruffed the Jack of diamonds, North was squeezed by being forced to unguard one of his suits.  If he throws a spade, dummy makes all three spades and if he throws a club Declarer makes all three of his clubs.

Both North and South had the opportunity to defeat the contract and break the squeeze before it happened.  If North had played another spade after taking his Ace or South had played another spade instead of the Jack of diamonds, Declarer would not have been able to maintain communication with dummy's spades to perform the squeeze and gone one down. 

North leads the 5 of spades against your 3NT contract.  How would you plan the play to 100% guarantee making your contract?

Sometimes you have enough points for game but prospects are nevertheless poor.  This deal is such an example.  Despite a combined point count of 26 and a 4-4 fit in hearts, the hearts lack intermediaries.  Some players would undoubtedly end up in 3 No Trumps rather than 4♥ but that is even worse!

Before looking at the full deal, have a think about how you would tackle this hand on the Queen of diamonds lead by West.

I am always surprised how often players bid to poor 3 No Trump contracts.  Sometimes they are lucky and due to a favourable lead or misdefence, they make a number of overtricks for a very good score.  On other occasions it can be a bit of a disaster.

How would you bid the above North-South hand?  Playing Acol, after North's 1NT rebid showing 15-16 points, many Souths would jump straight to 3NT.  This may well be the right contract but with three of partner's hearts and a five card spade suit it is surely worth investigating a major suit fit.

A jump to 3♥ by South would be forcing and asking partner to choose between playing in hearts and No Trumps.  This is called 'Secondary Preference' and shows three card support as with four card support, South would have supported hearts in the first place.

With only a four card suit, North is not interested in playing in hearts.  However he does have three spades so he can now give 'Secondary Preference' by bidding 3♠.  This bid is also forcing and this time North is asking South to choose between spades and No Trumps.  With a five card suit, South bids 4♠.

Looking at the full deal, 3NT by North would receive a club lead and be defeated whereas 4♠ is fine for 10 tricks.  On a lucky day, you would not get a club lead and make 3NT with overtricks but you could also be lucky in 4♠ and make an overtrick if East-West do not lead or switch to a club as one of South's  clubs could be discarded on North's 13th heart.

Secondary Preference enables 5-3 major suit fits to be found which normally play better than No Trumps so are well worth investigating.  

Sometimes a misunderstanding happens during the bidding and you get to the wrong contract.  North-South got into a muddle with their cue-bidding on the above deal.  South panicked and they ended up in 6♣ on a 2-2 fit.

Realistically the most likely contracts are 6♥ or 6NT.  As the spades break 3-3, there are 13 easy tricks in No Trumps but despite a 4-4 heart fit, there is an unavoidable trump loser if you play in hearts.

However, against 6♣ the Jack of spades was the opening lead which South won in hand.  With the opponents holding nine trumps, it would be easy to give up hope at this stage but you might as well try to make this rather bizarre contract.  You might like to have a think about how you would tackle this hand before revealing the full hand and the answer.  

The above hand was board 7 from the 24 February duplicate.  All Easts became declarer in 4♥, probably with a similar sequence to the above.  Although the contract is not unreasonable, any lead by South is quite capable of defeating the contract, yet four out of seven Easts were allowed to make it. 

Personally I would lead a small spade or diamond but let's say South leads the Ace of clubs.  Dummy goes down and partner plays the 9 of clubs.  How would you continue?  Click for the answer and to see the full hand.

If anyone encounters some difficult hands from a bidding, play or defence point of view, email me at Fred.hotchen@btinternet.com and I will try to provide solutions in this section.

Many Bridge players use the Blackwood convention to check for Aces and Kings when investigating the possibility of bidding a slam.  I used to but like many others have converted to playing Roman Key Card Blackwood.  The difference is that when a trump suit has been agreed, 4NT asks about Aces plus the King of trumps.

The responses are 5♣ showing 0 or 3 Aces (including the King of trumps), 5♦ showing 1 or 4 Aces (including the King of trumps), 5♥  showing 2 or 5 Aces (including the King of trumps but denies having the Queen of trumps), 5♠ showing 2 Aces (including the King of trumps) plus the Queen of trumps and 5NT showing 5 Aces (including the King of trumps) plus the Queen of trumps.  It's a bit more to remember than ordinary Blackwood but provides some vital additional information when investigating the slam zone.

Blackwood is as much a mechanism to avoid getting into a bad slam as it is for getting into a good one.  The above deal is adapted from a recent duplicate session at Badger Farm where one or two pairs got a bit carried away, bid ordinary Blackwood, found one Ace missing and bid to 6♥ not realising the trump quality was not up to scratch.  Roman Key Card Blackwood rang the alarm bells and made 5♥ a more sensible option.

The North hand looked good from the start but when South responded 2♥, the North hand looked better still.  Game must be certain so a splinter bid of 4♦ shows heart agreement.  If North had diamonds, he would bid 3♦ which is a reverse and forcing so 4♦ should not be natural.  South holding two 5 card suits, both headed by Aces plus a singleton club must think a slam is a distinct possibility, hence checking for Aces.  If North held either the Ace of clubs or King of Hearts instead of King Jack of clubs, 6♥ would have been a great contract.  North's response to Roman Key Card Blackwood showing 1 or 4 Key cards is a disappointment to South so he now settles in 5♥ and as you can see, he should lose the Ace of Clubs and a trump trick.  With ordinary Blackwood, you only know partner has one Ace and no idea whether his hearts are headed by the King which of course is crucial and you would have to guess whether or not to bid the slam.

Asking for Kings is also slightly different using Roman Key Card Blackwood as you would already have accounted for the King of Trumps.  In response to 5NT if you bid a suit other than the trump suit, it shows the King of that suit or the other two, otherwise if you bid 6 of the trump suit, it shows either no kings or all three.

Final thing to remember (if you want to!) is that if partner responds 5♣ or 5♦ to 4NT, the next suit up (not including the trump suit) would be a relay asking if partner has the Queen of trumps.  If he doesn't have it, he would just go back to the trump suit but if he did have it, he would bid another feature.  

I have modified the above North-South cards to illustrate how this would work.  North's hand is now ♠ AKQxxx ♥ Qxxx ♦ x ♣ KJ opposite South's hand of ♠ xx ♥ AKxxx ♦ Axxxx ♣ A.  The bidding would proceed 1♠ - 2♥ - 4♦ (splinter bid, agreeing hearts) - 4NT (RKCB) - 5D (1 or 4 Aces) - 5♠ (next suit up, asking about the queen of trumps) 6♣ (a feature but most importantly confirming the Queen of trumps by not having bid 6♥) and now South can bid 7♥ in confidence that he is unlikely to lose a trump trick.

Following the above bidding, West leads the 4♦, you play the 9 from dummy and East follows with the 7.  How would you plan to make this contract based on the information you have from the bidding and play so far?  You can click on the full deal and the answer.

On board 8 all Wests opened 1NT which is passed out.  I expect most Norths led the Jack of Clubs and when dummy comes down with a 10 count, your expectations should be that East-West ought to be making around 8 tricks.  You would not realistically expect to defeat 1NT but you would expect a good score if you managed to hold the contract to 7 tricks.

At our table West won the trick in hand with the Ace and played a spade to dummy's Jack which held the trick.  He then played the Queen of diamonds which was covered by South's King and West's Ace.  From North's point of view, the hand is pretty well an open book as West has revealed by inference the King and Queen of spades and shown up with two minor suit Aces.  This is a total of 13 points so West can't have much else and this means that for sure South holds the Queen of hearts and Queen of clubs.

After the Ace of diamonds, West decided to play another diamond to the Jack and then another one which South won with the 10.  It would be all too easy for a half asleep South to now play a spade to dummy's weakness but South came back with the Queen of Clubs, unblocking the suit and knocking out the King.  

Declarer now played a spade back to the King and my Ace.  I cashed two club winners then switched to a low heart.  It is difficult for Declarer to go up with dummy's King as if the Ace is wrong, he will then lose Queen and Jack too.  Declarer therefore played the 10 from dummy which was won by South's Jack then another heart was played back to my Ace.  This amounted to six tricks to North South so although West made his contract, he got no matchpoints as all the other West's managed to get 8 tricks.

Defence is often said to be the hardest part of the game.  There is an amazing amount of information from the bidding, from cards played by declarer, partner's leads and signals and even inferences from what has not been played.  The above hand gives a bit of a flavour of a few clues that are available but often get missed.

Board 13 was a horrible example of a misfit.  When North opens 1♠, South's distirbutional hand is not enhanced.  Despite the 6-5 shape, South has a distinct lack of points and personally I would bid 1NT.  With the West hand I would not come into the bidding as the diamonds are poor quality (two Wests did and both went off in 3♦).  North would rebid 2♦ and South is now even more alerted to a misfit and is best advised to give preference by bidding 2♠ as North is unlikely to have much in hearts or clubs and at least you can ruff a diamond in the short hand.  At the table, 2♠ made 9 tricks.  Another pair subsided in 2NT after bidding all four suits but that went one down for a bottom.

Nothing is ideal with a hand like this.  I would recommend the bidding in the above table.  Best advice is to stay as low as possible and hope the opponents come in as you are better off defending.

The above hand (Board 2 from Tuesday 10 February duplicate) produced a variety of results - 2NT by North making 9 tricks, 2♦ by West going two down, 4♠ by South making 11 tricks, 3♠ by South making 10 tricks (twice) and 2♦ doubled by West going two down.

The above bidding was at our table.  I'm surprised West bid 2♥ rather than 2♦ but clearly several pairs did bid 2♦ and played there.  Anyway, over 2♥ Jeremy cue bid 3♥ on his strong hand, interested in a stop for 3NT, a fifth spade or another suit.  With the South cards, I had not shown any strength at all by responding 1♠ to the double.  Not sure how useful my King Queen of hearts might be but having a fifth spade plus a singleton diamond I felt was enough to jump to 4♠ opposite partner's strong bidding.

4♠ is a good contract.  West started with Ace and King of diamonds.  I ruffed the second diamond and started getting the trumps out.  When the queen popped up from West my heart sank as a 4-1 trump break looked a distinct possibility plus no way to avoid losing two red Aces.  However, there was no alternative but to carry on drawing trumps with fingers crossed under the table!  Luckily it wasn't as bleak as I feared when the Jack of spades appeared from West and 11 tricks were now easy.  

How would you bid the North-South hands above?  I'm sure it would start with 1♥ by North, 2♣ by South and a 2♦ rebid by North but then what?

With 16 points, South knows they must be in Game somewhere, but where?  They haven't as yet discovered a fit in anything and South can hardly bid No Trumps with a doubleton Queen of spades.

South needs to find out more from his partner.  North may have a 6 card heart suit in which case 4♥ would be the right contract or he may have something in spades which would make 3NT a good contract.

The way to find out is 'Fourth Suit Forcing', ie bidding the 4th suit is not natural but a forcing bid asking partner for more information.

In this case, North would bid 2NT as he has spades well covered.  If he was stronger, he would bid 3NT.  If he had six hearts he would bid 3♥ and if he had neither of these things but three card diamond support, he could bid 3♦ as occasionally 5♦ might be the right spot.

If you don't use 4th Suit Forcing, many hands are impossible to bid accurately and the final contract becomes a guess and, more often than not, you end up in the wrong contract.

4th Suit Forcing is also very useful for clarifying partner's distribution.  Suppose for instance North opens 1♥  on a 4-4-4-1 hand (with a singleton spade), you respond 1♠ and partner rebids 2♣.

You would expect partner to hold five hearts and four clubs unless he is 4-4-4-1 in shape.  Find out by bidding 2♦ (4th Suit Forcing).  If he has five hearts, he can bid 2♥ and if he is 4-4-4-1, he can raise 2♦ to 3♦, showing he has four diamonds, knowing of course that your 2♦ bid is not promising anything at all in diamonds.

North's hand might be something like ♠ x ♥ AQxx ♦ Kxxx ♣ Axxx opposite South's ♠ QJ9xx ♥ xxx ♦ AQ ♣ KQx and over the 3♦ bid, South would now sign off in 3NT.

The above hand looks at defence and shows that even when you don't have the cards, it's not time to fall asleep!

West's opening of 1♥ is with the intention of rebidding No Trumps.  Despite the 5-4-2-2 shape, the suit qualities are poor so it is better to emphasise a balanced hand than show a hand with hearts and diamonds.

East however likes hearts and with a ten count, good trump support and a singleton diamond, jumps to 3♥ which West raises to game.

4♥ is a fine contract and on a good day you would get away with losing just two Aces and on a very good day, even one loser if the opposition failed to take their Ace of Spades before you set up the clubs.

However, on this deal it is not a good day for Declarer as the opponents have the opportunity to defeat the contract.

North leads a club and when dummy goes down, South can tell straightaway that his partner's lead is a singleton.  If he was leading from KQ3, K3 or Q3, he would not lead the 3. 

So far so good but have a quick think before you play back a club too hastily.  In the knowledge of being able to give his partner a club ruff, how can South communicate to his partner that he has the Ace of Spades?  There are two possible suits for partner to lead back, spades and diamonds.  Therefore if you want partner to play a spade back, return a high club (asking for the higher of the other two suits) and if you want partner to play a diamond (the lower of the other two suits), lead back a small club.  This is a McKenny suit preference signal.  In this case, you would play back the 10 of clubs and hope partner is paying attention!

Partner now ruffs the club, duly plays a spade back to your Ace and you play another club.  Declarer is also out of clubs but as your partner can beat Declarer's hearts, he gets a second ruff and 4♥ goes one down.

A pat on the back if you got the defence right as anything else allows 4♥ to make.

As you can see from this hand, so much information is available to the defenders and it makes the hand so much more interesting and challenging.  Make your cards work for you but remember to pay attention as it makes all the difference between knowing what to do instead of just guessing.

Most players would arrive at 4♠ on the above hand although 6♠, not easy to get to I know, is a good contract.  Suppose you are sitting South as Declarer and somehow arrive in 6♠ and West finds the best lead of the King of Hearts, how would you go about making 12 tricks?

Normal practice is to get the opponents' trumps out as soon as possible but in this case there is a problem.  As soon as the opponents take the Ace of Trumps, a second heart will be played to defeat the contract.  You therefore need to discard a losing heart before drawing trumps and the only way you can do that is to play on clubs.

At trick 1 you would therefore win the heart lead with the Ace, then play two rounds of clubs (South's Ace and King).  After that, cross to the Ace of Diamonds and play one more club from Dummy, discarding a losing heart from the South hand.

It is always important for Declarer to look at the two hands when dummy is exposed and plan the play. 

Most Bridge players in the UK play an opening bid of 1NT as showing a balanced hand with 12-14 points.  Not only is this a very descriptive bid but it occurs frequently and has a good pre-emptive value, being relatively difficult for the opponents to bid against.

After North opens 1NT, it would be a fairly brave East who would venture into the bidding at this stage as South could be strong.  I suspect most Easts would pass so South should now bid 2♥ (or 2♦ if you are playing transfers) as a weak take-out.  Clearly Hearts is much better than No Trumps as you can make 8 tricks in hearts but could be held to only 3 tricks in No Trumps.

On a lucky day, the opponents might allow you to play in 2♥ for a very good score.  However, looking at the East-West cards, they have the balance of the points yet it is not that easy for either of them to bid.  In practice I would recommend the above auction in a transfer sequence but with an ordinary 2♥ weak take-out bid, I would expect East to 'protect' with a bid of 3♦ as his partner must be marked with some values.  In 3♦  East-West can make 10 tricks, losing two clubs and the Ace of trumps. 

Of course, Bridge being Bridge, some East-West pairs will end up in 3NT as maybe West will cue bid 3♥ then East bid 3NT.  I am not advocating this as a good contract but in this case it is there for the taking.  South would no doubt lead the Queen of Hearts and North would of course (!) play the King on it to unblock the suit.  Providing East holds up the Ace for one round, he is home and dry.

A ruff and discard is when a suit is played (normally by the defenders) when neither Declarer nor Dummy holds that suit, thereby allowing one of the hands to ruff and the other hand to discard something.  This is normally a defensive error but good play by Declarer can force this situation to happen as in the above deal.

North-South bid to 4♠ after East pre-empts in diamonds.  East leads the King of diamonds and it is obvious that West must hold a singleton.  The contract looks safe with two hearts and a diamond to lose but when Declarer wins the lead and starts drawing trumps there is bad news, an unexpected trump loser.

However, all is not lost.  Remembering the bidding, East is unlikely to hold anything other than his 7 card diamond suit so play off two rounds of trumps then your top clubs.  West will get in at some point either with a heart or a trump but, as he will have no clubs left, he will be forced to continue playing hearts after making the Ace and King.  As neither the North hand nor the South hand has a heart, West is forced to concede a ruff and discard and a losing diamond can be discarded from the North hand whilst the heart is ruffed in the South hand and the contract is made. 

I was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a very good but unusual defence on the above hand involving two ruff and discards.

North led the King of hearts.  When dummy came down, the contract looked reasonable with hopefully just the Ace of trumps and a couple of hearts to lose.

Opposite his partner's lead South played the 3 of hearts confirming an odd number of cards in that suit.  North continued with the Ace and then the Queen, deliberately allowing me to have a ruff and discard.  I got bad vibes at this stage.  North had sensibly realised that his partner must hold next to nothing so the only hope of defeating the contract was to play his partner to hold Jxx of trumps.

Having ruffed the heart in hand, I played a spade towards dummy's King Queen.  Up went the Ace and North played a fourth heart, giving me a second (useless) ruff and discard and thereby promoting his partner's Jack of spades.  I had a choice of ruffing with a low spade and getting overruffed by the Jack or ruffing with a top spade, thereby promoting the Jack as a winner, the setting trick.  Very neat defence but not nice for Declarer!

This was an exceptional hand as more often than not, giving Declarer a ruff and discard is bad defence but in this case, giving two ruff and discards was the only way to defeat the contract.