North opens 1♥ on his 5 card heart suit.  South responds 2♦.  North's rebid of 2♠ is known as a 'reverse'.  It shows a strong hand with around 16-19 points and at least five of the original and four of the second suit.  Because partner responded at the 2 level (showing at least 8 points), the 2♠ bid should be taken as game forcing.  South can now support hearts.

This hand is identical to the one above except for one thing.  North now has the seven of clubs instead of the Ace.  This makes all the difference and North-South no longer have enough values to be in game.

North still has an opening hand and starts with 1♥.  However, North's hand is not strong so after his partner responds 2♦, he is not good enough to bid 2♠ so should just rebid hearts. Remember that if South held a four card spade suit, he probably would have responded with 1♠. 

As we saw with the previous example, if North bids 2♠, he has rebid at a higher level than his minimum rebid (2♥) and this shows additional values.

It is very important to distinguish between a strong and a weak opening hand and communicate this correctly to partner so he can judge the combined strength and decide whether to play in a part-score or a game.  On the first hand, the combined strength is enough to bid game but on the second, there is not enough strength to bid to game and only nine tricks are possible.

Looking at the East-West hands, you can see that if you play in hearts, you only have two tricks to lose, a diamond and a club.  You would therefore want to play in 4♥ but how would you get to it after North opens 1♦?

East with 16 points definitely wants to compete.  However he does not have a five card suit to overcall nor does he have a stop in diamonds so he can't bid no trumps.  He therefore doubles, asking partner to bid something.  South passes and West can show his hearts.  Despite only having nine points, remember that West is being forced to bid even if he has no points.  He should therefore jump to 2♥ to let his partner know he has some values.  On the basis of this, East can now confidently jump to game.

Double is a much underused bid.  It can be used in many situations and enables players to compete on many occasions when it would otherwise be very difficult.  Very often contracts can be made by both sides so it is important to be able to compete whenever possible.

On the above hand, after three passes West opens 1♠ which his partner raises to 2♠.  West has a good hand and some would bid 4♠ straightaway.  However, a little more prudent would be to make a 'Trial Bid'.  Spades have already been agreed so another suit is asking partner if he has help in that suit.  In this case West would like some help in diamonds so bids 3♦.  East can now re-evaluate his hand.  Does he have help in diamonds?  How good was his raise to 2♠?  If he has help in diamonds and reasonable values for his raise to 2♠, he can now jump to 4♠, otherwise he can bid just 3♠.  In this case, with KJx of diamonds, the King of clubs and four trumps, East considers his hand is helpful enough to bid 4♠.

North leads the Queen of hearts which is almost certainly top of a sequence such as QJ10.  When dummy is exposed, you are disappointed to see you have four losers, Ace and King of trumps, the Ace of diamonds and a heart.  The Ace and King of trumps and Ace of diamonds are unavoidable losers but what about the heart?  To make your contract you can only lose three tricks so how might you resolve this situation? 

Following a competitive part-score battle, your opponents end up in 3♠, not having quite enough values to bid Game.

You are West and you start off with Ace and King of hearts.  Your partner follows suit with the 3, then the 8.  You then play Ace and King of diamonds.  Again your partner follows suit, first with the 10, then with the 3.  You now have four tricks and need one more to defeat the contract.  What would you play next and why?

The bidding of the above hand is quite straightforward.  When East opens 1♣, West immediately knows they have enough values for game.  However, at this stage, there is no need to do anything more than bid 1♥ as this change of suit response is forcing so East should not pass.  East rebids 1♠ and although West has support for East's clubs, his good cards in hearts and diamonds make No Trumps a good contract.  West should jump straight to 3NT as bidding anything less would risk East passing and missing game.

West therefore becomes declarer in 3NT and North may well lead the eight of hearts which he wins cheaply with the 10.  How would you continue?

On the above hand South deals and opens 1♠.  Some would bid 2♠ on the North hand whilst others would bid 3♠.  It is marginal.  Over 3♠ South has no hesitation in raising to Game but if North only bids 2♠, South should still be interested in going on if his partner has a good raise to 2♠.  With a good hand like this, South can make what is known as a 'Trial Bid' by bidding a suit he requires a bit of help with.  In this case he would bid 3♥ and North who does have help in hearts and a maximum for his 2♠ bid would happily jump to 4♠. 

Against 4♠ South is Declarer and West leads the Queen of clubs which is won by the Ace.  Declarer draws trumps in two rounds but how would you continue after that?

You have a club to lose and depending on the lie of the hearts and diamonds, worst case scenario you could lose the Queen of hearts and Ace and Queen of diamonds if East holds all of those cards.  That would be three out of three losing finesses which is very unlucky.

If you look at all four hands you will see that it is not your lucky day but do you have any chance to redeem yourself from this poor situation?

Well there is one little extra ray of hope.  If the hearts break 3-3, you could discard one of dummy's diamonds on the 13th heart which would mean only one diamond loser.  Your first finesse should therefore be a heart to the Jack.  When this loses to the Queen, East cannot afford to play a diamond as this would lose the defence a trick.  Many Easts would cash their King of clubs followed by another club.  Declarer ruffs the second club and plays off Ace and King of hearts.  Declarer will now only lose the Ace of diamonds as everything else can be cross-ruffed and 4♠ is made.

Well done Declarer but not so well done to the defence.  West's opening lead of the Queen of clubs will have been from a sequence and therefore promises the Jack.  When East gets in with the Queen of hearts, instead of cashing the King of clubs, he should return a small club so his partner can win the trick.  West should ask himself why this has happened and switch to a diamond through dummy's KJ, enabling East to make AQ before Declarer gets the chance to throw one of them away.  4♠ is now one down.

Many contracts like this are on a knife-edge and can go one way or the other.  Declarer gives himself his best chance but on best defence, the contract can still be broken.  Such is the fascination of Bridge.