Last week I talked about having a 28 count and how unusual it is. Well, this week the Wests had the pleasure of holding a balanced 29 count. The computer seems to be producing a string of strong balanced hands as East/West also held three normal 2NT openers.

 

So how to bid this week's hand - AK52/AKJ/KQ/AKQ10?  Our opponents opened with their strongest bid of 2D and rebid 3NT over the 2H relay response. East, with length in the minors, only added his 8 points to his partner's promised 25+ and raised to 6NT. As you can see there are 15 top tricks and that was worth 40% of the match points The top scores went to the 7 pairs who bid 7NT, 5 played in 6NT, 2 reached 6C for a near bottom and 2 pairs bid only to 3NT and need to examine their partnership understandings. At the table where 6C was the contract, the Wests should have looked at their hand and realised that there was no advantage in playing in a suit, because with partner holding the Ace of Diamonds, there was nothing to ruff in his hand to gain a trick. At pairs, contracts in a minor suit score badly and are only sensible if there is an unstopped suit for NTs and no major suit fit, or if there are to be many ruffs in each hand.

 

Returning to the hand in question, how can we bid a grand slam with any certainty?  Well, opening with the strongest bid is obvious. If East replies with a negative or relay response, what should West rebid? If you count certain tricks, it is not guaranteed to produce 9 although it would be unlucky not to do so. A 3NT rebid normally shows 25-26 points and we have more. On the assumption that a 4NT rebid would be treated as natural  it is not sure that we are worth it and the potential for misunderstanding is high if we bid 4NT so a practical 3NT is my choice. When partner makes a straight-forward raise to 6NT what should we do?  In theory, we have made a limit bid and partner is in charge and has made a decision, and therefore we pass 6NT. However, we have shown almost an ace fewer than we hold, so my vote is for a raise to 7NT and be prepared to apologise profusely if it is wrong. At pairs it is only a bottom and you get get it back with an overtrick on the next hand.

 

The auction above involves some guesswork which I believe is avoidable. If I held the East hand of Q/107/AJ92/J75432 and partner opened with our strongest bid (2C for us). I would respond 3C despite the weakish suit. Partner could check that we are both playing with cards of the same colour before either going straight to 7NT or (if you believe in fairies) asking for aces and then bidding 7NT.

 

Returning to one of the 2NT openings, on board 20 West held 9532/853/-/J108532 when partner opens 2NT. This is a difficult hand where we suspect that the best contract is 3C. As there is no way to reach that contract what is best? If you play stayman asking for a 5 card major it is possible to search for a 4/4 spade fit or a 5/3 heart fit. If neither exists we have to settle for 3NT and hope partner's clubs allow us to make 5 or 6 tricks in that suit. Today partner has AK7/KJ10/KDJ65/A7 so there is no major fit or club fit and we go down several tricks. A few pairs made 2NT but most were losing some number of 100s in 2NT or 3NT so it is hard to get a plus score on the hand. Still I think the odds choice is to bid on over 2NT despite the result here.