This was the best slam hand in the 28 deals of last night's league match. There were two other hands where slam was makeable but none of those contracts was bid (and neither slam was great); plus the 6♠ slam bid on B7 which was made on a fortunate lead, and one pair 6♥ on B25 only to go down two.

The bidding problem shown comes from a common start when playing a weak NT with four card majors.  At this point you'd like to show club support but also the balanced nature of the hand.  Bidding NT doesn't seem ideal with this spade holding.  What's your poison?

This hand from last night's practice match caused a lot of head scratching.  Every table opened 3♦ even vulnerable against not. On the plus side the shape is not 7222, the suit quality is ideal for a preempt, and it is first in hand.  So the bid is clearly justified, even before we see the problems created for the other side.

The first problem is for East over the opening bid - what to do with a 5332 shape and 12 HCP. This is a hand which would happily have opened a weak NT and shown a minimum when asked. Despite this, three pairs found a 3♠ bid (and the fourth passed).  This comes with serious dangers of partner having short spades and the third hand being able to make a penalty double.  It is not recommended; even over a 2-level preempt, a double is preferred to an overcall, unless the hand is seriously one-suited or two-suiter.  Over this 3♦ a double is my preference, as these 12 high card points are all working cards.  The pass is also quite acceptable.

Let's look first at what happens after 3♦-3♠-P.  Clearly the West hand will proceed, and be thinking that there are three denominations in the running.  There is little option but to introduce the first of these with 4♣ and this creates a dilemma for East. It can hardly be right to invent a heart suit or to rebid this spade suit, so the choice is between 4♦ as a waiting bid (not extra values as you are already game forcing, and too useful as a mark-time bid to insist on a control) and a raise to 5♣. The appeal of the latter is that it might dampen partner's spirits, but in practice of the three who overcalled with 3♠ and who all heard 4♣, only one raised to 5♣ and their partner gave them one more.  Full marks there. Two Easts, amazingly, rebid 4♠; one heard his partner pass and fortunately there were only three trump losers, so that game made. The other West continued by torturing partner with a 5♦ cue bid.  From East's point of view this was slamming in either clubs or spades, and he cue bid 5♥ only to hear partner raise this to 6♥.  He did not feel able to bid these spades for a third time, and the pass of 6♥ actually earned +980 on the board for a top score. 

To be fair, it is very difficult to handle a 2-suiter like West's after partner has overcalled even at a lower level.  If the 3♠ overcall did indeed have the sort of suit one should have to come in at this level, then you would expect 97 doubleton and a void to be adequate support.

And that difficulty is still there after 3♦-P-P and after 3♦-X-P.  In the former case, one useful tool is to defend over a minor suit preempt with the 4-level bids having the same pattern as your defence to a 1N opening (on the theory that both want the best way of finding major suit fits). Here for some 4♥ would now show hearts and a minor (clubs here) and game going values.  Partner would cue bid 4♠ (never right to argue with partner's two suiter) and on confidently to the heart slam.  After a double the responder can just assume that both hearts and clubs are good enough for slam, and the only issue would be stopping at the 6-level (and finding the grand were the spades headed by the AK).  The one table which saw 3♦-P-P  found a double over which partner of course bid 4♠.  It continued P-5♣-P-5♥ and all pass.  This just shows that being able to handle two suiters over a preempt matters.

The other interpretation of all this discussion is that "preempts work".

This was the other slam in the first round hands for the County KO and like yesterday's hand, there was only one pair bid to the seven level, and again that was the level you wanted reach.

Only two auctions are known and they both started 1♦ - 1♥  and have been censored.  So how should it be bid?

With 5-5 in two suits it is always right to bid the higher suit first, so here it must start 1♦-1♠.  South might be tempted to show the club suit, but it's wrong to hide the spade support, and the hand doesn't deserve another bid, so it is now or never.  Over the 2♠ bid, the default action for natural bidders is 3♥ and over this it seems honest for South to bid 3N. The club values are not good news for North, but there is a hint - almost a guarantee in a weak NT system - of a singleton heart.  North should now institute cue bidding and then a 4N ask, possibly also checking on the ♣K, before bidding the grand slam.

The alternative approach after 1♦ -1♠-2♠ is to bid 2N as an asking bid, over which 3♣ by South would show a 3154 shape. How North now continues is undiscussed territory for all of us, but one hopes that a path to 7♠ can be found.

The grand slam looks excellent, with 11 top tricks and two heart ruffs to make 13. But declarer needs to be careful, and curiously it is the lead of a singleton (very unusual against a grand slam) which creates the problem. After a club lead, declarer needs to start by ruffing two hearts, intending then to cash the ♣KQ, but when the heart king falls the clubs are not needed and declarer can just draw trumps instead. Playing a second club too early lets East ruff and the grand slam is now down.

How the one pair bid the grand slam has still to be discovered. Does anyone know?

There was one exceptionally tough match in last night's first round draw for the County Knockout, when Angseesing was pitched against Waggett.  There were plenty of swings ending 66-79 in favour of the team of Peter Waggett with Roger Jackson, and Richard Harris playing with Mark Rogers.  The winners gained enormously from swings on two slam hands, of which this was one.

The bidding shown was the winner team's auction to the good grand slam which no other team reached.  We cannot offer much to recommend about it after the third bid. 

More interesting is whether or not the grand slam (everyone bid to some slam) should have been bid with confidence rather than on a whim. Most people started with a 2N opener, with an excellent 21-count (upgraded mentally to a 22-count).  Clearly South will show spades, but then comes the key question, whether to show diamonds next or not. 

If South shows the diamond suit through a 2N-3♥-3♠-4♦ sequence, what does North do? A favoured approach is always to sign off in either 4♠ or 5♦ with a minimum, and to use the other three bids as slam interest, with 4♥ for slam interest in spades (else no there is no way to stop in 4♠), and 5♣ for slam interest in diamonds, leaving 4N for slam interest but no fit.  Here that would be fine for South, who is now intent on playing in spades.  How you get to the grand slam now remains uncertain, as none of us have ever discussed what happens after 4N!

More promising is for South to ignore the diamonds and treat the hand as a spade single suiter.  This gives up a good grand slam opposite ♠AT♥A64♦KQJ8♣ AT5, and that is somewhat short of a 2N opener.  But it also avoids finding a diamond contact opposite ♠AT♥AKQ♦J764♣AKT5.   You cannot just blast a slam in case they are cashing two top hearts, so your best bet is either transfer at the 3-level or the 4-level and then bid 5♣ showing shortage there.  After a 5♦ cue, you need to sign off in 5♠  but partner continues with a heart control.  Continuing with 5N (ace asking since 4N was missed)  gets a response showing all the keycards and North can now see that the grand slam is good. 

Easy game this.

It was surprising to see so few defenders collect their tricks on this board from Monday. The auction seems almost inevitable, although an immediate leap to 4♥ by South would have given the defence less information. There were four tables did not play in 4♥; one was when South on the second turn bid only 3♥, one when North played 3N, and the other two were 5♥ contracts, bid presumably over the opponent's 4♠.  Bidding 3♠ is actually par on this deal (not quite true!), but given that so many made the heart game, sacrificing in 4♠ might have been a good safety move, and when the opponents bid on it shows a fine profit.

Against 4♠ it is normal for West to lead a spade, and if the bidding is as shown then East will win and know that a switch is needed. The question is whether to play partner for a top heart, in which case leading a club might get you a heart ruff, or to go after diamonds, where you need partner to have KQx in the suit. And there might be some combinations that work too.

The downside of leading the club is that partner needs to turn up with the heart ace and declarer must not have a singleton club, which is a lot to ask. Partner having a slow heart trick and something in diamonds is much more appealing, so the diamond switch seems better odds.  After a switch to the low diamond you expect the defence to cash three rounds of the suit. What comes next? The only chance is a fourth diamond, and that works wonders - promoting the heart jack as the fifth defensive trick. 

Why did no table manage that?

The par contract was reached very few times on this hand from Monday, and the puzzle is why?

The bidding shown was a common start.  After partner has passed West's ambitions are limited, and it seems right to make a preemptive bid.  But after the opponents volunteer 5♦ you need to decide on whether or not to defend.  You don't have much defensive strength, but partner may be sitting there with a juicy diamond holding.  Which way do you jump?

The just concluded run of the EBU's Inter-Club Knock-Out started in September 2016 with 222 teams from bridge clubs all across the country, including 7 teams from Cheltenham Bridge Club.  For the fourth time, one of the Cheltenham teams has reached the final, and the final was played on Saturday last - against a team from Tunbridge Wells BC.   For the fourth time, Cheltenham came second in the final.  The Cheltenham team was Richard Butland & Paul Denning, Richard Chamberlain & Patrick Shields.    Patrick & Paul have been in all four teams which reached the final, and the two Richards were in the team on the last three occasions.

Here was an early hand where they outplayed us to make game.  After the uninformative bidding shown (1N was 15-17 balanced), West led the ♥8 ...  over to you ....

We saw the strongest responding hand for some time last night, when the 24-count shown heard partner open a weak NT, of the 11-14 range.  There is no doubt that you want to bid a slam, but the question is whether to bid a small slam or a grand slam, and in no-trumps or in a suit?

The conventional wisdom is that you need 37 hcp (actually I might lower this) to make 7N and that is probably true as long as the points missing do not include a king.  It is very hard, on balanced hands, to make 12 tricks in just three suits to go with the ace in the fourth.  Here there are only two kings missing and it would be nice to check on these before bidding 7N.   It's also worth considering a suit contract, as that often generates an extra trick.  The same consideration - missing a king is bad news - applies to a suit contract, and if you are missing just a few jacks or a queen and a jack, the extra trick from the 4-4 fit might not matter.

The key when you don't know what to do is to consult partner.  You might start with 2♣ asking for majors, or 2♠ (for some) starting a Baron sequence (bidding suits up the line).  Again it comes back to the missing kings - you could find a suit fit and then invoke ace and king asking, but if you don't find a fit, any NT bid will be natural and you lose the chance.  This is curiously a position where Gerber 4♣ becomes useful - just like it was useful on one hand about 8 years ago!   You can check for aces and then for kings and when a king is missing, it seems that 6N is the prudent choice.

How well does that work?  Look at the hands and the answer ....

LATER ADDITION

Simulation of 103 openers opposite this particular 24-count showed that

• 60% of the openers were 11-counts, and 30% were 12-counts;  only 10% were upper range.
• A third of the time you want to be in 6N, one third in 7N, and one third the grand is 50%.
• Asking range (via 5N) got you to the preferred level 80% of the time (guessing is 50%), even if it gave the wrong answer on this hand.
• A suit fit was relevant only 30% of the time it was present, and it offered a full extra trick one quarter of that time (and made a 50% grand slam into 95% the remainder).
• The range is as good an indicator of whether to stop in 6N as is the absence of a king.

This hand looks like a very easy slam to bid, but it eluded most pairs on Monday night. A lot was generally read into North's response to the opening bid.  Where North bid 1♠ it was followed by clubs from South and now North became mesmerised by the two stops in the fourth suit, and quickly bid 3N.  In practice this contract made even though there were five top spades to be cashed. 

But better contracts were available.  After 1♥ - 1♠ one South rebid 4♥ and his partner just charged ahead (via 4N asking about keycards) into 6♥ and they got the top score on the board. One pair started really well, when North preferred to bid the stronger club suit first. This style is to be encouraged, as long as the hand has game forcing values. The initial 2-level bid, especially if game forcing, gets partner thinking game and slam rather than part-score and it often works out well.  Here it sh asould have hit the jackpot as South can now bid 3♠ to show a good hand with club support and short spades.  Bidding the slam is easy then, although this pair had a slight mix-up and ended (disastrously) in 6N. 

One other pair bid to 6♣ - perhaps they'll tell us how ....

The East hand on this board was the wildest distribution seen on Monday.  After South's pre-empt, North might well have raised to game, as hearing either 3N or a spade bid from East would not be good news.  The pass gave East a much improved chance to describe the hand, here with a 4♥ bid promising a major-minor two suiter.    Over this West could easily bid 4♠ but now East had to ask - was this enough?

In practice East chose to bid 5♥ next, clearly a slam try and agreeing spades.  A bid of 5♣ might have been more informative, but it was likely that partner knew which was the second suit, and it was better not to introduce any doubt as to the denomination in which to play.  At this point things went wrong and the pair ended up in 6♠.  

You might think it was all over then but propsects were improved when North led a heart.  Now dummy's diamond was discarded and declarer was given an entry to hand.  The best play in the spade suit, with no informaiton about distribution, is to cash the ace and king.   Here, when South is known to have seven hearts to North's three, the odds change and - given no opportunity to cash a top spade first - the best odds are a first round finesse of the jack.   Sad to say, declarer was aware of this and took the finesse and when it lost the contract could no longer be made.

Could the defence have avoided that heart lead?  One option would be for South to double the 5♥ (or even the 4♥) bid by East.  Since partner was by default leading a heart, this is not a lead directing bid but an anti-lead-directing bid - suggesting to partner that they might be disappionted in this suit and there is an alternative which might work better.   While this might get the diamond lead you want - look what happens if North, as they might, finds a club lead.  Decalrer has no choice but to play the spades from the top, find an entry to hand with the ♠T, and dispose of the diamond on the ♥A.  The slam now makes!

All 11 tables played this hand in 3N, and whether it was easy or not came down to the opening lead.  Declarer has one top trick in hearts, and four in diamonds, and two in clubs.  When a spade was led by the spade bidder round to the king the total is eight and declarer should try clubs next - but when they were found to be 4-1 offside, there was only two club tricks.  The fall back is to play hearts - so come to a top diamond and play a heart to the ten and when that holds, you now have nine tricks.

But only six declarers got a spade lead - the record shows one defender led a club, one led a heart, and three led diamonds. The problem is much the same with any of these leads - you test the suits and find you have two hearts, four diamonds, and two clubs.  So you need to manufacture a trick out of spades.  Can you do that?

This hand proved troublesome to a number of teams on Monday. It represents an unsound slam, as with a spade loser you need to find the club king onside and the diamond king onside (usually) and that's only a 25% shot before you factor in not losing two spades.

After the opening bid the responding hand will always be thinking about slam possibilities, but the opening bid shows limited values and that means slam is uncertain. The answer is for responder to consult opener. After the sequence above reaches 3♠ the West hand can show interest in two ways. Bidding a natural, invitational 4N as shown is one (ace asking would cue bid then bid 4N), and cue bidding and then stopping in 4♠ is the other.  But the fact is that four pairs could not stop before the 6-level.

But now to the play. The three potential losers are in clubs, diamonds and spades and you can only afford one.  There are two ways to tackle the spade suit; if you cannot afford a loser you must find doubleton QJ or North with a singleton honour - and starting with the king on the first round is best. If on the other hand you can afford one but not two losers in spades, the best play is different.  

How do you tell what to do?  The answer is to test the minor suits first.  If you try them both and find both finesses working, the best play in the spade suit is to start with small to the ten. This allows you to pick up all 3-2 breaks and all 4-1 breaks except for singleton honour with South.

None of those in slam found the winning line. One declined the club finesse at trick one, convinced that nobody would lead away from the king.  Another started the spades by leading the ace.  It is very important that if you bid 23% slams, that you do succeed on the 23% of occasions when the cards are lying just right!

There was a variety of results on this board, even though everyone played in spades. There were 6 tables in 4♠, 5 tables in 3♠, and just one stopped in 2♠.  The results were all 9 or 10 tricks with most of those in game making it when it can or should go down one.

First to the bidding shown. The third in hand 2♥ opener is stronger than usual but was chosen as a 2♥ rebid was likely on this hand and starting at the 2-level can make life difficult for the opponents. Here it goaded South into stretching with 3♥ showing spades and a minor.  North had been expecting a bit more and also stretched to game, but it turned out that every high card was playing a useful part and the game was viable. Opening 1♥ would have made it easier for North-South to stop in a part-score.

Over to East for the opening lead. Given partner would have little, East had to look to a ruff ruff to gain a trick, so out came the ♦J.  West won trick one with the ace and now needed to stop and think.  After the top diamond and a ruff, there were still two tricks to find, and this meant East having either two aces or one ace and the ♥KQ.   Two of these three need East to hold the spade ace, and from that thought Mark Rogers spotted a third more attractive alternative, needing just the spade ace with East.

He switched to his singleton heart. Now when partner won the ♠A there would be a heart ruff, and after that could come the diamond ruff. Really neat, and he beat the game by doing this. The other table took the diamond ruff at trick two, after which the only successful defence would be to lead away from the long hearts (so as to give partner a heart ruff after winning the♠A) but this was not found.

The key to getting this hand right is to be thinking in terms of all the tricks you need to beat the contract, and not just thinking one trick at a time.