We finish the year with another slam hand, as bidding and making a slam is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game. On board 8, North has a routine weak NT opening and South with a strong hand with two weakish 5 card majors has an interesting choice of responses, which partially depends on the system in use. I think that a normal approach would be to start with a transfer to Spades with the intention of continuing with 3 Hearts - for some players this shows 5/5 distribution as hands with 5/4 in the majors would use Stayman and then follow with a jump to 3 of the long suit if partner denies a major. As an aside, there is a convention called Smolen which is widely played in America, where responder jumps in the 4 card suit to achieve the effect of transferring the contract to the 1NT opener. This is particularly sensible when playing strong NTs.
 
Returning to the hand, in response to the transfer to Spades the North hand should not break the transfer (in my opinion) with a 4333 shape and so bids 2 Spades . As planned, South continues with 3 Hearts to show the second suit. Some would play this as forcing to game whilst for us it is only invitational and the bidding can stop if opener bids 3 Spades. It is very important to know your system here as, if 3 Hearts is game forcing, 3 Spades by opener should be a stronger bid than using up space by jumping to 4 Spades. However, if the sequence is only invitational plus opener would need to jump to 4 spades with a good hand to ensure that game is reached.
 
On the actual hand, North should wake up to the fact that his hand has greatly improved. He holds decent 4 card support for Spades, a superb holding in support of partners Hearts and an outside Ace, all very positive features. To alert partner to this fact, North cuebids 4 Clubs, an unusual action which tells partner that the opening hand is good for a possible slam. There is a problem now as South does not know which suit is agreed. Without an interest in slam South could sign off in 4 Hearts and expect partner to convert to spades if necessary.
 
As South has a strong hand and now knows that  North has a good fit he could just jump to 6 Hearts for a choice of slams. However, should opener have the SKQ, HKQ, CA a grand slam could be makeable so jumping to the six level is premature. So South cuebids the Diamond Ace, expecting partner to now tell him which suit is agreed. When North bids 4 Spades to set trumps South continues with 4NT as Keycard Blackwood. The response shows that a keycard is missing so 6 Spades becomes the final contact.
 
If the game was either rubber bridge or teams in which making the contract is very important and overtricks relatively unimportant the declarer would probably win the Diamond lead and play Ace and another Spade claiming 12 tricks when the trumps split 2-2. This approach minimises the danger of conceding a ruff in a side suit if breaks are very bad. In pairs it is important to try for the overtrick if the trump situation is fortunate, so declarer should cross to dummy by overtaking a Club honour with the Ace to take the Spade finesse. When the SQ is covered by the King it is normal to play for the suit to split 2-2 and so we drop the S10 and make 13 tricks. The chance of a 2-2 split is 40% whilst a 3-1 is 50% but the chance of a particular player having 3 cards is only half of the 3-1 splits and thus 25% making playing for the drop a clear favourite.
 

I do not see that there was an outstanding hand this week, so we will look at board 14 which is an interesting bidding battle, with some important points in play and defence.

Both East and South pass, and West opens 1H.  North’s bid depends on system; it is an excellent intermediate jump overcall of 2S, but most play weak jumps,  so 1S is our bid.

At our table, East raised to 2H. The hand is very maximum for the bid despite the lack of aces and kings. In the modern style, a jump raise is more an attempt to win the contract than to invite game, so I would have bid 3H on this hand.  The truly invitational hand should  cuebid the opponents suit to show at least game invitational values.

South now wants to bid, but does not have primary spade support of 3 or more cards. The answer is again a modern development,  the responsive double,  which shows tolerance for partners’ suit and support  for  the unbid suits, a perfect description.

At our table, West passed when she might have pre-empted with 3H, and I somewhat cowardly chose 2S when I might have tried 3S, although game looked unlikely opposite a passed hand without a true spade fit.

East rebid 3H, and Georgia raised me to 3S, a weaker bid than doubling again. West continued to 4H leaving me to make a decision. It seemed clear that the hand belongs to North/South but is it a game? It seemed to me that it was unlikely that we can make 4 spades opposite a passed hand so I doubled 4 hearts and everyone passed.

The obvious lead is the SA and the carding and the bidding show that declarer started with 3 spades and partner with a doubleton. Now how to defend? It seems probable that partner has at least one honour in diamonds and probably the CK. So we could play CA and another, hoping to get a ruff for 2 down.  But we know that declarer has 6 hearts and 3 spades so is unlikely to hold 3 clubs.  If we play CA and a club we might set up the suit and allow the contract to be made.

So I decided to try for any diamond tricks that we might have,  on a good day partner could have AK10 over the QJ. As there is no chance that I would lead away from either the ace or king in this position I chose to give count be leading low. On this hand it was not a good choice.

Declarer played the queen and the spotlight is on South. Knowing that the ace is with West there is no percentage on covering with the king. If South does cover West can discard one of the club losers on the third round of diamonds and make the contract.  It is text book not to cover the first of touching honours and this hand shows why. As long as the defence is not stupid the contract goes down one giving us 60% on the board.

Returning to the auction, if North can overcall 2S as intermediate then South should raise to 4S but can it be made?  A trump lead by East will result in the defence getting 2 heart tricks and at least 2 diamonds but what happens on the normal lead of HQ?

West  can overtake the lead to return a trump. Declarer wins in dummy, crosses to the CA to ruff the heart, cashes the CK and ruffs a club, hoping for a 3-3 split. When that fails, it is time to play on diamonds, needing to win 1 trick in the suit.  East has shown up with the HQJ and CQJ so the DA is near certain to be with West to justify the opening bid. So there is no point in leading a diamond to

the king. The only chance is to duck the diamond twice and hope the ace falls. As you see this works and 4S is made. If you count the hand, you will be fairly certain that West was 3622 and you would be confident that this line will work.

Not entirely surprisingly, making 4S would be a top for NS just as making 4H the other way would be for EW. Three N/S pairs made 10 tricks in 4S and 2 others managed 11!  Three E/W pairs made 10 tricks in hearts, including one in game.

Steve is once again!! On holiday so it befalls to me to step into his shoes and find a ‘hand of the week’

Most experienced players have ‘gadgets’ they use when opponents have the ‘audacity’ to interfere with their bidding! One common theme of today’s players is to try and disrupt the bidding after a 1 NT opening.  

What to do after intervention over opening NT?  S dealer Vul: E/W

Auction:  South will pass and West if playing a weak NT will open 1NT

The action that North takes will depend on the defence they are playing, most partnerships will have a way of expressing this hand type, Kelsey, Asptro, for instance. At our table I could have bid 2D to show the majors but chose a bid of 2H and East passed.

Should East bid?  In my opinion - Yes.  By using a conventional bid called Lebensohl one can easily describe your hand type. 

2NT = artificial transfer bid, forcing opener to bid3C, after which responder may pass or sign off in three of his real suit. 

3 of a new suit is therefore natural and forcing

On the given hand South will almost certainly bid 3H over 2NT and it would be totally inadvisable for West to now bid 4Clubs, as partner could have a much weaker hand for his bid of 2NT. 

The success of this contract is by no means certain and good defence will certainly result in a plus score for E/W

East leads singleton Diamond – West wins with the Ace and now should ‘tell’ East what suit to play back, therefore returning his lowest card (2d) to indicate an entry in clubs, East ruffs and plays back the CQ – West wins with the Ace, noting the fall of the King by declarer, West should now play back his highest diamond and East after ruffing should return a Spade to the Ace and on the subsequent diamond return must make is heart king.

So, in defence E/W make 6 tricks for a +65% score

This hand is difficult because you need to set the spade suit with no support from your partner. Can your partnership do just that?

This week we have not chosen a Hand of the Week but have looked at pre-emptive bids although the bidding is shown for board 5.

Weak Two Bids

We know that not all are using this very simple but destructive bidding BUT of 12 hands boards 1, 2, 7, 8 were weak two openers. Hand 12 leant itself to a weak jump overcall.

What does 2♦ , 2♥  & 2♠  show?

5-9 points and a 6 card suit. Some will argue about suit quality.

As this is a limit bid, who is in charge of the auction?

Partner

After a 2♦ , 2♥  & 2♠ opening or weak jump overcall

2NT is an asking bid and shows values/points

Any other suit response is to play and opener may PASS or raise partner's suit

Raise of opener's suit is pre-emptive. 

With 3 card support bid to the three level

With 4 card support bid to the 4 level

3-level opening bids

Traditionally bids at the 3-level show a 7 card suit and when using weak two bids that tradition will continue except for an opening of 3♣ which will be at least a six card club suit and less than 10 HCP AND NOT two Aces. Really to preempt at the 2 level you  should not be able to take a tricks in any suit that is not trumps.

On the hand shown which was a 10 count with a 7-card club suit AND two Aces is just too strong and for if you misuse this bid 3♣ partner will PASS with his 16 count. Game is missed but if you pass and bid later game should be found.

What is the perfect pre-empt?

Assuming that East opens 3♣ what should South bid?

If South does pass what should North bid?

How should the bidding continue?

David bird in his books on leads suggest that it good to lead from 4 cards Jack high. However, just look at the heart suit from thins hand from monday.

If the declarer has to lead the suit he will make 2 tricks but if a defender leads the suit declarer will make 3 tricks.

The heart suit is called a "frozen suit" in that everybody must not lead it.

Indeed this hand also has other interesting ideas. Suppose everyone passes around to East. Just what should he bid?

How many tricks should East make in spades?

After partner's weak two opening you need partnership understanding to find the correct contract. You and partner must agree whether or not a change of suit is forcing and if partner bids a new suit just what are you allowed to do.

What is a good agreement? What is the correct agreememnt? 

We do not know however we know what works for our favourite partner.

Dave was unfortunate enough to be playing with Don. They had had a 2 minute discussion on system and so had no agreement. do you?

Answer these questions and see whether or not you and partner agree

Over a 2♥ opening is 2♠ forcing?

If you bid 2♠  what is partner allowed to do?

If 2♠ is not forcing how do you create a force?

We were not at the club this week so thanks to Don for this hand.  Hand 24.

In the bidding, 2S and 3C were alerted.

The auction started with a routine pass by West and 1H from North. Now the spotlight is on East with a weak hand with six spades and a void heart. It seems near certain that N/S have the values for game and a very probable 8+ card fit in hearts. At love all it is possible that there is a cheap save in spades against the N/S game contract of 4H. So East needs to bid spades, but how many? Well, 3S shows a weak hand but partner will expect a 7 card suit and might make a losing decision. So that leaves 2S if playing weak jump overcalls, or else 1S, although partner will expect more in high cards for this bid. Our East chose a 1S overcall.

This left South with an easy bid of 2S to show a strong raise in hearts. The auction comes to West who must be surprised to hold a near opening bid of 11 points. A count of points around the table reveals North has 11+ to open and South has 10+ for the cuebid so East is known to have a weak overcall. Given this information to bid 2NT as our West player chose is clearly wrong and only succeeded to giving extra information to N/S. Probably West should pass smoothly, although a double of 2S is possible. In my opinion, the double should show a 3 card spade fit which would encourage East to bid on over 3 or 4 hearts which is not what West wants.

The auction finished with a 3C trial bid by North and an acceptance of game by South with 12 points and a good fit in Hearts. As is often the case the play decides who wins the matchpoints on the board.

On this hand, the defence is not really relevant as it is the decision of North, the declarer, as to how to play the trumps that is very important. In the absence of information from the bidding, it would be quite normal to start trumps by playing the ace hoping for an honour to drop of for an honour to appear from East when you play a second round towards the queen. the only time there are two trump losers is when West has KJx or KJxx This time declarer is unlucky although careful play will mean that the only losers are 2 hearts and 1 spade to make 10 tricks.

At our table the 2NT bid by West telegraphed the heart position allowing declarer to pick up the heart suit for 1 loser but first ruffing his 3rd spade in dummy with the queen and then leading hearts through West to make 11 tricks.

When you look at the traveller, making 4H by N/S was an average whilst the overtrick was worth a near top. Two declarers conceded 50 presumably by going down in 4H for a bottom.

After the succession of strong balanced hands of recent weeks this week was more mundane with many weak NT openings. I have chosen a hand that involves straight forward defence to hold down the number of overtricks in a lay-down game contract for North-South.

At our table Georgia was first in hand at Green (The technical term for not-vulnerable against vulnerable opponents). She chose to open with a weak 2 spades despite having only 5 card suit. The favourable vulnerability and the strength of the suit and the presence of a side 4 card minor helped sway her decision. This time the opposition has nothing to say and I chose a simple raise to game rather than start asking about her range with a 2NT enquiry bid. I expected to make 4 spades even opposite a minimum and felt slam was unlikely to be good. Such bidding avoids giving away information and sometimes the next hand may feel that it is being robbed and bid something and concede a huge penalty.

4 spades was passed out and easily made 11 tricks when Georgia twice led trumps from dummy to pick up the jack and then played ace, king and another club to set up the suit for 1 loser. That was 450 for us and 17 match points out of 28. 8 other pairs equalled our score and 1 played 4 spades making only 10 tricks giving all 28 points to east/west.

The other 6 pairs reached the inferior contract of 3NT and the obvious heart lead from East knocks out the side entry to dummy's spades. Normal play would be for declarer to cross to the ace of clubs to lead a spade to the king, ducked by West. It is then sensible to return to hand with the king of clubs (helping set that suit up) to play a second spade. East has to play the jack of spades saving declarer a guess in the suit. declarer covers with the queen and west should duck again as he can see that his partner would not play the jack unless forced to do so and therefore the last spade is with declarer. This second duck kills the spade suit for lack of an entry and declarer is forced to clear his club trick for fear that he goes down in 3NT. East wins the jack of clubs and plays a second heart to dislodge the ace. Now declarer has 9 tricks - 2 spades/2 hearts/2 diamonds and 3 clubs. At the table this result would be a complete top for East/West as last night 2 sets of defenders conceded 11 tricks for 460 and no matchpoints and 4 others allowed 10 tricks for 430 and a poor score for North/South.

It is true that East could have helped his partner by petering his spades to show a doubleton. It would have been bad play however as declarer could have just continued spades to drive out the ace rather than having to use up an entry to his hand in order to lead a second spade towards the dummy.