Voids and suit fits make a big difference to the success in making contracts. Even then certain cards may need to be in the right position with the opponents to enable the trick count to be maximised. This hand is a typical example of how even with the total number of points in the E/W hands at 22 points, a game contract of 11 tricks in a minor can be comfortably made.

In the bidding, West will normally open the bidding with 1S after passes from North, East and South. North is unlikely to overcall and East should ignore the suit strength of the club suit and bid up the line with 2C to show a hand containing a good 9 points or better. Considering the void, the West hand is worth maybe 5 points higher if a fit with East can be established, so bids 2D second time around. East can now agree the suit with a raise to 3D. With a known fit and a void, West should upgrade the hand and to bid 5D, while ignoring any thoughts of bidding 3NT.

In the play, with QH sitting in an ideal position in the South hand, 12 tricks are possible for declarer with a combination of top tricks and appropriate ruffs.   

Vulnerability can be a deciding factor on whether to penalise or whether to bid game. In this hand, E/W have a large majority of the points sufficient for a making game but is that the best option for the pairing when the opposition interfere in the bidding process.

North has a possible weak-2 in spades, although the suit is not of the best quality. However, many pairs will open 2S and immediately this presents a problem for East who is also loaded in the spade suit. A double will generally be considered as a take-out bid, so the best thing to do is pass and hope that partner has a hand suitable for a re-opening double, which the partner should strive to do once the South hand has passed. Note: - a danger is that East hestitates and this could cause other problems, which may lead to a Director call.

Anyway, when the bidding has proceeded 2S – P – P, West strives to bid and the hand is ideally suited for a take-out double. N/S have nothing more to say and East will now control the bidding with options to pass for penalties or seek a game in a suit (hearts) or even NTs although the singleton KC is a bit of a draw back for the latter. With favourable vulnerability, passing for penalties is clear-cut and as too with equal vulnerability. It is less certain if E/W are vulnerable and N/S are non-vulnerable and in this case, it is best to bid to game based as N/S can afford to be 3 down and still gain against a making E/W game, such is the scoring system of bridge.

On the play, best defence can take the contract 4 down, but this may only be 3 down on normal play.

Bidding and making slams are subject to many articles and books. Making slams gives players a warm feeling especially as overall there are not so many opportunities in the course of an evening’s bridge. If we bid one every other session, this may be as many as most partnership realistically can expect. Of course, they don’t always make and may depend on a specific card sitting in the optimum hand for declarer. This hand requires good bidding practice and also careful play by declarer.

With E/W passing throughout the auction, North will open 1NT for those playing a weak-NT (12 to 14pts). South knows immediately game is a reasonable certainty but with a 17pts, 2 strong suits and a singleton a slam can be investigated. Certain key cards are needed from the North hand to achieve this objective. Initially South shows the 5-card heart suit with a transfer bid of 2D and after the transfer completion of 2H from North, South now shows the stronger hand by making a forcing bid of 3D to show game intention as a minimum. North is also encouraged and shows the heart fit with a jump to 4H. Essentially this is a limit bid but South is interested in more and makes a slam enquiry of 4NT (RKCB) knowing that the bidding can be suspended at 5H if North’s bid shows too few controls. When North shows 3 controls with 5C or 5D dependent on which version of RKCB is in play, South is quite happy to convert to 6H.

In the play, North can count 11 tricks and needs to find an extra trick to enable one of the club or diamond losers to disappear. Winning the opening lead, declarer clears the defensive trumps and plays the top two diamonds. When the QD drops on the second round, a third diamond is led which loses to JD in the East hand, but now the 10D is a master and this enables North to discard a losing club and the contract is made.

Sometimes it would be good if bridge was a perfect game, but would it be as enjoyable? In our bidding systems, the range of bids are in theory designed to achieve optimum contracts and where necessary to disrupt our opponents. Also, on marginal hands, we have to make the best judgements in both the bidding and the play. On this hand, the choice of final contract makes a big difference to both sides.

With South the opening bidder, 2NT for many is the logical choice, although as often there are other options such as the often used multi-2D with its various options, one of which steers the bidding to a forcing 2NT. After 2NT, with E/W unlikely to enter the bidding, North responds with a transfer bid of 3H, which South converts to 3S. This bid does not guarantee 3-card support for partner and it could even be a singleton but would normally guarantee at least two cards in the suit. North now has a decision to make. If North bids 3NT, South could well pass as the hand has a 2-card spade suit. However, the North hand has another detractor in a singleton heart and North has to carefully consider whether 4S is a better option to 3NT. On this occasion, the decision is critical to the final result.

When we look at the two reasonable contracts, in 3NT with West on lead and starting with 4^th highest heart, East wins the 1^st trick with QH returns the suit and the contract is immediately one down. In 4S, 10 tricks will be made as a minimum and 11 tricks will be made if declarer drops the singleton KD in the West hand. On this hand, clearly the suit option is best and in pairs those in 4S will likely get a good top, while in teams the scoring system will see a comparison of - 50 for 1 down as against either + 420 or +450 for the making contract. How did it go for you?

We don’t get so many Grand Slams to bid and it’s interesting to see how the bidding might evolve and which Grand Slam to select. As often, it can depend on which hand is controlling the auction and what systems are being used by the partnership and how the system is used.

With E/W not entering the auction, North will open 1C and South bids 1H to keep the bidding open. Note: - Those playing strong jumps may well bid 2H here. North knows a heart game should be on as a minimum and a useful splinter bid of 4D shows either a void or singleton for many pairings. While only holding 14pts, South could sign off in 4H but should consider that at least 5H will make with a good possibility of a slam and now has two good options for the next bid. If South bids 4NT (RKCB), North will reply 5H to show two controls without the QH. This still encourages South who now enquires with 5NT to ask North for the number of Kings outside the trump suit. With North bidding 6H (two Kings), South is aware that 7H has a good chance especially as the hand has a 6-card heart suit but may shy away from a 7NT bid with only holding a singleton club. In hearts, South can count 6 heart tricks, a diamond ruff, 2 spades, 2 clubs and a diamond. If North has any useful queen, 7 hearts will make so maybe 7NT looks a good option. In teams, it makes little difference which contract is chosen, but 7H remains the safest.

If we look at the bidding beyond 4D again and consider how this might proceed if South cue bids 4S. Now North could make the 4NT bid, and receiving RKCB replies of 3 controls for the initial request can count 12 tricks easily with 5 hearts, a diamond ruff, a diamond, 3 spades and 3 clubs. With a reasonable assumption that South has a 6-card heart suit for the slam push, it is perhaps reasonable to go for 7NT.

In the event, 13 tricks are comfortably made in 7H or 7NT, whether the hand is played by North or South.

It’s always nice to bid a slam and to do so with less than the suggested 32/33pts for a small slam or a grand slam is satisfying. Voids and singletons can make a big difference and such is the case with this hand.

Assuming E/W are playing a weak 1NT opening, East will begin with 1C and many South players will jump to 2S to show a weak jump overcall with a 6-card suit. Others may simply bid 1S but this may have less effect on the E/W bidding. In any event, West already knows that their partnership has a club fit and may simply make a forcing bid showing club support e.g. An Unassuming Cuebid or perhaps better a tool mentioned before Exclusion Blackwood to show a void in spades and asking partner to identify keycards in any other than spades. 4S is the bid for this process in this situation. This will steer the partnership into 6C or perhaps more a gamble a failing 7C.

However, having a void and a 4-card heart suit another option is to make a double to show at least a 4-card heart suit and knowing that if necessary clubs can be bid later in the auction. In principle, the double also implies a 4-card diamond suit and a minimum of 8pts for most pairings. Clearly if the void is taken into account the hand may well be worth 18pts.

Taking the double option, North could cloudy the bidding further but considering the vulnerability should be nervous and while a bid of 4S may be disruptive, a double 4S may be quite expensive noting the vulnerability. 3S could be an option. East however will be quite happy to support hearts and will likely bid 4H over 3S and even 5H over 4S. Making full use of the void, West will convert to a final contract of 6H, which scores better than the alternative of 6C mentioned earlier.

In the play, E/W can make 12 tricks gaining an extra two tricks by ruffing spades in the West hand for 5 clubs, 2 spade ruffs, 4 hearts and 1 diamond. 12 tricks are also made in clubs.

Partnership agreements are very important in bridge and countering opponents opening bids is sometimes difficult. It can be even more difficult if the opponents make a pre-emptive bid, which takes up bidding space from the pairing with the majority of the points. This hand is a good example of how pre-emptive bidding may put a spanner in the works.

West has a pre-emptive 3H bid for many pairs, although other options may be to begin with 2H or even a multi 2D for those using such a tool. Assuming West does open 3H, North will pass and being vulnerable East will normally pass, although 4H would make bidding more interesting as East knows South must have a big hand.

Anyway after 3H and two passes, best for South is to double to show a hand containing a 4-card spade suit. This forces another bid from North. If South just shows the longer diamond suit, North may not bid again. After the double, North has a key bid to make and must not make a simple 3S bid, as it is recommended that this should show a minimal hand in the range of 0 to 7pts. It is important that partnerships have a solid agreement on the strength of these hands following a double from partner and a good rule of thumb is to jump with support for partner’s known suit and 8+ points. In this case, with a 5-card spade suit and 9 pts, North jumps to 4S. South can now investigate a slam and assuming use of RKCB, all 5 key cards are known and the outstanding choice is whether to bid 6S or 7S.

In the play, 13 tricks are made if the spade suit is played for a 2-2 split, but only 12 tricks if North looks for the finesse on the suit.

A further point on the bidding is that if North denies the AH, this makes the decision on a grand slam easier as South will know that all North’s points are working in spades, diamonds and clubs.

Countering pre-emptive bids by opponents needs solid system agreement within partnerships. This hand offers thoughts on one such possible problem.

If East stays quiet, North/South will have a clear run to finding a slam contract in hearts and indeed there is a good chance of reaching a grand slam by using a combination of the Jacoby 2NT/cue bids/Exclusion Blackwood dependent on what system gadgets are in play for the partnership. Enough ammunition is in place to reach a final contract of 7H or 7NT, which makes thanks in part to the long running club suit in the North hand.

However, when East makes a light opening, the dynamics change a little. A weak-2 in spades should cause no concern and while a double is a useful starter, this author believes 2NT is a better bid to get over the hand strength and the stop in the spade suit. South doesn’t at this stage know the shape or strength of the North hand. A similar bid should also be in use over a Multi-2D opening by East. With the initial double, are there question marks to if this gives the best information to partner.

Once South has bid 2NT after any 2-bid by East, a transfer bid in by North sets the suit and once South breaks the transfer bid, the partnership should be in a good position to reach the grand slam contract of 7H or 7NT.

In the play, all roads clearly lead to 13 tricks whether the final contract is 7H or 7NT.

Defence is such an important part of the game of bridge and of course in theory, we are defending on 50% of the hands we play. A huge key to good defence is to have a solid agreement on the signals that ask partner to play a particular suit. Missing a signal can often lead to a contract making for a poor score, while getting them right is a good starter for a top or near top on a hand.

On the bidding of this hand, once North has opened 1H, the N/S partnership should always reach a good 4H contract with South ignoring the good spade suit to favour the clear heart fit with partner. However, in reaching the final contract, South will have mentioned the spade suit en-route and this can play a useful indicator to the defence for E/W.

The best lead is the singleton spade by East with the aim of getting a ruff if partner can get the lead. West should work out that the spade is a singleton and can help the defence by making a signal based on the value of the spade played. Typically, those playing McKenney signals will play a high spade to show preference for a diamond return should East regain the lead. A low spade  play a diamond to give West the lead. West now plays a second spade to enable the ruff for East and when East cashes KD, the contract is one down.

The hand print-out shows that the contract can always be made by N/S as if the spade lead is won in the South hand an immediate club which is finessed enables declarer to throw away a losing diamond. How many declarers would find this play, well done if you would.

Several boards with big distributions offering opportunity for considerable competitive bidding and an interesting bridge evening. This hand was typical of several hands with good distribution. 

With South as opening bidder, the rule of 19/20 enables the hand to be opened at the 1-level. Any consideration for partnerships with a weak-2 opening bid available on their Convention Cards to show a weak 2-suited hand should avoid any thought of opening with such a bid. For the South hand, a conservative addition of 5pts may be estimated for the void with additional shape plusses for the two 6-card suits. A further comment is that the major suit must be bid first in preference to 1C. West will probably overcall with 2D, but North already knows that game in spades is on opposite an opening 1S bid from partner and a bid of 3D (Unassuming Cue Bid) is useful at this stage, although many may bid 4S direct. East will probably interfere with 3H after 3D but would probably pass a 4S bid from North.

If the E/W pairing find their heart fit and West competes further with 5H, South will surely be prepared to bid 5S and this ought to be the final contract. Interestingly for equal vulnerability, if E/W sacrifice with 6H this will go down doubled for a poor score. However, if the vulnerability is favourable to E/W i.e. non-vulnerable against vulnerable, 6H proves a good sacrifice.

In the play, N/S have a certain 11 tricks which becomes 12 tricks on a heart lead as South can discard the losing diamond and lose just one club. However, if N/S venture to 6S, West will inevitable cash the winning diamond and wait to win the KC for 1 down in favour of E/W.

Competitive hands often make for an interesting evening and this first board of the set certainly fits that category. Both sides have game going hands and deciding whether to be declaring or defending is the question for each side.

Although some systems may allow a 2-level opening, most North hands will pass and East will begin with 1NT for those of the weak NT system. Of course, strong NTs will open at 1D and this will set the suit for the E/W combination. However, assuming the weak version of 1NT by East, South should immediately show the long spade suit with a jump to 3S. West is now in a little difficulty but having a void in spades can happily bid 4D holding 11 pts and a void in the opponent’s suit. North is now more interested in the action as North holds a void in the opposition suit and readily supports South with a bid of 4S. East is less comfortable but partner has made a free bid at the 4-level and should bid 5D. This could be the final contract as far as South is concerned as that hand has been fully shown at 3S, but North should come in with a 5S sacrifice. West may think about going one more but E/W are best to content themselves with a double.

In the possible play of the hand, N/S have a making 4S, E/W have a making 5D which does need careful play. With 5S one off doubled, this represents a good sacrifice against 5D making. However, E/W have to be careful in defence to cash their two club winners as 5S may just slip through the net. 

Wouldn’t it be good if we could see through the cards or have hindsight on these occasions?

Slam bidding can be a bit of an adventure and reaching the best slam is not always straightforward. Slam hands perhaps occur once or twice during an evening of bridge and we are not always the pairing with the points.

On this hand, North will open 1NT for those playing a weak NT. South knows immediately that a slam is possible having a huge shapely hand containing a long diamond suit with potentially 7 tricks in that suit alone. Immediate thoughts must be that a slam in diamonds is on the ‘cards’. But what are the other possibilities in particular NTs, which give a better score? Clearly for South, the spade suit is a big danger to a NT contract, but what if North has a stopper in the suit and the odds certainly favour North having a 4-card suit. So if South starts with a Stayman bid more information on this can be obtained. When North duly replies 2S which is promising, South can gain further information on the spade suit with a bid of 4NT knowing this commits the partnership to a slam. Using RKCB, North responds 5S to show 2 controls and the QS. With the lead in NT coming from the East hand, South works out that any lead will restrict the opposition to at most 1 trick, probably a spade and bids a very good 6NT.

In the play of 6NT, 12 or 13 tricks will be made dependent on the lead. Unless East leads AS, declarer will make all the tricks and this decision on whether to lead Aces is often debated between experts. Some do lead Aces and some don’t. This may depend on whether it is pairs or teams but in pairs it is often better to get the trick made as it can often get lost by not doing so.

Weak-2s are included in most of our Convention Cards in one form or another. They are used in various ways to get over weakish hands with a typically a 6-card suit and points in the range 5 to 10pts or thereabouts. Their design maybe primarily to disrupt the opponents bidding but also with a decent chance of making a 2-level contract by virtue of the suit length and hopefully some support from partner. Having a defence to a weak-2 bid needs good partnership agreement and coming into the bidding at the 3-level can sometimes be a risky process.

On this hand, following passes by South and West, North has a good 2S opener, which puts pressure on East who is very likely to have opening points based on the previous bidding. But where can East go with a 5-card spade suit and not enough points for 2NT, which would normally be in the range 16+ pts. Double is also out of the question as this would invariably be for Take-out. The only decent solution is to Pass and hope that partner can come in with a Protective bid. South also has to pass as a misfit is obvious and taking at the 3-level could be equally dangerous.

Pressure now shifts to West who realises that East must have values somewhere and suspects that East also has spades or otherwise a Take-out double would have been made. The West hand is only 8pts but has good tolerance for the 3 suits outside spades and clearly the club suit is not strong enough to raise to 3C, so West is ideal for a Take-out double in the Protect seat. This should complete the bidding as East will be quite happy to defend in 2S Doubled converting the Take-out to a Penalty Double and neither North or South have anywhere to go to end the auction.

In the play, careful defence will restrict North to 6 tricks and a good result of +300 to the E/W pairing.

Long suits are usually a key to taking a good number of tricks and obviously particularly if it is declarer who holds such a hand. However, a converse to this are hands which contain slow tricks without Aces and Kings. This hand demonstrates both these attributes in hand analysis.

After passes from South and West, North will open 1H and East has a good overcall of 2C. South although low on points should support partner with 2H to show a minimum of a 3-card heart suit with a very reasonable assumption that partner holds at least a 5-card heart suit and hence a decent 8-card fit. West has also a 5 count in hcp but with adverse vulnerability should pass. With a good 6-card heart suit, North may be tempted to offer a game invitation but should consider carefully the value of the outside suits which have slow tricks. These suits offer any defence quick winners and it is unlikely that South will be able to cover the Q/J holding in diamonds and other outside queens, so should tread carefully and be happy to pass at 2H.

East may decide to go one for the road but this could be step too far as 3C is bound for 1 down and if a little double comes in which is not unreasonable in pairs a -200 score will almost certainly be a poor result.

With duplimated boards, we get a printout of the hands and a calculation of the best possible results for each pair for each suit and no trumps. It has to be taken into account that sometimes, these figures do not consider the human element and do not take always take into account good bridge play. This hand offers a good example of where the suggested making contracts might differ from typical play of a hand.

It is possible that some pairings may arrive at an auction that stops at 4H or 4S, but let us consider the situation where in theory E/W reach the indicated making 6S. A reasonable auction may well reach this contract (as did the author and partner) via 1S – 4NT – 5H (two controls) – 6S. Other auctions should also reach the 6S contract even if East firstly bids hearts as the East hand knows there is a very good spade fit. South will certainly be tempted to double 6 spades with potentially 3 winners. While the double certainly helps declarer, a line to 12 tricks is not clear as given the AD as a definite loser, cross ruffing doesn’t achieve the objective and the heart suit split looks to be a disadvantage.

The author made 11 tricks and took some time in retrospect to find a way to the 12 tricks that can be made. Anyone seeing a different line to the one below, please advise.

Anyway, a way to 12 tricks works as follows. With or without a heart lead, the QH has to be finessed and after establishing the trump situation with a low spade to the AS, (with the expectation that South has a 4-card spade suit) the heart suit has to be continued. No matter what South does, West is in control and can overruff anything South does and after the 4^th heart to remove the QH, West can re-enter the East hand and continue to force South thereafter.

We don’t get many hands with a 9-card suit. When they come along decision making can become interesting for both pairings.

With South and West passing, North knows that anything other than game is available and the probability that East as a reasonably good hand, so a bid of 4H should be made immediately with the possible requirement of being prepared to bid 5H dependent on any competitive bid by the opposition. East has a big hand but in distribution would prefer to have two 5-card suits or at least 4-cards in spades. However, pass is a feeble option and the choices are double or 4NT to show 2 places to play, which is a popular concept for many pairs at the club. The 4NT bid does suggest two 5-card suits but on balance double seems the best of the choices for the hand as there is at least tolerance for a spade bid by West. South has nothing to say and West will respond 4S with the expectation that East has a 4-card spade suit. Pressure now returns to North to decide whether to pass 4S or bid on with the probability that 5H will fail but being a useful sacrifice against a making 4S contract. Such are decisions in bridge and the hand just shows that the game is not a black and white game by any stretch of the imagination.

In the play, N/S should make 10 tricks in hearts so East’s bid is well justified and a pass is clearly feeble. On the other hand, while 4S is a possible make, the defence may prevail and if the E/W partnership were to find their 5/5 fit in diamonds after a 4NT bid, this should only make 10 tricks as N/S can force a trump promotion for the South hand.

Working as a partnership is so important in bridge and arguably it is more important in defence. Sometimes we can lose concentration at a critical time and the moment has gone together with the opportunity to defeat a contract. In this instance, E/W may have found a way to reach an unlikely 3NT contract while 3-level contracts in 3C and 3H offer a more reliable and safer alternative.

With the bidding showing a potential weakness in diamonds and East as declarer, a low diamond is a reasonably obvious opening lead, which is won in the north hand with JD. North continues the suit with the KD which holds and follows with a low diamond. South should be carefully watching the suit and must keep the eye on the ball and a careful unblocking of the suit will allow a comfortable diamond entry back into the North hand. However, if South unthinkingly plays the 10D on the 3^rd diamond trick, the suit becomes blocked and declarer can quickly run for home with entries available in the other three suits. In particular, 7 tricks are available in the club suit.

Not a difficult defence maybe for North/South but how often do we just lapse for a second and the opposition escape. The author had a little egg on the face for this one. The simple message is that all cards are important and it is not always correct to win with the lowest winning card.

Bidding style can make a big difference to which contract is played on a board and this hand can show this point to extreme.

Assuming that North passes which is not a certainty, East may open 1S and following a pass from South, West has a decision to make holding two 5-card suits. With two 4-card suits, we generally bid up the line as a 2H bid would promise a 5-card suit. However, with two 5-card suits, it is well in order and recommended to respond 2H as it is a general rule for many players that a 5-card major suit should not be hidden. With this in mind, East can show support for hearts and invite game with a 3H call. With a shapely hand, a raise to 4H is quite reasonable for West.

If West responds 2D, then East has an enormous problem as any bid other than 2S would be incorrect if a weak NT is part of the system and then West has little alternative but to pass.

One consideration for East is to think about the re-bid situation and many learned bridge gurus propose that 1NT is a better opening bid as this can eliminate the re-bid problem. It does of course hide the 5-card spade suit which could be a detractor, but 5-cards headed by the QS is not regarded as a great suit. If East does open 1NT, West will neatly transfer and a contract of 3H or 4H will be the final outcome.

In the play, If East opens 1S, this can clearly go wrong when West responds 2D and will go down by 1 or 2 tricks. If the heart suit is found, 9 tricks should always make and 10 tricks may be the reward if North doesn’t find the killing lead of a club through the East hand. There are one or two dangers to the defence with a club lead from South a disaster and also a second spade from North which could enable West to get a losing club away. However, 4H does seem quite a decent contract despite it going down to good defence.

Most bridge players like to be in the action and in particular playing contracts is perhaps the most enjoyable part of the game. However, good defence can often be the key to getting a good score and it can offer considerable satisfaction when it goes well. This board is one of those hands when considering the defensive pairing’s play.

With N/S silent throughout the bidding, E/W may well reach a perfectly good contract of 6D dependent on the system in play. Assuming a weak NT being played, this could be via 1NT – 3D (slambitious) – 4D – 4NT – 5H – 5NT – 6D.

On lead, North opens with KS which informs partner that the hand also holds the QS. While South has virtually no contribution to make, South can however make a small contribution by saying that it is safe to continue the spade suit by playing an encouraging card. When declarer wins with the AS, trumps will soon be cleared and the heart suit eliminated, before throwing North in with a spade. North now has to be careful and must protect the QC holding by either continuing spades knowing partner has the suit covered (probably best seeing the 3^rd spade in dummy) or by leading a heart but this could prove fatal on some hands by allowing declarer a ruff and a discard. In the event a heart is also safe but North won’t know this for certain. What North must not do is get impatient and lead a club which gives the contract away as declarer could hop up with the JC and then be home and dry. How many times have we seen a suit switch bring about disaster?

The hand offers a good example of mixing a forcing defence together with keeping passive when necessary. A good result for the defence and in some ways unlucky for declarer.

While on many hands, pairs will finish the bidding in identical contracts whether it is pairs play or teams play. However, in teams there is more of a tendency to look for games which may be marginal. This hand is perhaps not in that category and most N/S pairs should end up in a game contract. In this case, the defence have to play very carefully to beat the contract.

In the bidding South will likely open 1S for those playing a weak NT system or 1NT using a strong NT. West may wish to enter the bidding with a diamond bid, but once North shows a heart suit, South will give this support and North has decent values to take the bidding to 4H. With East silent throughout, West should not entertain a sacrifice at 5D although 2 down may bring a favourable score, but that looks high risk.

Against 4H, West has a natural lead of KD, won by South who will clear trumps in two rounds. Depending on which signals are in use, East may wish to give encouragement to show the JD, which can be valuable information to West when considering the spade holding held in that hand. If South continues with a club at trick 4, West needs to be very careful as the defence could now go badly wrong. If West ducks the club and takes the second club trick, cashes the QD, West becomes end played with the choice of either another diamond (which gives declarer a ruff and a discard) or has to lead a spade which promotes the KS.

To get out of this problem, West has two options to beat the contract by EITHER taking the club immediately, cashing the QD and then exiting with a club to preserve his spade tenace OR finding the JD in the East hand to enable East to lead a spade through towards the West hand.

Was the defence found against 4H??

Not an easy one!!!

For many hands during an evening of bridge, bidding can be relatively straightforward but when the opposition become competitive strange things can happen. The decision on whether to compete varies considerably as some players compete at every opportunity, while others are more cautious or have narrower guide lines on the conditions needed.

On this hand, most players will open 1D although some other systems such as Precision may open 1C. Assuming a 1D opening bid by North, East will pass as will most South hands, which gives West a small problem. Holding a 5-card heart suit, the majority of players will enter the auction with 1H in what is known as the Protect Seat. The suit is not great and some analysts may consider steering away on a suit quality test. However, with 11hcp and adding 3 points for protection, we have to believe that 1H is a good and reasonable competitive bid. Let’s see what can happen next based on the possible West decisions.

If West passes, North quietly plays in 1D to make 8 tricks or so depending on how the defence is co-ordinated.

If West bids 1H, North has an excellent double to show a 4-card spade suit but East is now interested and can compete further with either 2H or 3H (best to disrupt N/S further). South also wants a bit of the action irrespective of what East does and should now bid 3S, which North will happily convert to 4S holding such a powerful hand.

With the KS handily placed, N/S make a comfortable 10 tricks once South gains the lead and plays a spade honour to finesse West for the key card.

Good luck to anyone in the West hand who passed 1D, it works on this occasion but would this decision be right one in percentage terms?

Deciding whether to big a grand slam is sometimes not such an easy decision as the penalty for going one down are large. The decision may be different in pairs as against teams. For instance, in team if the partnership is vulnerable a grand slam in a major is worth +2210 pts while one down is -100 pts in teams scoring, which can make a huge difference and this could have a big effect on the match result. However, in pairs it is just one hand where going down one trick gets a bad score and potentially not such an effect on the overall score for the competition.

On this hand, South will open 2C or 2D for most pairings to show a big hand, having a near slam hand without any assistance from partner. North will respond with 2D if we consider a relatively standard game going hand where 2C is opened. Now East could usefully double (Lead Directing) to ask for a diamond lead if West is on opening lead, and South will show then show suit of interest with 2S. Clearly the double of 2D does not hinder South in any way and in many respects is helpful, as it identifies where the opposition strength lies. North can now show a constructive bid of 3S to agree the suit, which further interests South, who now can make an important bid of 5D if the partnership are playing Voidwood (Exclusion Blackwood). Note: - It is a good system usage to have 3S showing a better hand than 4S. Using this system, the partnership should reach 7S with a complete bidding sequence of: -

2C – 2D – 2S – 3S – 5D – 5S (one control, which must be KS) – 7S.

Even with the diamond lead, South has so many riches that 7S is a very comfortable make.

Without the use of Voidwod, South should still arrive in 7S as using RKCB, the identity of one control almost certainly advises the KS and this should propel the partnership to the 7S contract.

It’s interesting to see how different systems reach the optimum contract. This hand looks at those who play a weak NT against those playing a strong NT.

After passes from West and North, 1C is the usual bid for East which will be overcalled with 1S by South. West must show the spade position and the points holding with a 1NT bid. This is where the bidding may change course. Those playing a strong NT may initially ignore a NT bid and jump to 3C having no real alternative as the diamond and heart suits are less than 4-cards and 2NT could be slightly confusing. Nevertheless, West should convert to 3NT having a maximum for the 1NT bid and with spades well placed. Those playing a weak NT can show the extra strength by bidding 2NT as an invite to 3NT and West again will bid 3NT. In making the 2NT bid, East will be aware of the possible diamond weakness but should make a bridge decision that NT will score better than a possible game in clubs, even though examination of the hand shows that 12 tricks are possible in clubs.

In the play of the hand, West should come to 10 tricks in 3NT even after a diamond lead. It is noted that again 12 tricks can be made if the opening lead is a spade but does it require a good imagination to get the club position correct and is this a good risk??? Cup half empty or half full????

Defence is not an exact science but can be very satisfying when it goes right. This hand gives the opportunity for careful defence winning the day if the opposition venture into a game contract in spades. However, it can easily go wrong.

Assuming E/W have a weak-2 option in diamonds, East has effectively 9 hcp, ignoring the JS, and opens 2D. With South and West passing North will either double or bid 2S, double is suggested to enable a marginal strong hand to be shown on the next bid, as the hand has in addition a good 4-card suit. After a double, South will rightly assume both major suits and may bid 3H, but when North bids 3S, South should bid 4S with 2-card support and a handily placed diamond suit.

Without an opening bid from East (unlikely), the bidding with North opening may proceed 1S – 1NT – 3C – 3NT – 4S but other options are possible.

Let’s move to the defence of a 4S contract with East on lead. With diamonds and clubs not preferred leads, hearts seem the favourite suit to lead as it has not been mentioned during the bidding. Those using mud will lead 8H which will be won by West who now has a critical decision to make. Certainly what must not be played is the second winning heart as this is very risky and will establish two potential winners for declarer. If diamonds have been opened by East that hand is likely to have the AD so that is also a relatively safe trick. That in principle will give the defence three tricks but a 4^th is needed. Spades have been strongly bid by North and the club suit may well have been shown, but if any suit is likely to yield the vital winner than that has to be the target immediately, before declarer has had chance to discard any losers. On a club return, declarer cannot get away sufficient losers before the defence can make 4 tricks to defeat the contract.

When to switch suits after an opening lead from partner can be very difficult decision and often continuing a suit is the right answer especially in NT contracts, but in suit contracts as here, finding the switch is very rewarding and successful.

Competitive bidding is often difficult to judge and providing partner with the best description of a hand is not always clear cut. Here is a typical but probably a common case where not providing partner with the best information can bring a relatively poor score.

After a pass from North, East will open a heart. South now has a key decision to make and the choice will ultimately decide the best contract on the hand. Initially South may be drawn towards showing the 5-card diamond suit and our early teaching may have indicated such a bid. But what is the best information for partner to receive? The hand contains 15pts, is balanced and very important has almost certainly two stops in the heart suit bid by the opposition. With this protection, South should have no hesitation in bidding 1NT to show a balanced hand of 15 to 18pts dependent on partnership agreement, the principle being that NTs and majors are better score better than minors. Once South has bid 1NT, even if West makes an extremely pushy 2H (not recommended), North can make a fairly straightforward 3NT bid.

In the play, South will probably make 10 tricks from 5 club tricks, 2 heart tricks, 2 diamond tricks and a spade trick. Conceivably, if East discards a diamond there maybe 11 tricks to be made.

Should South overcall 2D, North’s bid is not so easy and with a potential misfit 2D may be passed out. Certainly North is unlikely to bid 2S and 2NT is not an option for that hand having no heart stop.

Bridge can be a peculiar game and in pairs events the bridge scoring system can make mockery of what would be good logical final contracts. This hand offers one of those scenarios.

South opens 1H and whether West enters the auction or not, North will respond to partner’s opening with a minor suit bid at the 2-level or double should West make a simple overcall of 1S. With a solid spade suit, South will make a jump bid to 3H, which North will happily convert to 4H having 2-card support for partner i.e. the partnership has at least a 6-2 fit in the heart suit. If North has a singleton spade or even a void, a bid of 3NT would be a logical bid especially having a good stop in spades together with a 4-card suit. However, good bridge sees everyone in 4H, which makes a steady 10 tricks.

In the results, all pairs at the club reached 4H making 10 tricks, which gave flat board across the field, a rare occurrence indeed.

What happens if North does bid 3NT instead of supporting partner’s heart suit. Would North be more likely to bid 3NT without a bid from West? If North does bid 3NT on the hand, a spade lead from East gives an easy 10 tricks for an outright top for N/S on the results at the club. Further if East commences with 4^th highest of the longest suit, 11 tricks come home.

Will we all bid the same way next time --- we should do as it will almost certainly go belly up on the percentage basis.

As we have often encountered hands with voids are so valuable particularly when there is a fit with partner. This hand is an excellent example and more so as the vulnerability is in favour of the N/S pairing.

North opens 1C and East will usually make an overcall of 1H, although 2H may produce a better effect for the E/W pairing. South has possibly an interesting decision as whether to pass and hope that partner makes a double, which can be converted to penalties. Alternatively, the hand has a spade suit worthy of an overcall and a heart lead if that suit becomes trumps would not be too much of a disaster. Therefore, let’s bid 1S to tell partner of the 5-card suit. West may also be thinking of a bid but the 1C opener from North should remove any thoughts in that direction and even though the hand contains AH (partner’s suit), so maybe be best to bide one’s time and see if any useful contribution can be made later. North is delighted to hear of South’s bid and now the void becomes a powerful contribution to the hand quality and with 4-card support should bid direct to game and not consider any thoughts of an intermediate bid of 3S.

In the play, E/W have 2 diamond tricks and will come to another trick in spades, as declarer will surely set up a cross-rough situation by clearing clubs in the South hand and roughing hearts in the North hand.

Further analysis shows that if the KH in the South hand were the KD, N/S would not be too far off a slam in spades.

An interesting bidding challenge for the E/W pair with almost certainly no competition from the N/S pairing.

West has the first decision to make and some will pass, while others will open 1S, which in these days of competitive bidding may be the norm. Let’s consider if West opens 1S, East will continue with 2H (at least a 5-card suit). West would like to show the club suit but a 3C suit should promise a game going hand and the only true option is to repeat spades with a 2S bid. East already knows a game is on and partner has not supported hearts, therefore will not have a 3-card heart suit, so is faced with several options. Partner must have points somewhere outside spades and a bid of 3NT is not unreasonable but what would 3D mean. In principle it should be a suit but more importantly it shows a game going hand and cannot be passed. West then has the easy option of bidding 3NT, which East should now pass knowing partner does not have heart support and is not interested in a slam. If East repeats hearts, West is less certain of the final contract not having a diamond stop and things could go astray with 4H a non-making contract.

If West initially passes, the bidding may proceed slightly differently but again should end in 3NT via 1H – 1S – 3D – 3NT. With a 6-card suit and 15pts, some may favour a jump to 3H but this could divert West from making a NT bid.

In the play, West will likely come to 9 or 10 tricks dependent on the lead. A heart lead will probably see declarer with 9 tricks.

The useful point from the hand is sometimes to lie in a minor to get more information from partner, it can keep the bidding going and steer a partnership away from an inferior contract.

A hand with various bidding options for both sides and an interesting playing thought for the E/W pairing.

Pairs using the Lucas Convention may open 2H on the West hand and this will immediately set the suit for that pairing. However, West may consider the wrong shape for a such an opening as the hand could easily play much stronger, as it contains a void in spades. Of course if West opens, East becomes very interested holding probably the best hand at the table and will certainly bid to game in the bid suit. North will overcall 2S and should not consider anything more bearing in mind the poor trick potential of the other three suits. The overcall doesn’t weaken the East hand and various options are open such as a direct game bid of 4H or a 3S bid (UCB) showing heart support and game interest.  On either bid, South can further confuse the E/W bidding with a bid to 4S, which leaves E/W in a small quandary, although West’s hand has only improved with the bidding to date and a bid of 5H should be made or even 4NT knowing that the pack is reduced to 30hcp, when considering the spade void.

If West doesn’t open than the bidding, North will open 1S, which East does best to double and West again will have much of the information needed to compete strongly in hearts. A sequence 1S – Double – 3S – 4H – 4S – 5H may well follow, or would it? Evidence suggest perhaps not.

In either case and being vulnerable, N/S should wisely refrain from further bidding to the 5-level as a doubled contract in spades would be extremely expensive. 5H is a good contract for E/W, even though the partnership could likely find 6H should 4NT be employed.

With N/S only able to make 7 tricks, an initial look at the E/W cards suggests that only 11 tricks can be made in hearts, but closer examination shows 12 tricks are possible confirmed by the hand records. Most players will likely play for a diamond finesse playing low towards the Ace/Jack which will fail. However, playing low to the Ace and then returning the Jack achieves the 12^th trick as if West covers, East is forced to play the 10D and the 9D becomes a master in the suit. If West doesn’t cover, allowing the Jack to run will achieve the same end product. Would anyone find this play, I doubt this author would!!!

As often, different systems and assessment of hand strength will bring about a different sequence of bids. However, they should in theory all end up at the same end contract or should they? Bridge of course doesn’t work like that.

With North passing, East not unreasonably may open 1D but some players may not. The hand will likely be considered too strong for a weak-2 bid in diamonds. If East does open, the bidding may continue 1S – 2D – 3C (game force) – 3D (no heart stop) – 3H – 4D – 5D and 3NT could well be bi-passed.

If East passes, the bidding could be different with West opening 1NT. Having a strong long diamond, many Easts will bid direct to 3NT while others may go a slower route via a diamond suit transfer to the same contract, although West may consider the option of a 5D contract. Best for East is probably to bid direct to 3NT as this gives less information to the defence. Note that East should not be bound by the point count when holding a strong long suit, and knowing the partnership holds less than 25hcp.

In the play, these hand types sometimes go awry when the opposition find a 5-card winning suit but on this occasion the heart suit is 4-4 and 9 tricks are always there on any lead when the contract is 3NT. 5D also makes 11 tricks for the same score as 9 tricks in 3NT. The advantage of being in 3NT is more apparent if a heart is not the opening lead and E/W can make a comfortable 10 tricks for a better score than those in 5D.

As often, different bidding systems can affect the final outcome of the final contract. This hand offers several alternatives in part based on what system is being played by N/S.

If N/S don’t use a weak 2D diamond, South should open pre-emptively in 4H after the initial pass from North, which puts a little pressure on West.  However, a 4S bid or 4NT will normally be found in that position with 4NT showing a 2-suited hand. After all the 4H bid in no way weakens the West hand in fact makes it so much stronger with the void in the bid suit.

If North opens a weak 2D, the bidding may take a slightly different direction or should it? South still has an eight-card suit and additionally KD opposite a diamond opening even though the North hand is known to be weak. South will also know that West is highly likely to have a long spade suit from the bidding thus far, so South should still up the anti with 4H. West is perhaps under more pressure but the adage 6-5 come alive is applied as nothing in the bidding has really taken away too much strength from the E/W pairing. With a 6-card major, 4S is preferred but some may choose 4NT to show a good 2-suiter which must on this occasion be spades and clubs. In making the decision, West should be thinking that the hand is worth far more than the original hcp. Even after 4S, N/S may and should compete further to 5H but East can easily raise to 5S with strong support for both of West’s suits.

With 5S making, do N/S bid again as 6H is only 2 down for a good sacrifice, but such are the decisions that are made at the bridge table. What happened at your table? A final thought, would E/W gamble on a failing 6S, they might?

Evaluating hands with considerable shape is not an easy process and providing a fit with partner can be found many tricks are possible. Such is the situation here but care has to be taken in the bidding to fully describe the hands and for North to show support for the hand with the big distribution. One danger is not to get excited if a misfit is on the ‘cards’ on these hand types and to back off before getting too high.

On this hand East will normally pass, then a suggested N/S sequence could be as follows below. With South having the distributional hand that says ‘with 6-5 come alive’ a suggested extra 5hcp might be considered for the void heart suit: -

1S – opening points and containing and the longest suit

2C – a suit with at least 4-cards and 10+ hcp for many pairs

2D – a suit and further describing the South hand

3D – showing a fit with partner ignoring the 4-card heart suit and not bidding NT as partner can’t have a 4-card suit

3H – cuebid showing 1^st round control (it is recognised that some partnerships may be considering 1^st or 2^nd round control)

4C – cuebid

4S – cuebid (good news for North) –some may go the route 4D – 4H – 4S.

4NT – RKCB

5C – 3 controls

5NT – King ask

6C – no other Kings

6D – end

Different partnerships may offer a different sequence to reach the end product but once North has declared a fit and a good club suit, South has some inkling that a slam is possible, which can be examined. One other thing to consider is that if either North or South show inadequate controls, it should be reasonable to stop the bidding at 5D. One other point is to bid up the line slowly and not to leap about unnecessarily with each pair making a bid that can’t be passed until all the information has been exchanged.

In the play, hand analysis shows that 13 tricks can be made, which require placing both JD/QD in the east hand. Is this likely, perhaps not? Otherwise a series of cross-ruffs creates additional tricks and repeated spade leads creates masters for declarer.

There are many bidding systems in bridge and even nominally the same system can be interpreted in different ways by partnership agreements and in the fine tuning. This is one of those hands and as we know no system is perfect. We sometimes have to make a leap of faith.

If we consider a 5-card major system with a strong NT, the bidding would probably proceed fairly smoothly with 1H – 2C – 2NT (12 to 14hcp) – 3NT. The 2NT bid is not perfect and the bidder may be a little unsure of the half diamond stop but partnership has been prepared to reply at the 2-level and has denied a 4-card spade suit and denied support for a 5-card heart suit. On the other hand, South has only 12hcp but does have two strong longish minor suits, either of which could work well.

For those playing 4-card majors and a weak NT, the bidding is perhaps less clear as after 1NT – 2C, opener is forced to repeat hearts, as 2S would be a reverse and 2NT would mean a hand with 15 or so hcp. Opening 1S may work well here but is not good practice and opening 1NT is also not ideal with 9-cards in the majors and with both 2-card suits without a clear stop. Anyway, after partner has opened, South with 12hcp should bite the bullet and seek game with a 3D bid and then North will easily convert to 3NT. South has to envisage that North must have points somewhere and a spade stop is very likely.

In the play 3NT comes home reasonably without problem with 4 spades, 3 diamond and 2 clubs on the position of AC. Although the heart suit is relatively weak, it is unlikely they will be attacked and even so the suit length gives adequate protection.

The main principle of the hand is that for the most part unless it is clear that a game is not on, a game should be considered by South once partner has opened and NT is often a good place to be.

A bit of an old favourite here. Should the final contract be in a minor suit or NTs. North is heavily loaded in diamonds and potentially would prefer that suit.

For those playing a weak NT, North will open 1D but should strong No Trumpers open 1NT to show the hand strength, which can often be a good idea, although here a weak club suit may be a deterrent, but you pay your money and take your chance?

 Here the weak NT is considered and after 1D from North, East should overcall 1H and this may begin to sow the seed of doubt into the N/S pairing when considering a possible NT call. Although South has a 6-card club suit, this should be ignored initially and the best bid is to make a Negative Double, which shows certainly a 4-card spade suit and as a minimum tolerance for clubs. Generally this will suggest a hand containing an absolute minimum of 6hcp. West can usefully up anti with a 2H bid to show at least 3-card support for partner even though holding only 4hcp but use of the LTT (Law of Total Tricks) is a very useful tool at low level contracts. This of course may further dissuade N/S from pursuing a NT contract, but North should do this anyway and declare the heart stop with 2NT, from which South with an additional heart stop can easily bid 3NT. The danger for North is being drawn to the 6-card diamond suit when it could become unlikely that the best contract is found and this is the case here.

In the play, N/S can make 9 tricks in both diamonds and no trumps with North as declarer.

A good set of boards and yet another interesting slam hand this week, but this time after the opposition have opened the bidding.

Most partnerships have a bid to describe a 2-suited hand after the opposition have opened and many times the point count can lower than perhaps the opening bid, but with good shape. This hand is another category all together and has both shape and a stack of hcp.

North will normally open 1D, which becomes excellent news to East who has huge hand which increases significantly as the hand is not only void in diamonds, but  it has 20 hcp points and two 5-card majors. Basically the point count of the pack becomes only 30 hcp rather than our usual count of 40hcp. Those using a Michaels bid can bid 2D, while the CRO users can bid 2NT. With South passing, West will show a spade fit with either 2S or 3S, system bid dependent. On either bid this is again great news for East and a slam has to be considered holding a game going hand and East should ask the question, ‘What do I need to know from partner? Those using Exclusion Blackwood (Voidwood) have an excellent bid of 5D to make, while those using RKCB can use 4NT, with a reasonable assumption that any Ace advised will be AS rather than AD. Of course with Exclusion Blackwood, AD is not considered.

Once, West has advised of the AS, the only remaining question for East is to whether to bid 6S or 7S , do you chance it or not?

Clearly on the play, everyone will make 13 tricks as the QC sits in the north hand.

After 3 passes, North has an interesting decision on an opening bid. The hand only has 19hcp but significantly has a void in diamonds, so in principle it could be considered as having 24 points if 5 points are added for the void. It can also be regarded as a 3-loser hand but in reality may need some help from partner to confirm this situation. However, North is 4^th in hand and it is not unreasonable to imagine that partner has at least a share of the outstanding points and this should be in any consideration. Even so, do we open with a forcing bid which would be 2C for many partnerships or open 1H with a planned reversal on the 2^nd round of bidding. In some respects you pay your money and take your chance.

On this hand if North opens say 2C, South could make a positive reply with 10hcp which would be 2NT on this hand. Dependent on the system in play, a slam should be achieved comfortably. Otherwise, South could make a waiting bid of 2D and North would then show the heart suit. South should then control the bidding from there and a good 6H contract should be reached.

If North opens 1H, the bidding could proceed along the lines 1S – 3C – 3H – 5D (if using Exclusion Blackwood) – 5H (No controls) – 6H. What South should not do is bid 3NT as it has 3-card support for a known 5-card suit. Note: - If playing 5-card majors, South can bid 3H immediately which would short-circuit some of the above bidding and remove any doubt for the final contract.

As in many bidding analyses, it is interesting to see how different systems achieve the end contract, but as we know no bidding system can cover all situations however complex they may be.

Sometimes we play hands where most declarers make the same number of tricks. Sometimes the hands lie perfectly and we make more tricks than expected and other times less tricks than expected, such is the game we play. Sometimes even with the printouts it is difficult to see how results are obtained and how contracts can be defeated. This hand is one of those.

In our playing of the hand, E/W arrived in 3NT with just 22 pts which normally be too few points for a 3NT game unless there is a long running suit. Here there is a long suit but 6-cards to the Jack could not be described as a running suit. However let’s look at the defence after an auction proceeded: -

N                 E                 S               W

P                 P                 P                1H

1S               P                 2S              2NT

P                 3NT

North plays KS which is won by West and immediately we can see that the spade suit has two stops. West’s only hope is to win several club tricks and leads the suit. Getting the defence right for N/S is not easy but declarer can be denied his objective. If North plays low, South will return a spade and North will clear the suit and his AC entry will take the contract down with 2 club tricks and 3 spades. If North and South duck the first club, West can switch to heart and get home with 4 hearts, 2 spades, 2 diamonds and a club. But what happens if North takes the first club lead? North cashes QS but then has to concede the 3^rd play of the suit and when South ultimately wins with the KC there is no entry back to the North hand before West gets to the East hand with the AD, so making the remaining club tricks to make the contract.

It just shows how timing cards in defence can be quite difficult. It took a while to work this one out.

As often different bidding systems handle hands in different ways. This hand is a good example and it also has some other interesting aspects. We will look at how the bidding might progress for those playing a weak NT and those playing a strong NT. Hand evaluation is also a factor here as well.

For the weak NT, it is best for East to open 1NT as there could be a re-bid problem if 1S is opened e.g after 1S and 2H from West, East should only consider a bid of 2S which may be passed. How does West know if a 6-card heart suit is better than a potential 6-card spade suit? After 1NT, West has various options and a direct bid of 4H would not be out of order as the hand has 11 hcp, a singleton and a 6-card heart suit and opposite a hand that promises at least a 2-card heart suit. The alternative is a transfer sequence using 2D and then again for the author a bid straight to 4H. There is of course a little worry about the strength of the heart suit but nothing is perfect in bridge and partner has made a balanced opening bid.

For the strong NT players, East will open 1S and after 2H from West, a bid of 2NT is made to show 12 to 14pts. This tells partner that the heart suit is only 2-cards, but West arguably should again bite the bullet and again convert to 4H.

In either case above should West choose only to bid 3H after 2H or 2NT respectively, East should convert to 4H as clearly the KH is a vital card to compliment the West hand.

In the play, both East or West can make 10 tricks via 5 heart tricks, 3 club tricks and 2 diamonds by arranging to play twice towards the West holding in the diamond suit.

In Pairs play, the choice of which slam to bid can often be between a suit and NTs. On this hand, the choices are between 3 suits and N/S have somewhat of a luxury that careful play will bring the contract home once the final contract has been agreed from any of three suits. But which is the best contract and can E/W make life difficult for declarer.

South has the huge hand and a game forcing opening is normally made at 2C. West can conveniently make a Lead Directing Double (i.e. a double of a Conventional Bid means I want that suit for many partnerships). Opposite the 2C opening, North with good shape and 8pts can make a positive response at 2S and the double is even helpful as the singleton is no great worry and partner must be strong in the other suits for the 2C bid. East may consider a pre-emptive bid but is this likely to cause N/S any problem? Even if 5C is bid immediately, North must surely convert to 6S. Ignoring this possibility, with only a singleton spade South will initially show the diamond suit at 3D and with West silent, North has a choice of bids as to whether to show a second suit at 3H or press on with the 6-card spade suit with 3S or 4S which must be slambitious after the initial 2S. As it happens both should not deter South from bidding a slam of 6S or 6H, but if hearts are shown by North, logically 6H is the best. Of course, 6D is also making but this scores less than either of the minor slams so should not be chosen. Additionally 6NT is out of the question.

With N/S scoring 1430 for either major suit slam, E/W have an interesting sacrifice in 7C which is only -1400 on the bridge scoring system but that seems a long shot and particular for West who has some hope of scoring two quick club tricks.

Opening leads can be so critical to success and failure. Also as we often experience, decisions on when to open weak hands can greatly affect the bidding.

If we look at this hand, North has a weak hand with a 6-card heart suit but a void in spades, which potentially increases the hand value. Would you open the hand? Many wouldn’t because of the poor suit quality but such are the vagueries of bridge that it sometimes works, but most of the leading players in the country may well pass as they work on percentages of success. As we know though, opening weak hands puts pressure on the opposition bidding system.

Let’s assume that North does open, East has a balanced 13 count and would normally pass and expect partner to balance if South passes, which would be the case as even with a void in hearts there is no guarantee that spades is a better contract. West will certainly bid but East/West need to have good agreement to achieve their optimum contract. Dependent on partnership agreement some may bid 2NT (perhaps a point short on points) or a double, the author’s option. If 2NT, East may well use some form of Stayman but 3NT should be the final contract. After a double, 3NT should also be reached with a direct bid by East, but East needs to be sure to not to give West any doubt.

Without an opening from North, E/W will usually bid a normal 3NT whether playing a weak or strong NT.

In the play of 3NT, with West as declarer, any lead from North should enable declarer to make a comfortable 12 tricks once the void in spades is found. What a difference if South is on lead and East is the declarer. Those blindly leading 4^th highest longest suit will again see 12 tricks comfortably made, but a lead of KD (recommended) should get 5 quick tricks for N/S to get an excellent score.

Another of those hands with several options and possibilities on both sides. With neither side vulnerable a typical competitive auction could be the case. An interesting aspect for a number of pairs is the use of the CRO system, which is a sort of extension to Michaels/Unusual NT played by many at the club. In summary CRO ignoring the suit bid by the opposition is: -

C = Colour showing two suits of 5+ cards of the same Colour

R = Ranks showing two suits of 5+ cards of the same Rank

O = Other showing two suits of 5+ cards

With East opening 1S on this hand, 2S would show diamonds/hearts, 2NT would show clubs/diamonds and the bid for this hand would be 3C showing clubs/hearts. Here South may bid 3C to show clubs/hearts and now the auction could become competitive, West should bid 4S but North sees a double fit and 5H looks best even though a 5-5 minor fit is known. East may pass this but West will surely bid 5S. N/S are now in dangerous territory and lacking the important first round controls should pass but will they. If they don’t see what can happen to a doubled contract. If North ventures to 6C, E/W can take 5 tricks with accurate defence which would include two heart ruffs, while in 6H again 5 tricks can be made with accurate defence. Noting this would be -1100.

On this hand, E/W can make 6S but will it be found and interestingly +980 is less than any of the 6-level bids doubled by N/S. Does he who dare win?

To bid or not to bid can sometimes make the difference between a good score and a bad score. This hand has several possibilities and not least with the assessment of the North hand together with the system being played.

There could be different possibilities for North. Some may favour a simple spade opening but the hand has only 3-losers on the losing trick count so should the opening bid be a strong 2-level bid, say 2C. Of course, Precision bidders will be different again. Let’s assume that 2C is opened, does East interfere, although vulnerability may be a deterrent? Double could be one answer as this would give a lead indicator should West gain the lead i.e. a double of a Conventional Bid shows the suit. Without interference, South will respond 2D (the negative response) and North will continue with 2S. South cannot pass this bid and 2NT looks the best option as the club suit is too poor to show. North can now bid 3H to show the second suit and South can happily complete the bidding with 4H. While 6H is a making contract, North will probably rule this out as South has shown a relatively minimum hand.

While probably unlikely, if North opens a simple 1S and East passes, 1S would almost certainly be the final contract, but I don’t think many players would pass with the East hand without making some sort of move at 2C. But with hindsight wouldn’t pass be a good bid to make for the E/W result.

In the play of 4H, N/S have a making 12 tricks if North arranges South to ruff a losing spade then the 3-3 distribution works perfectly to run the spades.

One of the tools in the system of many players is an opening 3NT bid which usually shows a solid minor suited hand of 7 or more cards with the expectation that partner can contribute the tricks needed to make the contract. Partner is expected to pass with appropriate cover or normally to bid 4C which asks partner to pass or correct to the long suit. There are continuation bids that are available for many systems by agreement.

This hand presents a difficult decision in response to an opening 3NT as to whether to pass or respond 4C knowing that partner’s suit is certainly diamonds and the high risk of the singleton spade. In principle 4C should be the response in particular because of the singleton spade and also in that the heart suit is only Q high with the only suit protected being clubs. However what could happen if 3NT becomes the final contract, how should the defence approach the challenge. The main message is that it is important that the defence takes tricks quickly before the opposition are able to run the long suit. Therefore with South on lead, AS is the correct lead even though we would normally shy away from such a lead. It also allows a look at dummy before leading to Trick 2. Here this works quite spectacularly as the AS drops the singleton King and the defence have a clear run to the first 8 tricks with 6 spades and 2 hearts.

Interesting, if E/W bid quietly to 4D, would N/S find the making 4S despite only holding 17hcp.

A bit of an old favourite here as far as the selection of the slam is made, but as always the slam may be reached in several ways and as often partnership agreements on the meaning of bids is important.

With N/S not involved in the bidding a suggested sequence of bids by E/W is as follows with comments : -

1D (West) – under no circumstances should 3D be opened as the hand is far too strong

1H (East) – knows a slam is ON with 20pts opposite an opening hand, but no need to go jumping about, partner can’t pass

2D (West) – not strong enough to jump so just describing the hand further

3C (East) – new suit at the 3-level is forcing to game, again partner mustn’t pass

3NT (West) – spades stopped, maybe a better option than 5D

4NT (East) – how many Aces (Note: - not RKCB no agreed suit), thinking a Grand Slam may be a possibility

5D (West) – 1 Ace on most systems

6NT (East) – knows partner has long diamonds but 6NT a better option than 6D and in particular in Pairs play. Also knows that 7NT or 7D is not working.

Other partnerships may work it through differently but a key is to avoid unnecessary jumps that take up valuable bidding space that restrict accurate bidding.

Partnership agreements are so valuable in bridge and particularly in a competitive auction. Nothing is perfect and sometimes getting a hand strength over to partner needs care and accurate description.

In this hand, South opens 1S whether playing a 4-card or 5-card system. West and North may well pass but East needs to make a bid in the Protect seat. A bid in any suit but spades and East will bid 1NT but here that is not perfect as this bid should have a spade stop and doesn’t. Best is to double first and judge the next move based on partner’s reply. South passes and West with 10pts and 5-card diamonds should make a positive reply as 2D would be a forced reply to a Take-out Double and would show minimal strength. In this situation many partnerships play a jump raise to show 8+ points so 3D is the ideal bid. It also gives partner a clear message that the hand has values despite the initial pass. East is encouraged and knowing of a diamond fit can explore further to get the best contract and 3S provides a perfect reply to ask a bid of 3NT if the West hand holds a spade stop. West duly obliges and 3ND should be the final contract. North may have considered some sort of spade support during the auction but this surely folly based on the relative hand strengths of the two pairs and the adverse vulnerability.

In the play, E/W have a solid 9 tricks on any lead with the marked spade trick in the West hand to support 5 diamonds and 3 clubs for a good score.

A low level hand which offers various possibilities based how you assess hand strength, how competitive you are and what bidding system is in use. It also needs careful play to maximise the tricks taken by each partnership.

For those using a strong NT, 1NT from South will likely be passed out by the other players. Careful defence will restrict declarer to 7 tricks unless E/W get active in hearts and diamonds which will give N/S an extra trick to the 5 clubs and 2 spades. A steady attack on spades will prevent the extra trick.

For weak NT bidders, South will open 1C which will probably pass round to East as North should pass with a balanced 5 points. Some Easts may pass but with a balanced 11pts a Protective Double should be made. South could well bid 1NT followed by 2S by West. If this is passed out E/W will score well with a comfortable 8 tricks on hand. However if the bidding is competed further with 3C by N/S, the contract should squeeze home if an extra trump trick is made by ruffing a 3^rd spade in dummy before clearing trumps.

Opening leads can make a big difference between a good score and a bad score. They provide valuable information to partner but also declarer can gain useful information as to how to play the hand.

On this occasion, E/W were using the Multi system which with West opening the bidding projected them into a 3S contract. The bidding had proceeded 2D (Multi) – 2H (tell me more) – 2NT (showing 19/20 pts) – 3H (transfer) – 3S giving North the opening lead.

As mentioned the opening lead can be a key to success or failure. Clubs is clearly a non-starter as there is a good chance that West holds the KC. A standard 4^th highest from the diamond suit is a consideration but in the layout this works well for declarer. A heart lead could well finesse partner to give declarer a good start, so what about the singleton spade as it is surely a loser anyway and from the bidding partner is likely to have 4 spades as West didn’t push on further. So a passive spade proves a good choice to protect the North honours and hopefully not to finesse partner.

Declarer now has to make the running in hoping to make the 3S contract and in the end game has two possibilities a) making 8 tricks by discarding a losing heart on a diamond b) risking the diamond finesse to hopefully throw 2 losing hearts away. In the event the finesse fails and declarer goes 3 down.

The hand demonstrates the quirks of this game of bridge and on this occasion, those who automatically go to the 4^th highest will come a cropper. As with many tools, they don’t work all the time.

Many of us use similar considerations whether playing pairs or teams, but in some cases it is to advantage to change this slightly when different options may be available. As often it is not an exact science. However when the choice is between a 3NT contract and one of five of a minor, a strong thought should be given to 3NT as a preference. Such is the possibility here, where 3NT has some risk whereas 5D looks to be a solid contract.

South opens 1D and North immediately knows there is a superb fit and with South almost certainly holding the AD, 6 tricks are there for the taking.  With opening values, North knows 5D should be making but should also consider the 3NT possibility and should make a bid to find more about partner’s holding as there must be points somewhere. Knowing that a return to diamonds may be the final answer and not holding a 4-card major, several partnerships choose to bid a minor to gain more information from partner. Assuming North bids 2C, (partner will believe partner has at least 4-cards and 10+points), South has nowhere to turn other than 2D, which confirms a 5-card suit, but having opened the bidding must have values somewhere in other suits.  North has sown a useful seed here in that the 2C bid may well preclude a club lead and although a bit of a gamble holding stops in hearts and spades can make a strategic bid of 3NT.

As mentioned this type of bidding won’t always work but any lead from East is likely to be helpful and 10 tricks should be made for a better score than the making 5D. Indeed on a heart lead 11 tricks will normally be made as the defence will more than likely throw sufficient spades away in discards.

When bidding a game in NTs after the opposition have bid a suit needs careful bidding to ensure the partnership can withstand a barrage in the suit bid by the opposition. While the E/W cards are not perfect on this hand, a useful gadget can be sued to give the pairing best chance of success.

South will usually pass in first position and West may well open 1C on a pushy rule of 19. North has a useful overcall in 1S which denies East coming in at 1H, so East is forced into a 2H response which West should take as forcing for one round. East has should be thinking of either a 4H contract or even 3NT if partner can supply an additional trick in the spade suit. West continues with 3C and with North passing East needs to find if West can find a spade stopper. A useful bid here is for East to bid the suit at 3S, which is conventional and asks West to bid 3NT with a spade stop. West obliges to and an excellent 3NT contract is found.

With North on lead, West will always come to 9 tricks on any lead, although starting with a heart may prove interesting. Ignoring this possibility any other lead is helpful and careful play achieves 9 tricks. It is interesting to note that if East goes it alone and bids 3NT, a diamond lead from South will prove fatal to the E/W pairing.

Grand Slams are a fairly rare occurrence and are not always a certainty. When South opens the bidding after a Pass from East, North can see the cash register tingling away.

Assuming South opens a weak NT showing 12 to 14 points, North can easily imagine a Grand Slam on the cards especially as the hand contains an excellent long suit, a 4-card suit and of course 22 hcp. A direct bid to 7NT is not unreasonable but there are other bidding options which can be used. e.g North may bid 5NT which says to partner, bid 6NT with a minimum opening but bid 7NT with a maximum opening. This is an extension of the direct 4NT bid which asks for a pass on minimum but a bid of 6NT on maximum. With South having a good 13pts, a bid of 7NT is probably correct.

In the play, South soon establishes that the diamond break poorly and has to find the 13^th trick from the spade suit or employ some form of squeeze on the West hand. Here it is successful as in the end game West cannot protect both the spade suit while retaining the winning diamond. One thing West may try is to discard the QS which just might convince South (declarer) that East holds the JS and if the finesse is taken, West will come good.

Generally we don’t get enough practice at bidding slams and sometimes we have to decide whether a slam should be bid or not. Occasionally we may have a choice of slams. Such is the case here as the hands quickly show a slam is on.

For those playing a weak NT, with East passing, South will open 1D. Keeping the bidding low, North will bid 1H and South re-bids 1NT. North now knows a slam is very much on and should make a positive jump bid but which one? 6NT would not be re-miss but it might be useful to come up at a slower rate and with a club stop in the South hand a jump to 3C can prove very useful as it shows a powerful confirming a 5-card heart suit. South bids 3H to show a 3-card heart suit and a series of cuebids can usefully be made 3S, 4C, 4S and then South may wish to bid 4NT. RKCB replies will show QH is missing and South will be faced with a choice of 6H or 6NT. For teams, there is no real difference in the choice but for pairs 6NT should be the decision.

For those playing a strong NT, the bidding may take a different route with North initially making a transfer bid of 2D and then making the on-going bid of 3C to confirm a strong hand. Again, some similar bidding will lead to 6NT being bid for a pairs competition.

In the play, 13 tricks are scored as the QH is trapped by a simple finesse. Should this be bid as a 50% chance, some might some but most as evidenced from the club results will be content at 6NT.

Evaluating the strength of 4-4-4-1 hands is not always easy but sometimes a relatively smooth passage comes along if partner can show 4-card support for an opening bid. Here we have one such hand but things can wrong if the bidding a course against the general good practice.

After West passes, North should bid 1H and not 1D in principle and the partnership should happily reach a 6H contract. Again, South should ignore the 5-card spade suit and gives support for a known fit with partner. South options depend on the partnership agreement as 2NT often shows good support for partner while others may prefer a splinter bid of 4D. For me the latter takes away too much bidding space and detracts as informative bids at the 3-level are excluded. Many will have different thoughts and much may depend on the system employed by the partnership. In any event, N/S should reach a 6H contract which with careful play and ruffing a club with get to 12 tricks. This is despite East holding 4-cards in hearts and having a guaranteed trick in the suit.

Let us consider if South bids spades rather than showing heart support. North will likely show spade support and the pairing may land in a spade contract again probably at the 6-level. This shouldn’t be a problem but will South get greedy on a heart lead? If South tries to finesse the heart, East will win and carefully returning the suit give West a vital ruff. Did this happen at your table, it did at ours.  

On balance most bridge prefer to play hands rather than defend. Equally it is nice to take the opposition down in their contracts. Sometimes this needs careful defence to accurately find the weakness of declarer. Rarely do we get the opportunity to beat declarer with a minority of the points and when the opposition have found what they believe is a decent game contract. This hand goes somewhat against these thoughts.
N/S will likely bid to game with a combined total of 26 pts and a 4-4 heart fit. Some may reach 4H, others may play in 3NT which proves slightly the better of the two options as the hands are absolutely balanced in their suit length. It is probable that North will be declarer whatever the contract. With East on lead, the best lead is the unbid major which reaps instant reward and even more so when partner returns a club. If a club is led, this will give a trick away. On a spade lead, declarer’s contract is immediately in jeopardy. When declarer gets on lead, if the contract is 4H, many will play on hearts but will soon find this is also awkward when West shows up with a 4-card suit. Clearing trumps becomes a poor option and the best declarer can do is clear the diamond suit and throw the opposition in with a club knowing the spade suit is not working.  Overall, the defence could well make 3 spades, 2 clubs and at least one heart for 6 tricks to them.
What can declarer do when confronted with this type of layout. The answer is NOT A LOT and the only course of action is to quickly forget the hand and concentrate on the next one, but that isn’t always easy. Bridge can be a cruel game sometimes.

In seeking a slam in NTs, the usual recommendation is 33+ pts, although most of experienced making such a contract with less points and on the other side going down with 33+ points. However the chances of making a slam in NTs increase considerably when a running long suit is available. It is more useful when the suit is headed by the top honours. This hand is slightly different.

With South opening the bidding, those playing a weak NT will open 1C or 1H dependent on bidding style. Here 1C works best as South will bid 1NT next time round after 1D. If 1H is opened, South will bid 2NT after 2D. Either way, North should take control of the auction and the preferable asking bid is Gerber as with no agreed suit, a bid of 4NT is usually played as Quantitative. Assuming Gerber, North should take encouragement from the long diamond suit and ignore any thoughts of repeating it and look for a NT slam by bidding 4C (Gerber). South responds 4H, North should keep the faith and bid 5C, South bids 5NT (3 Kings) and North bids 6NT. Note: - Those playing escalating Gerber can use 4S as the King asking bid, which saves a little bidding space.

Those using a strong NT will see a different auction with a 1NT opening followed by a transfer bid to diamonds (many use 2NT at the club for this action) and then North can bid 4D after South’s 3D bid to show slam interest. South can now use RKCB to enquire controls ad again should choose 6NT in preference to 6D as South knows that the pair have a 6/2 fit in diamonds which will likely bring home at least 5 tricks.

In the play, 12 tricks are easily made by losing to the AD as early as possible in the playing of the contract.

Bridge can be a strange game as we know and we use a variety of systems between us. Certain systems are popular at some clubs and of course some clubs have restricted systems, in particular perhaps where players relatively new to the game are involved. Even within our own systems we do make certain interpretations. This hand may be interpreted in slightly different ways from a bidding aspect.

Following a pass from East, South will open 1S and North bids 2C. Now what does South bid next with 2 other 4-card suits. Some Acol players advocate bidding up the line but for this author where there is a choice of a major over a minor, the major ought to be the first suit to be mentioned. One reason for this is that the North bid does not deny a 4-card heart suit although it does deny a 5-card heart suit. North should bid 2NT to sow a diamond stop and South can raise to 3NT knowing that North doesn’t hold a 3-card spade suit. As often there are ways round South making 2D as a second bid and in this event North should bid 2H (4^th suit forcing) rather than showing a 6-card club suit, however tempting this may be. Again remember that NTs score better than any thoughts of 5 of a minor. South will bid 2NT to show a heart stop and North will raise to 3NT.

In the play, N/S should make 9 tricks with careful play and not allowing East to run away with several diamond tricks. With North as declarer, a diamond lead is less of a problem and gives North an extra entry which could prove useful.

When playing contracts, we can often make use of any bidding by the opposition and if we are declarer the opening lead is another source of information. Then we have other hands where the opposition are silent throughout the auction and a passive lead tells us nothing of the opposition threat to our contract.  This hand can be bracketed in the style of working out the play to achieve a good result.

With West passing, North will open 1C for most of our systems and even those playing Precision or a Short Club. South has possibly two options dependent on partnership agreements either 1S or 2S. North will then showing a much stronger hand and once a 6-card suit is established with South a 4S contract should be the likely contract.

In the play, South has two missing honours but several opportunities to reach the North hand. One of our regular plays is to play for split honours with the opposition. With 5-cards with the defence, the two honours could be split with each defender having 1 honour or with one defender holding both of them. Worst case is clearly when both honours are with LHO (Left Hand Opponent). In essence, a usual split honour situation gives a 75% chance of only losing 1 trump trick with a holding such as the hand here. The key is to enter dummy and lead a low spade towards the long hand and play 10S or 9S. East may well play low initially so then re-enter dummy and lead another spade. With the a 4-card spade suit in dummy, the defence will usually come to 2-spade tricks when East covers the QS second time round but this is no disaster as both finesses in hearts and diamonds work successfully.  A diamond trick may be lost eventually but as the main objective of securing the contract is already achieved. One thing declarer needs to be careful is in not allowing East to make any cheap spade tricks and in particular leading a low spade from hand towards the QS.

Use of precision, short clubs and other 1C openings can be difficult to find an appropriate defence during the bidding. It is useful therefore to have some form of bidding defence to these openings by partnership agreement. Of course using natural bids may be the answer but this can be a bit restrictive.

One important thing to remember is that as a defensive bidder immediately after the opening bid, you are guaranteed a second bite at the cherry as it were, as the partner of the 1C bidder is forced to make a reply. This can work to the advantage of the non-opening side as they can delay making a decision on whether to make a response or not. Again, not always an easy decision to make.

Many partnerships use a double of 1C to show majors and 1NT to show minors. Others systems may show a variety of 2-suited hands with 1 level-bids. With either of these options North has a difficult decision as he wants to get involved in the bidding. Neither double or 1NT fit the system and 2NT could well be too much expectation on partner having sufficient points to have a making contract. So what can North do? The answer is to wait and see how the bidding continues with the knowledge that there will be chance to bid again. So North passes, East bids 1D as a bid has to made and West continues with 1S after a pass from South. North can now enter the auction with 1NT to show a balanced hand of 15 to 18 points and in all probability could well take the auction.

A similar principle can be used against other conventional bids such as Multi and the DON’T system defence to 1NT. i.e. another bid is always available even if you are frozen out first time round.

The use of weak-2 and pre-emptive 3-level bids are designed primarily to make life difficult for the opposition who may be sitting with the majority of the points and in principle control of the final contract. Without some of these bids, the pair with most points will have an easy ride to finding their optimum contract. This hand demonstrates this in several ways. Not least is the fact that N/S are vulnerable and E/W are non-vulnerable.

West starts the ball rolling with a 2H bid and immediately North has to make a decision which starts to impact on how the hand is described. North has probably two choices of either 3C or a double with the intention of bidding clubs next time round to show a strong hand, but is the hand marginal for such an action. Assuming North does double, then East must up the anti and bid 4H, although 5H may be a consideration. South would like to say something and initially would imagine that North has spades and will bid 4S quite happily. West will pass having described the hand already but North will now bid 5C to show a strong club suit. Using vulnerability in their favour East will continue to 5H and South should raise to 6C knowing the void has increased the value of the hand.

Many will let the contract rest in 6C, which will make comfortably but E/W still gain by sacrificing in 6H, which will be doubled but will be down only 3 or 4 tricks dependent on how the spade suit plays. Against 1370, -800 or -500 doesn’t seem a bad result. Was this the bidding at your table?

Of course if North only bids 3C, would the same auction takes – possibly but South will need to have a leap of faith to get to 6C. Again, though E/W have mathematics on their side.

A couple of interesting technical decisions to be made for N/S, with E/W likely to be silent throughout the auction.

Those using a weak NT should prefer to open 1NT rather than 1H. The reason for this is that while the heart suit contains five cards the nature of the suit is weak. Many experts recommend these hand types are opened 1NT in particular leading English International Andrew Robson is a strong advocate of this treatment. He is of course greatly respected in his views. West will find it difficult to enter the bidding and vulnerability further deters any thought of intervention. North knows that game is likely and has two possible options i) to push for game in clubs ii) consider a NT game. While the first option has its merits, again several experts, name dropping again with Bob Mammon (USA) suggest that if there is an option of 3NT or 5 of a minor, then a NT game should be preferred. On this hand at least North is aware that the partnership has 9 clubs between the two hands.

If 5C is the final contract, N/S will almost certainly make the required 11 tricks. If 3NT becomes the final contract, there are a minimum of 9 tricks to be won with 7 clubs and 2 diamonds as the defence at best can get 3 hearts and a spade. However there are chances that an extra trick may come to fruition if the defence don’t optimise the heart situation.

An old problem is whether to sacrifice or not. Here both sides are non-vulnerable so the equation is that with N/S holding game, E/W must make 9 tricks to be in profit against a making game for N/S. Three tricks down and the sacrifice is a failure.

Those playing a weak NT will open 1NT with the South and this will present some difficulty to the West hand who has two long suits, but only 10 pts. Many will pass and North can be optimistic of a major suit game should a 5-3 fit or better be found. An initial transfer to spades does the trick immediately and N/S will happily find a 4S contract. Once the spade fit is found there is probably no need to show the heart suit as there is only a small chance of a slam being made. In this scenario, N/S may well reach 4S unopposed in the bidding.

Now there are several ways for West to show a 2-suited hand, some may use DON’T and others could use 2NT to show a 2-suiter, but as usual good partnership agreements need to be in place. If this happens, then E/W will find they have a good club and while the Law of Total Tricks is less reliable in higher contracts, consideration for a 5C sacrifice becomes a key decision for the E/W pair. Once West makes a move and shows the club suit, East will be quite willing to support partner and should be prepared to sacrifice.

In the last bidding sequence we get the classic situation where E/W can make a sacrifice and if N/S attempt 5S they go 1 down. We all been there and getting the correct decision is not always easy. As it is E/W are 2 down but even doubled this is only -300.

Many at the bridge club use 2NT to show support for partner with game going values. This hand is a perfect example of how this convention can work.

After a pass from North, East will open 1S. With 13pts and 4-card support for spades, 2S and 3S are not a recommended bid and 4H probably close the bidding. However using the 2NT bid above (sometimes known as a Jacoby bid), West can get over support immediately and additionally not take up valuable bidding space for any slam enquiry. This is good news for East who has potentially a 19/20 point count when considering the void in diamonds. The shortage of Aces is some concern but the question is what does East need to know? East also knows that at least 5S should make unless something is dramatically against the partnership as it would be difficult to imagine the West hand without at least one useful Ace.

To establish which Aces are available, the old favourite of Voidwood (or Exclusion Blackwood) works well here and a jump to 5D says to partner, how many controls do you have excluding diamonds? When West replies 2 controls, East has no problem of bidding 6S knowing that only one control is missing in the 3 suits of interest.

South may think there is a good chance to beating the contract, but with Voidwood in use is aware that the AD is useless to beating the contract.

A series of cuebids may also establish the position of the various controls.

Board 8 again but a different situation to the hand from the 3^rd February.

After a pass from West, many North’s will open a weak NT which makes life difficult for East who should according to most bridge recommendations pass. South has nothing to say but what can West do? Pass could well be the right answer, but another argument says that West should protect the pass from East as there must be some points somewhere. If West bids then at least partner knows the hand is limited as there wasn’t an opening bid. Another thought for West is that the side is not vulnerable so this should limit any penalties that may be around and it is probably unlikely that a 2-level bid will be doubled or at worst it will be taken out. So maybe chipping in with a 2D could well gain some reward.

If West does come in with a bid, East should respect the previous bidding and quietly pass and 2D will surely be the final contract. It would be unlikely that N/S would find their 4-4 heart fit, but strange things can happen at the bridge table.

If N/S are playing a strong NT, life is much easier for E/W as North will open with a better minor of 1C and West has a simple overcall of 1D and the partnership will be in a good position to stay with the diamond fit with if necessary competing to 3D.  Even if N/S find a heart fit, they will run the risk of going down in their contract and a 3H bid may well find the opposition putting in a successful double.  

An interesting bidding test for N/S as East will open 1S after passes from West and North.

Ideally South will want to show a 2NT opener but this is probably denied for most pairs as a 2-suited hand is the usual preference. With this in mind best is for South to double initially for a take-out double and then to show the strength on the next round of bidding. In between East may wish to repeat the spade bid. So if the bidding begins 1S (E) – Double (S), West will surely pass and North’s only reasonable option is to show a 4-card heart suit as in principle South’s double will normally show a 4-card heart suit also. However, South can now show the value of the hand by bidding 2NT. Note: - an initial 1NT overcall is usually in the range 15 to 18pts with a stop in the suit bid.

Knowing South has at least 19pts, North should make the percentage bid of 3NT which works very well indeed for the N/S pair and 9 tricks are available with at least 2 spades, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs. South should play the hand as though East has all the important points and consequently key cards.

To sacrifice or not is often a difficult choice and usually when both sides are particularly active in the auction. This hand is a typical example.

West has good shape and too good for a weak 2S opening, so opens with 1S. North has a big hand and with most pairs playing either Michaels or a version of Ghestem will show a 2-suited hand, which at this stage can be of variable strength. Assuming a Michaels bid of 2S from North, East has a difficult decision to make. If the E/W partnership are playing 5-card majors, 3S is probably OK but if only 4-card majors, the choice is more difficult. If East passes, South is forced to bid and 3H is correct to show a non-forcing hand. West will now pass having made a minimum opening but North will show the hand strength and bid game at 4H. East certainly has a role to play and while considering the possibility of beating 4H as partner has opened and the East hand has a trick in support, but the odds favour a sacrifice of 4S as partner must surely have at least 5-spades given the bidding of N/S. Additionally E/W have the critical advantage of favourable vulnerability and 3 down doubled still scores better than 4H making.

As mentioned, there are chances that 4H may go down, but despite only having a combined 15pts, E/W have a making 4S which is a huge bonus as the KC can be trapped. Equally if N/S continue to 5H, they should be down by 1 trick.

Part of the bidding process is to find a fit with partner. Often the opposition try to spike this process or at least take bidding space away from the side, which may have most of the high card points. This hand is typical of these situations and in particular when a pre-emptive bid is made by the pair with the ‘weaker’ hands. It is important therefore that the pair with the stronger hands have a robust system to counter the pre-emptive bids.

South will open a weak 2S or for those playing multi 2D. Although West has only 10 points, the void in the opponents suit greatly increases the strength of the hand. One option is to bid 3H, 4H can also work and another option is to double first and then show the heart suit. The latter option is usually used for a stronger hand but the playing strength is probably worth at least another 5 points. If West bids 3H, East will certainly raise to 4H and West should at least make a slam try with 4NT and receiving the excellent support from East 6H can be bid. i.e. If East shows an Ace short then the bidding can be stopped at 5H. 4H may shut the auction down, but after a double from West, no matter what East responds and this could well be 4H, West can continue again to investigate a slam.

As with much of the bidding of the hand, close partnership understanding is needed and hands with a combined 24 points will end the bidding at 4H. How often do we not consider a slam when if we at least try, we can stop at the 5-level?

As we know, there are loads of articles, books, theories on bridge and we often talk of percentages and in addition vulnerability comes into the equation. This in part is one such example.

West is first to bid and many may think twice to opening 3H as the suit itself is not of great quality and the partnership is vulnerable. Some experts would initially pass and then show the suit later if possible. On this occasion, opening 3H causes no problem at all to the partner and a slam should be considered immediately by East. A bidding sequence of 3H – 4NT – 5D – 5N – 5C – 6H will work quite well for those using a fairly normal RKCB.

If West passes, North may open a weak 2D and then E/W may need to have a resilient system to achieve the slam but if East overcalls 2NT (although slightly too strong), then West can use a transfer to show the heart suit and if East jumps to 4H, then West should consider slam possibility as 4H shows a strong hand with heart support. Again the slam will be bid. A more difficult situation may arise if East initially doubles. West will bid 3H (a forced bid) and East will likely bid 4H. Will West now continue the bidding???

With no opposition bidding, N/S should reach a game contract in NTs or hearts. Sometimes these contracts make the same number of tricks in either denomination, but on other occasions the advantage of playing in a suit contract gives the opportunity to gain a ruffing trick. Such is the situation here to maximise the trick taking potential of the hand.

The bidding may well proceed something like 1C – 1H – 1NT – 2D – 4H for those playing a weak NT. For those using a strong NT, a transfer to hearts will steer the partnership to 4NT probably via 3NT.

Whether West is on lead or East is on lead, the play should be relatively similar with some useful playing techniques in action. First of all is to eliminate the spade loser before tackling trumps and running the risk of a spade loser. Use of the club suit with low to the QC and then cashing AC KC will enable a spade to be discarded from the South hand. Now a spade lead will add an extra trick for N/S. With nothing to lose, QH from South clearly traps the KH and declarer should now clear all the remainder of the opposition trumps. The next technique is to play the diamond suit for split honours by leading 10D from North towards the South. If East plays low, play low from the South hand. This forces West to win with the QD, but now when North regains the lead a second diamond towards the South hand traps the KD and declarer can now continue to win the remainder of the tricks for 12 in all.

All hands need careful assessment on issues such as point count and suit quality, but when voids are in the melting pot hands can often be upgraded considerably. This board, while only having 17pts, is ideal for upgrade and those using the Losing Trick Count will note it is only a 3 loser hand.
As a 3 loser hand, those playing a strong 2C should begin with that bid from the North seat with the intention of showing hearts on the next round. With E/W passing throughout, South can recognise a slam possibility and with a balanced 9 pts, 2NT seems a good response to show at least some slam intention. Some bidding styles may make a waiting bid of 2D as South but again this will lead to slam considerations from the South hand. With the usual responses to a 2NT bid, North can usefully use Stayman to ask if South has any 4-card majors (already knowing no 5-card major as this would have been shown). The bidding will likely continue 4NT – 5H – 6H for most partnerships, although other variants in bidding might include 5-card Puppet Stayman after 2NT and even use of Exclusion Blackwood after a 3H response to Standard Stayman.
In the play, 12 tricks come home comfortably especially as the AS is conveniently positioned. Indeed, without a spade lead, a spade can be discarded from the South hand because the club suit breaks 3-3.

In principle, 33 points are considered a requirement to making a small slam in a NT contract. Here the combined force of the N/S hands is only 31 points and at a glance making 12 tricks looks unlikely. Equally, N/S should not be in the contract at all.

For weak NT bidders, the bidding could well begin 1H – 1S – 1NT with North to bid next. Strong NT bidders will short-circuit this with an opening 1NT. North knows there is no major suit fit and use of the Quantitative bid 4NT is ideal for this hand and bids 4NT. South should make a disciplined pass and 4NT becomes the final contract. Could South be greedy and pop in a 6NT bid? The signs are not at all good with only 31 points and additionally there is no long suit to run.

4NT makes comfortably and 11 tricks will come home easily but where if possible can we find that 12^th trick? There are clearly 4 spades, 3 diamonds (losing to the Ace) and 2 club tricks, but what about the heart suit? Close inspection shows that the only hope of making 12 tricks lies in an effective double finesse of the heart suit by leading JH first time and then 8H after re-entering the dummy hand. This traps the heart holding of East and supplies the extra trick to make the small slam.

Would this author find this play in the barrage at the table? It would be nice to think so, but reality may be something different.

Decisions on whether to bid at the 5-level are often difficult, and in particular after a light point opening. Here is a good example of this situation.

South has a good 6-card suit and a void in diamonds so has a straightforward 1S opening. With West passing, North replies with 2H but what happens if East suddenly puts a 3D bid into the melting pot. South now has a problem but with partner bidding and a void in diamonds, South has points working and 3S is a reasonable bid. West will almost certainly spring to life and will show support with 4D or even 5D. North will remain keen on the heart suit and after repeating it at the 4-level assuming West bids only 4D, there may be a tendency for E/W to allow 4H to be played. However, E/W can afford to be 2 down in 5D and this bid should be made. Is this the end of the bidding? The contract is certainly going to be doubled by N/S but should South show support for partner? On this occasion, the answer must be yes as South knows all the points are working and the QH must be a valuable card.

In the play, N/S make 11 tricks in hearts for +450, while E/W can restrict their losses to 1 down in 5D for only +100 to N/S and even 6D is only +300 to N/S. Normally of course, we say leave the 5-level to the opponents in a competitive auction but not here.

Another minor suit slam this week with no strong reason to consider NTs, which can often be in a bridge player’s thoughts.

West will open probably open 1D although those playing Benji may consider 2C or 2D dependent on which version of Benji is in use. Anyway let’s consider the 1D opening. North is not going to get involved but South will likely have something to say. East will respond 1H and South will overcall 2C in probabilility, although 3C is an interesting thought. West can now show the strength of the hand with a reverse into 2S and with a void in the club suit bid by South can have thoughts that any points with partner could well be useful. Additionally, the West hand may well be worth 21 points if 5 points are added for a void as many players tend to do. East should now support diamonds and arguably 4D is a better bid than 3D as it should show increased strength. After 4D, West will have no problem investigating a slam and even when East shows no controls with 5C for most pairs, West will have good confidence that 6D is making as East must have points somewhere for the 4D bid.

In the play, all declarer loses is the AD, who wouldn’t? An interesting thought for South is that under no circumstances should a double be made, as why would West bid 6D without 2 Aces?

Minor suit slams are generally more difficult to bid than those of major suits, in particular as often bridge players are steered towards a NT game. This hand offers a similar scenario with chances in NTs and the minor suit. Should the minor suit slam be bid? Would it be different in pairs as against teams? Perhaps in both situations the slam should be investigated and also bid.

Using the rule of 20, South can open a realistic 1D and this should set the possibility for North to consider a slam holding strong fit for partner and 16hcp. North could show a splinter in spades to agree the diamond suit, but by far the best is to respond 1H as partner could be holding a 4-card hearts suit with the club suit. With a strong hand a force can be made next time round. With East/West silent, South bids 1S and now North should support diamonds with a jump to 3D. With a series of cuebids beginning with 3S from South and if necessary RKC, a slam in diamonds will be confirmed.

In the play 6D, 7D can be achieved by initially taking the heart finesse to allow one club to be discarded, but this may not be the normal method of playing the hand. Then ultimately, declarer can establish the 5^th heart to throw away a second club for the grand slam.

As often many interesting hands provided by the duplimate machine. A teams' night and differences between getting those vital games or even slams can make a huge difference to the overall result. This is one such hand, where hand evaluation and bidding style can influence the final contract.

After a pass from West, most North players will open 1H but what does South bid. There are probably two camps here, some will simply show the major suit as 1S, others may put a 2D bid on the table. If South bids 1S, the suit is set and North will support a spade contract initially with 2S. However after 2D from South, this hand becomes slightly more difficult for North as 2S would show a reverse and a much stronger hand, so the only reasonable option is to repeat hearts at 2H. While this is not encouraging to South, a bid of 2S is still forcing for one round and this should be bid rather than repeating diamonds.

In either case once, once North has shown spade support, South can re-evaluate the hand upwards and at least investigate a slam as the diamond suit even bigger. If South had responded 1S, use of Voidwood (Exclusion Blackwood) could prove useful after North’s 2S bid but in the second line of bidding RKCB will still reveal that all the relevant controls are in place.

Was the grand bid at your table?

Showing strength after the opposition make an opening bid can be quite critical in achieving an optimum contract. Equally important is for the partner of the strong hand to recognise the strength of the overcall and to react appropriately.

In this hand, East will normally open 1H, which gives South an immediate decision to make. Players playing strong jumps who are perhaps not the majority these days can happily bid 2S but what for those using weak jumps. In this case, best is to double first and then to show the suit. Initially the partner, North in this case, will assume that South has a good hand and then either of two hand types i.e. a hand will an opening bid and 4-card spades or a strong single suited hand.

West should bid 2H to be competitive but some may not. If not, North will simply bid 1S to show a hand with less than 8 points for a weak hand with no decent features. If West does bid, North will of course pass. Assuming a pass from West, East has the opportunity to show the second suit with a 2D bid. Whether West bids or not, South will come in with a 2S bid to show the big hand, which North should recognise. The bidding may well end here, but those of a more competitive nature may see West chip in with 3H and N/S reaching 3S but not 4S as this is against the percentages for the hand.

In the play, N/S can always make 3S, but what if the bidding of 1S leads to North as the declarer. In this case, 3S again makes but if East decides to cash both AH and KH, this will enable a losing club to be discarded on the winning QH in the North hand. Best for East is to cash one heart and then switch to a trump or a club (preferred). 

Decisions on opening bids can work well or work badly. Also sometimes, we may have to deviate slightly from our agreements with partner, although long term this can be quite dangerous and discipline is by far the best way to play the game of bridge.

Here, North has a decision to make. Many pundits would shy away from making the 3C pre-empt with a hand containing a 4-card major. But as the 4-card major suit has poor suit quality, a 3C opening has quite a bit to recommend it. On this hand the 3C opening is perfect news for South who can make a clear 3NT bid with the knowledge that North has a 7-card club suit and opening it in 1^st position should have guarantee a good suit. South has a slight worry about spades but as often nothing is perfect in bridge.

If North passes as could be the case, South will open either 1NT for those playing a strong NT or 1D for those playing the weak variety.  In the first case, best for North would be to bid 3NT direct knowing South has at least 2-cards in clubs, and for those playing a weak NT, a pre-emptive jump to 3C will work to get the partnership to 3NT and even a 1NT response should lead to the same answer.

It is noted on the hand that 6C is making, but finding may be quite difficult for most systems without some inspired card reading by the North/South partnership and should North find a forcing bid after 3NT.

In the play as can be seen 6C can make and 12 tricks are also made in NTs if West makes a fairly regular lead from 4^th highest i.e. a diamond.

Bridge throws up so many options, even to partnerships who may have played together for several years. This hand was such for the author of this article.

In a sequence which begins 1NT from partner and a bid of 4NT is made, many take this as a Quantitative Bid and similarly in a sequence which begins 2NT – 4NT. Both situations are without any bidding from the opposition. In these sequences, the 4NT bid asks partner to bid 6NT if the opener is on maximum for the opening bid. In a similar fashion, a response of 5NT can be used to as partner to bid 6NT if minimum for the opening bid but bid 7NT if on maximum.

Now what happens if when East begins with a suit opening of 1D for 5-card major players, as in this hand. A similar situation could arise for weak No Trumpers with a balanced hand too strong to open 1NT. In each case, West will likely respond 1H and East will may reply 1NT. If West who is understandably looking for a slam bids 4NT, is this now Quantitative or a normal Blackwood or RKCB request?  If the partnership agreement is for this to be Quantitative, then East will pass on a minimum but respond 6NT on maximum. However, if the 4NT bid is RKCB, than East will make an answer to show one key control and West will convert to 6H or better still 6NT. It just shows how important it is to have these agreements firmly in place. Alas, the author passed partner’s 4NT bid thinking it was Quantitative and a slam was missed.

An alternative auction could have been 1D – 1H – 1NT – 3H -4 H – 4NT – 6H, but that is maybe being wise after the event.

Here we have a hand which typifies the game of bridge and the effect of different bidding systems, and also if both partnerships become active.

 South will begin with a pass and those playing a conventional Acol type system will open 1H on the West hand, 5-card majors players will open 1D. In any case, most North’s will now overcall 1S and now the fun could start. But what happens if North passes, for Acol players a jump to 4H should be considered despite the shortage of points. However, in 5-card majors, East will simply pass and the auction will probably end there, unless South intervenes, which he might. Then West will get active and 4H will again be in the limelight.

If North does bid 1S against an Acol 1H, West will become active again even if South makes a supporting bid in spades and 4H will be reached as any spade bid will surely strengthen the East hand. A sacrificial 4S could be made by N/S especially as the vulnerability is in their favour. While West is unlikely to imagine 6H making, both double and bidding 5H work well for the pairing and it is possible that 5H may draw an unwise double from the N/S pairing. A further sacrifice in 5S is a bad option and could be as many as 5 down doubled and obviously 4S could be 4 down with optimum defence.  What a strange game bridge can be and how the scoring system can dictate our decisions?

The hand also shows how different systems can work to advantage or not, and not overcalling may sometimes bring home a good result. But surely most N/S pairing’s would somehow get into the bidding and will likely do the same next time.

Grand slams are not bid too often and good partnership agreement is usually needed to ensure success. This board however is perhaps a relatively easy one to bid and the only decision maybe whether to bid 7NT or seven of a suit.

South will normally open 1H and North knows immediately a slam is on and should in many ways control the bidding from there on. A leap to 6S will almost certainly close the bidding, so knowing that 6S is almost certainly on most distributions and a possible grand if South holds both controls in hearts, a bid of 4NT works perfectly well here as the South hand has 3 controls and North will know that everything is in place and, barring an unpredictable distribution, a grand slam can be bid with good certainty in either 7S or better 7NT. However if South has only two controls, the grand slam is less certain as if South has AH and AC, there could be a heart loser and it may be impossible to shed the two diamonds as well as the heart. One way round the problem is to raise the bidding at a slower pace and an initial 1S by North will be followed by 2H from South and now North can use Exclusion Blackwood at 5C, which asks partner to bid controls outside the Club suit. Hearing 2 controls, North has reasonable thoughts of a grand slam in spades but almost certainly not in NTs.

In the play, all things lead to 13 tricks and interestingly can be made in NTs, spades and hearts as the suit breaks 3-3.

Slams are usually straightforward with 33+pts, but as the combined points reduce the shape of the two hands becomes more important. Equally important are the controls within the two hands.

The East hand meets both requirements of shape and controls and is very close to being a 2C opening bid, except perhaps for those playing a Benji system. Initially however, East will likely open 1C and West should respond with 1D bidding up the line rather than the clearly much better spade suit. If, West does bid 1S it is possible that the diamond fit could get lost as East may well wish to show the 6-card suit. However after 1D, East knows that a slam is a possibility and should immediately show support with a 3H bid for those using splinters and the diamond fit is now in place. West can bid 3NT to describe a hand with stops in both hearts and spades and this should encourage East to investigate a slam either with 4D or preferably 4NT, which should remove any possibly confusion. West will respond with 5D for most pairs, East continues with 5H (queen ask) and when West denies the QD, 6D is the percentage final bid.

As the cards lie, all 13 tricks are made with the QD being a doubleton in the North hand. NTs is more risky as a heart lead could put the contract in jeopardy if the QD is offside, but not on this occasion as a NT contract will equally make 13 tricks.

Bridge is a fascinating game and what can be a good logical lead against one contract can be the difference between success and failure as with this hand here. Additionally the hand demonstrates the power of a long running suit when NTs are selected as the final contract.

In the bidding, West is likely to open the bidding as South probably hasn’t a convenient bid to show the two 5-card majors with only 6 points. After an opening 1D, North also hasn’t a decent bid and East will simply bid 1H to show a 4-card major suit as West could still have heart support. However, South has a legitimate 1S overcall showing 5-card spades and West will repeat the diamond suit at 2D. North comes into the bidding with 2S and what does East know about the hand? Clearly West has many diamonds, probably six at this stage and having opened the bidding, West could well have a stop in either hearts or clubs. The AD therefore becomes a very powerful card and with a potential spade lead, 3NT seems a good shot to make. There is possibly a difference between pairs and teams as a diamond contract is relatively safe, but this may get a successful overcall in spades by the N/S pair.

In the play, the major decision is the opening lead with a spade lead ensuring success for declarer and any other lead ensuring defeat. But who wouldn’t lead a spade? It could be the only way to beat the contract on many hands, but unfortunately for N/S this wasn’t such a hand. As can be seen, if North has either Queen or Ace of spades, the defence will prevail.

As we know too well, the opening lead is often the key to a good defence and this hand is a typical example. There are several Dos and Don’ts in respect of opening leads and of course they work sometimes and fail on others. In this hand, the advice of leading a singleton does wonders against a possible game contract by the N/S pair.

In the bidding, South will open 1S and West is likely to show a 2-suited hand with 2S, which for many pairs will show the 5-cards in hearts and an undisclosed minor. North should up the anti and raise pre-emptively to 3S and with good shape, South will probably and should raise to game. With no indication from partner (East), West is on lead and seeking to get a ruff leads a singleton diamond. East wins and after the 2-suited overcall has no problem recognising the singleton to give West a ruff. The contract is now doomed as West has two other winners, which are cashed.

On another day, West will find declarer or dummy holding the AD and the contract will come home.

Good scores and bad scores come in various ways in the game of bridge and sometimes neither pair at the table makes a serious mistake. The other point in the melting pot is often the systems being used by partnerships. This hand is one such example.

After three expected passes, East will open the bidding. Those playing a Benji system will likely open at the 2 level to show a hand with at least 8 playing tricks i.e. 2C, precision users will open 1C and others will open 1D typically. Those opening 1C may well remain in that contract unless N/S get busy as West for most should make a disciplined pass. However, if  either North or South overcall,  South with a 1H overcall with a poor suit and similarly North  with 2C, then East would be able to emphasise the strength of the hand. In the precision case, West would have to respond with 1D and East would then be able to show the hand strength further and game will probably be reached. While those playing Benji, 2D would be a typical response and East would push on with the bidding to ensure game is reached.

It is interesting that a response of a spade bid from West will probably find a spade contract being called and conveniently the suit behaves very well. But would this always be the case, if West gets involved with only 4 points? Will the fit be as good next time?

In the play 11 tricks are available in spades or diamonds in normal play.

Many candidates for hand of the week provided by the duplimate equipment. This one needs careful judgment from both pairs and possibly a little luck to be on the right side of the auction.

With 6-5 distribution in the minors, East opens the longest of the suits at 1C. Importantly this gives South scope to double, even with 11 pts and a 4-4-4-1 hand. Some may shy away from this but it is a solid opportunity to get the hand across to partner in one bid. With a 6-card club suit, West has various options and much may depend on partnership agreements. For some 3C will describe the hand accurately while others may find a pre-emptive sequence a preferred choice and indeed this may disrupt N/S from reaching their optimum contract if say a 5C bid is made.  Nevertheless, as North has such a marvellous distribution nothing is likely to dissuade a competitive bid at the 5-level and a pre-emptive bid may even be the catalyst for a slam, but do N/S bid it? Similarly after 3C, North will show a good heart by jumping to game. East or West will certainly compete to force the bidding to the 5-level but do they bid again when probably North raises to 5H? It is an interesting question but it could well be fateful if North/South feel obliged to make what might be a save in 6H, but it could be much better.

As can be seen by the hand layout, the limit of E/W is 10 tricks in clubs with a loser in each of spades, hearts and diamonds. For N/S, 11 tricks is a formality and 12 tricks can be made if the spade position is gauged correctly. It just shows as we often experience that the shape of hands can be very critical in reaching the best auction for a partnership when both pairs have decent prospects. What happened at your table?

Another where getting a bid in first can disrupt the opposition bidding unless they have a clear system to show strong hands.

After passes from North and East, South may open a very pushy 2S knowing that West almost certainly has a good hand. West is thinking that 3C the longest suit could well be passed out but should find a double, which will force East to describe its hand. The added advantage is that the double suggests a 4-card heart suit, which indeed the hand contains. The plan however is to show a suit on the next bid, which will for many pairs show a stronger than a normal opening bid i.e. in this case to bids clubs at the next round of bidding. North has little to add to the bidding sequence and East now has a critical bid to make. With partner indicating a 4-card heart suit and at least opening points, a heart contract is not a good option and with 11points, 2NT is too feeble, so a jump to 3NT is the best description of the hand. Partner (West) can now pick up the thread , that East has a maximum for the original pass and the club suit now offers good possibilities for a slam, it being a suit that has good chances of making 5 tricks. With this in a 4C bid should show slam intention, otherwise the 3NT bid would certainly be passed.

East interprets the slam intention and continues by showing first round control in hearts, which again is good news for West who can continue the slam investigation with a 4NT bid asking for Aces. East replies 5H to show 2 Aces and West completes the bidding with 6NT. In the play, South will probably make a passive lead of a spade taken by the West hand. Declarer immediately cashes 5 club winners and the defence are in difficulty with their discards, in particular North who would like to retain some level of stop in both hearts and diamonds. Either way, the squeeze produces too much pressure and East with careful monitoring can retain either length in hearts or diamonds. If North retains hearts, four diamond tricks will be made, if North retains diamonds, South will be thrown in with a heart and North’s heart honour will be dropped on the second round of the suit.

Various bidding options here, does North open a pre-empt vulnerable? If North passes what action does East open?

If North opens 3D, which is not at all outrageous, East with a void in diamonds will make a simple 3H overcall, double may be an option but with a 6-card suit it is usually best to bid it. South could possibly up the anti with 5D but in any event West should make a comfortable 6H bid to close the auction. Without a bid from South, West can bid immediately to 4NT to enquire of the relevant keycards. On hearing one key card, West will again bid 6H. In the play of 6H, will declarer find the singleton KS as this will be needed to make the contract as there could easily be a spade and a club loser? Taking the finesse will lead to the contract failing by 1 trick, which would be unfortunate for the E/W pairing.

Without a bid from North, the bidding may well take a different route to a small slam and a different one should be the final contract, which makes far more comfortably. After a pass from North, East will briefly consider a weak option but the hand is worth far more than that and should be opened 1H. When West bids 1S, East should ignore repeating hearts and show spade support, as this will advise West of the 4-card spade suit and at least a 5-card heart suit. Once this fit is known, West will take control of the auction and via a series of cuebids and RKCB, a contract of 6S will be reached. Although 7S can be made as the cards lie, this is too high a risk and 6S is the answer. In the play, West will carefully ruff a diamond to gain an extra trick before clearing trumps and then keeping an entry into East’s hearts, will run the suit for 12 tricks irrespective of whether the KS is not dropped on the first trump lead.

As often evaluating hand strength is important to finding the best contract. In particular upgrading hands with singletons or voids further complicates this judgment. A rule of thumb is to add about 2 points for a singleton and perhaps 5 points for a void. However, these assessments may need to be different if there is a fit with partner, which is good news but maybe downgraded slightly on a misfit.

On this hand, South initially opens 1C and North supports this with a 3C bid to agree the suit and show a hand containing 10/11 points. 1D maybe a possibility but with 5-cards in the club suit, it is best to show agreement immediately. A slight weakness is it takes away bidding space but if it is not done immediately partner will never believe a 5-card suit. East may interfere with 3S but this clearly will not disturb South who is void in spades and this further increases the hand strength knowing that the opposition are likely to have points in the void suit.

Irrespective of whether East bids, South should bid 4S, which can have a very useful meaning known as Voidwood or Exclusion Blackwood. This bid declares a void in spades and asks partner to show Roman Keycard Controls ignoring the spade suit. The bidding with this convention is used in an escalating fashion. North then replies 5D to show 2 keycards without the QC. With this completing the set for South ignoring the spade suit, South should with confidence bid 7C.

In the play, the heart holding allows South to discard a losing diamond and the 13 tricks come home comfortably for the N/S pairing.

In considering the move to using Voidwood, South needs to ask the question, what do I need to know from partner’s hand? If the response had been 1 control, the partnership can sign off at 6C.

After two passes to West, a bid of 2NT or equivalent should be made to show a balanced hand with 20 to 22 points in principle. The Q 7 combination in spades is not brilliant but we have to make the best possible description for partner. East now knows of a slam possibility if West is on maximum or has a good long suit to run and a useful bid is a Quantitative bid of 4NT, which gives a clear message to partner to 6NT with a maximum hand, but to make a disciplined pass if on minimum points for the opening 2NT.

With 22 points, West bids direct to 6NT to complete the bidding. In the play a spade loser is unavoidable and 12 tricks come home aided by the convenient split in the club suit. Those playing 4NT as a conventional Blackwood bid will probably reach 6NT once the array of Aces and Kings have been established but the total points between the two hands may have less certainty to its total.

A final note maybe that on rare occasions, if the bidding had commenced 2NT – 5NT, the 5NT bid says bid 6NT with a minimum 2NT opener but bid 7NT with a maximum for the 2NT opener.

This board had some similar characteristics to the Board 2, in that one hand had a long suit. Equally the likely opening lead in each case could possibly allow a trick to declarer, if 4^th highest longest suit is used.

On Board 3, South may well open a weak 2S, which is passed by West. North is short in spades, which is not ideal but has a rich source of tricks in the club suit together with a certain diamond winner and on a good day a heart trick and surely South can add a trick also. The options therefore are clearly NTs as a 5C contract is most improbable and a 3NT bid should be made, 2NT maybe a consideration but this has to be perhaps negative thinking for pairs or teams.

As can be seen, 3NT only makes on a heart lead but is East to know this? For many 4^th highest is the obvious lead and on many occasions this would be the contract. East isn’t aware of the long club suit unless for some reason North mentions it and equally it could easily find partner with a winning trick to return the suit and beat the contract comfortably. So for this hand 4^th highest does not work out for the best but it is no reason to discard a well proven opening lead as its successes outweigh its failures.

The hand yet again proves the point that strong long suits are a distinct advantage when considering a NT contract over a minor suit bid.

Many game hands last week, somewhat less available this week. This hand presented considerable problem for N/S and emphasised an important message in technique.

Following a pass from West, North will open 1H and East has a hand perfect for a double with a classic 4-1-4-4 distribution. South, although knowing East has a likely 4-card spade suit, bids 1S and now back to North. It would be nice to bid 2C to show the second suit but preference should be given to 2H to emphasise at least a 5-card suit for those not playing 5-card majors but for those who are a 6-card suit. East is effectively frozen out having described the hand fully with the double, a second double would however show extra values. Nevertheless when the bidding returns to South, two options are available either to pass or repeat spades with a 7-card suit, which would be absolutely non-forcing.

Irrespective of any decision made by South, the partnership should quickly recognise that there is a clear misfit and to continue bidding is not a good policy. In this consideration, a pass by South is a good decision and if South bids 2S, a pass by North is an equally good decision.

In the play, it is noted that 2H can make if the singleton KH is dropped but 1 down seems perhaps more likely, while 2S is also 1 down. Any contract above the 1-level for E/W will give a poor result.

The duplimate machine threw up many big hands with 14 possible game hands and 6 possible slam hands. Bidding them of course can be a different proposition as the opponents can often get in the way of a smooth bidding process. A typical example is the above hand, where the majority reached a slam in a minor. Without interference, it is probable that the grand slam will be achieved.

With West as opener, 3S or better still 4S will be bid and this immediately takes away considerable bidding space for N/S. A 4S has the added advantage of being perhaps a stronger hand. Nevertheless, N/S will reach a slam goal when North bids 4NT to show happy to play in two suits and South with such a strong hand, including a void in a known 8-card suit, will bid immediately to the 6-level irrespective of any interference by East who does best to bid 5S. Bidding 5S takes away a possible bid by South to show a void in that particular suit and this may be the difference to N/S finding the ultimate prize. If East stays quiet, South in principle should bid 5S to show control in that suit and any bid at the 6-level by North can be moved on to the 7-level.

In the play, there is no difficulty for N/S to make all 13 tricks, but what might happen if E/W take the barrage one step further with a 6 bid, which proves a good sacrifice unless N/S bite the bullet and bid the Grand Slam. But would they??????

It would be interesting to know the bidding sequence at the other tables on the night.

A wide variety of boards were in play, including 4 possible Grand Slams, three of which were available to E/W. As often, not all were so easy to bid but well done to any pair who bid their fair share. Despite this let us look at a different problem for those sitting in the E/W direction.

On Board 18, East will begin with a pass followed by 3H by South as a usual pre-emptive opening.  This immediately cuts down the options of West’s bid having a void in hearts, 17pts but significantly two 5-card minors. A double seems inappropriate as this would tend to indicate at least a 4-card spade suit, bidding one of the minors may not yield the best fit.

Many pairs use 4NT to show a 2-suited hand each of at least 5-cards outside the suit bid by the opposition. Then the partner of the 4NT bidder must bid one of the two lowest suits as this will ensure a fit with partner. What the partner must not do is the bid the highest of the 3 suits as this may not be the best fit.

On this hand, East has better diamonds than clubs so simply bids 5D, which finds a fit with the 4NT bidder, who then passes. If West had a hand of clubs and spades, West would have bid 5S as partner should have reasonable tolerance for that suit.

In the play, on any lead, East can throw a potentially losing spade on the AH and 11 tricks should be made as long as declarer leads trumps at each opportunity to prevent any possible ruffing by the defence.

Bridge offers many fascinating variations and the scoring system itself can work for us and against us. Such is this little hand, where both pairs will be in the auction but only one is likely to obtain the optimum result. It also offers choices to be made by all four players. It is a hand with 20pts belonging to each pair.

After passes from North and East, South will open 1D (longest suit) and West will overcall with either 1S or more aggressively 2S, although the quality of the spade suit has limitations. However, a bid will be made. Assuming a simple 1S overcall, North is a bit stymied and pass seems the best option initially to see if partner can find a second bid. East bids 2C to show a hand with at least 5-clubs and 10+ pts, which are limited in view of the initial free pass. South may repeat diamonds with having a second suit, but of course is not strong enough to reverse into hearts and West will come back in with 2S. Knowing South has at least a 5-card diamond suit, North should show support at 3D as the partnership will have a share of the points and South will be relatively short in spades.

East has a careful judgment to make as getting competitive auctions correct at the 3-level can be match point winners or losers. 3S may be the winning auction, pass may be the correct bid as would double, but that would be very high risk. In the final analysis, those East who passed were the winners, those who bid to 3S were the losers. Conversely, it was absolutely right for N/S to bid 3D as 2S makes for 110 to N/S, whereas 3D going 2 down is only 100 to N/S. Such are the vagueries of the bridge game.

How would the bidding proceed if West bids immediately to 2S???

Doubles can have several meanings and responses have to be carefully judged whether we are looking for penalties, take-out, etc. The double is in many aspects like having an extra bid available. This hand offered good judgement for N/S to obtain the optimum result.

For those using a weak NT, following a pass from North, East will open 1H as the only 4-card suit and South will double for take-out to say in principle 4-cards in the spade suit and a decent hand. Many also play that this double could be a strong hand with a good long suit.

West will probably pass but a 2H bid would not be incorrect having 4 cards in the suit. Indeed a 3H bid which many use as showing a weak hand with support would up the anti further. However, none of these actions should deter North who knows partner is short in hearts, will have support for spades and the other suits. In this respect North must always bid with such a good spade suit. If West passes quietly, a jump to 2S will show partner that despite an initial pass, the hand will have 8+ pts and a spade suit. As always partnership agreement on these auctions is critical but South will have sufficient ammunition to raise the contract to 4S, although ideally the hand would like to have a 4-card spade suit.

In the play N/S have a comfortable 10 tricks as all the key cards are identified with the East hand and the losers should be confined to 2 diamonds and a club. It will need to make use of either ruffing a heart or setting up extra tricks in the long diamond suit.

Sometimes during a slam investigation, knowledge of a void in a suit can be very helpful in deciding whether to move to a slam or not. Exclusion Blackwood is one of the tools that may be used as an alternative to establish 1^st or 2^nd round controls with cuebids. Board 26 offered this opportunity and also showed the value of not jumping to game on the first opportunity.

After a likely pass from East, South will open 1H and North knows immediately that a heart game is the minimum the partnership will reach. A direct bid to 4H will probably close the auction but if North can find a forcing/ or semi-forcing bid at a lower level a higher contract can be considered. One method is to bid a 3-card minor suit which partner cannot pass to see if partner shows any increased strength on the next round of bidding. Here a 2C bid works really well and when South upgrades his hand with a jump to 3D a slam is a possibility. Another key now is that it is useful for partnerships to play that a 3H reply from North is stronger than 4H i.e. fast arrival is aimed at terminating the bidding.

When North bids 3H, South is in a position to use Exclusion Blackwood with a jump to 5C, which asks partner to show Roman Keycard Blackwood controls outside the club suit. The keycards are shown in an escalating way from the anchor bid (on this occasion 5C). For those using 0314, 5D would show 0 or 3 controls, 5H would show 1 or 4 controls, etc. On this occasion, when North bids 5H, South immediately knows that there are 2 controls missing and simply passes the 5H bid. Clearly if North had shown 2 controls outside clubs, South could happily bid a slam in hearts.

For many of us, playing teams and pairs our bidding doesn’t change too much. But what about this board?

After a pass from North, East opens a gentle 1D, although some a small consideration may be given to a stronger opening type and indeed the few who open strong twos could open 2D. Anyway, West will continue with 1H and East will show the strong hand with a jump to 3D showing a minimum of a 6-card diamond suit together with 16+pts. West will bid 3S, which is normally asking for a spade stop for 3NTs for most pairings. Irrespective East has no interest in NTs and a bid of 4D is best as West is showing a clear game intent. A 4NT from West gets a 5S bid from East and West now has to decide between NTs or 6D. In teams, a strong consideration should be given to 6D, but in pairs the extra points to be gained in 6NT should sway the decision. It could go wrong with the club suit being undeclared but the chances must be that East has something somewhere and 6NT is a good percentage bid.

In play, without a perhaps expected club lead, 12 tricks are certain and as can be seen 13 tricks are there for the taking without the club lead.

Another of these hands, where gauging the relative playing strength of the hands is difficult. In particular by N/S hold a clear majority of the points.

North can open 1C, which will be overcalled by East at 1S. South has the best hand in terms of points at the table and double seems a reasonable option as if North has a 4-card heart suit to go with the clubs then N/S will have a heart game as a minimum.  Although having few points, West should immediately bid 3S pre-emptively to take away bidding space from N/S. This puts North in a dilemma and while pass is one option to allow South to further describe the hand, with such long clubs a 4C bid appears marginally the best action. If East bids 4S, which is reasonable, South has enough strength and support to bid 5C. Will this end the bidding? Although East has only 11 points, the void club suit is worth maybe five extra points and if 9 tricks can be made, a worthwhile sacrifice is available at 5S, but will this be found?

After 5S, will South be tempted to bid 6C, it’s possible but it becomes a huge guess on the this bidding sequence. As can be seen, N/S have a making 5C contract for +400, while the sacrifice for E/W is only 1 down and doubled for +100 to N/S.

Opening leads are often the key to breaking a contract or conversely allowing success for declarer against the odds. This hand is no exception to that situation, but it needs both defenders to work together to beat declarer.

Assuming a weak 1NT from South, N/S will probably reach 3NT without being disturbed by E/W coming into the bidding. The auction could well be 1NT – 3NT with North judging that the long diamond suit will come home for several tricks. Of course, North may give consideration to the long diamond suit but arguably 3NT is the better decision either directly or via whatever transfer system is in place.

This throws the opening lead into the West hand, who logically must lead a major and with a 4-card heart suit top of a sequence is preferred. This immediately puts the contract in jeopardy as E/W hold J/Q/K between their hands. South will duck the first diamond and East takes the trick. A heart return from East takes away the last entry into dummy and declarer is always going to be one trick short. This seems fairly straightforward, but how often is the 4^th highest card led and declarer gains the necessary momentum to succeed with sufficient entries into the hand with the long suit. So the message is if Stayman is not used to seek a 4-card major suit, a lead of a major will frequently gain a good reward.

Interestingly, should North be declarer, a spade lead  from East allows the contract to make, although in principle East has made the optimum lead from that hand --- such is the game of bridge.

A few interesting scenarios could occur on this hand.

Following a pass from North, East will be opening 1D if playing a weak NT or 1NT for the strong variety. South with a void in diamonds will undoubtedly take some form of action.

Against 1D, a clear double will be made and the bidding could continue 1H from West and 1NT from East. North will stay out of the bidding with the long diamond suit being opened by East. With the void diamond, should South make another move against opponents who have shown a good 1NT bid and a freely bid 1H? The maxim, as a previous member would advocate is that once you have advised partner of your hand once, don’t do it again, so pass. If partner wants to bid, then it is partner’s decision. This will leave the contract at 1NT, which will make for at least 8 tricks and +120 to E/W.

Against 1NT from East, South will use one of the selection of defensive bids to 1NT to enter the bidding. DONT users will bid 2C to suggest clubs and a higher suit, which will hear North bidding 2D. At this point, South should pass but with a void will South take this action? 2D will probably be down 2 tricks for +100 to E/W unless the contract is doubled. If South bids further such as 2H or 2S, how many tricks will N/S make? Both would be in severe trouble with no entries other than the likely diamond entry on the first lead and a huge doubled score is very likely. In some respect, this outcome is a bit unlucky for N/S but this happens. Other South players may use a variety of Astro and N/S obtain a poor result, no matter what the final contract.

Good defensive co-operation is important for all partnerships and this hand demonstrates how this can affect getting a good score or a bad score on a hand. It also demonstrates the need to have a secure signalling system.

The bidding will likely begin with a 3D pre-empt by East for most pairs after North passes.  South, while not ideal, could venture a double to show tolerance for the majors, but West will convert to 5D, which should be the final contract as anything N/S do will gain a very poor score if a sacrifice is made.

The standard lead for South is AH (top of Ace + King) and now North has an important role to play as it is clear that any heart continuation will set a trick for declarer. Whatever signalling system is being used by N/S, North must indicate a switch to a spade, which many pairs will achieve with a high heart such as the 10H. When South leads a spade, declarer is doomed to 1 down ultimately losing 3 unavoidable tricks with 2 hearts and a spade. Should South not lead a heart, momentum will switch to E/W and declarer will be able to establish the QH to throw away a losing spade.

Difference in the scores are +50 for a good defence and -400 for a poor defence.

Some interesting aspects of bidding in this hand.

North will open 1C and it is possible that some East’s will overcall with 1 having 8pts, but many experts would decline this thought as the hand contains a 4-card club suit, which has goodish strength. If East does bid 1H, West will have a clear 4H bid to make on this occasion. Nevertheless, if East passes, South has an interesting decision, some will bid 1S, others may pass and some players can make a 2S bid, which says to partner ‘I have a weak 6-card suit’. This bid can be quite useful as it tells partner of its strength and is strictly to play. It has an added advantage that it takes bidding space away from the opposition. Again E/W should not be denied as West can make a double to describe the red suit strength and values, which East will be prepared to support irrespective of any action from N/S. If North continues with a 2S over say 1S, East will bid 3H and West will convert to 4H. If South had bid 2S, East can still bid 3H after the double by West, which again should be converted to 4H.

Is there a possible sacrifice for N/S? Here this is very dangerous although the vulnerability favours N/S, but 5C is down by 4 tricks while 5S is only down by 3 tricks, so that would be OK on this occasion. In practice, N/S will probably go away quietly and under no circumstances should a double of 4H be considered as quick tricks are limited for the N/S combination.

Another of these teasing hands, where an early barrage gives a headache to the pair with the majority of the points and even a choice of contracts.

At what level will the West hand open? 3C is a bit feeble, 4C a good compromise and 5C is not out of the question and will probably make life even more difficult for the opposition, always assuming it is they who have the difficult decisions to make. It could of course cause problems for East, who has yet to make a bid. Anyway, let’s assume that West opens 4C, North could possibly make a bid but perhaps a bit too pushy and vulnerable could go badly wrong, so pass is the best option there. East has no reason to bid, but is probably on alert to come in at 5C should it be required. South will bid and the best option is 4NT, which many pairs play as holding two good suits other than clubs. West passes and North can safely bid 5H as if hearts isn’t one of South’s suits, South can if necessary convert to 5S. On this occasion, hearts is a fit and the contract plays in 5H.

In play, East leads partner’s suit, carefully switches to a diamond and gets a quick ruff and the contract is 1 down for a good score to E/W of +100. Interestingly, if N/S play in 5D, this can make with careful play and of course, if E/W are left to play in 4C, they too are down. Bridge does strange things sometimes and probably neither pair has made a mistake in the bidding or play but one pair will come out of the hand with a good score.

N/S seem set for fairly regular 4S contract making after a bidding sequence with North opening 1S and this being supported by South to reach 4S. E/W opening a Lucas 2H may cause a bit of a diversion but lacking the key cards, they should subside gracefully, as a potential sacrifice is a doomed possibility, even more so noting the vulnerability.

In 4S, East may well lead AD and continue the suit knowing declarer is certain of a diamond winner. Obviously, if West had opened a Lucas 2H, a heart would be clearcut and the contract is immediately in danger. If East continues diamonds, declarer will win the 3^rd round and should immediately play AC and another ruffing in hand seeing that a potential end play in hearts may be needed. A round of trumps reveals the bad spade break and this ultimately defeats declarer who is forced to clear East’s remaining spade. Declarer can gain an entry to the South hand via two low spades and ruff a 3^rd spade and now play a low heart towards dummy finessing with the 10H, which fails. Without East having the 3^rd spade, it might have been possible to establish a ruff/discard situation but not on this occasion. West can safely exit with a club and North hoping for split heart honours leads to A/Q but alas to no avail.

In some respects N/S are unlucky but everyone is in the same boat. Interesting question, would N/S prevail if West had opened a Lucas 2H and would they stay out of 5C? 

In this hand, those playing a strong NT have a slight advantage compared to those playing a weak NT. However with either system the defence can prevail defending against the very reasonable 3NT contract.

For weak NT players, the bidding may well proceed 1C/1D – 1NT – 2NT – 3NT to be played by South, while for strong NT players, the bidding will be probably more direct at 1NT – 3NT to be played by North. Against the hand played by South, West will lead either a heart or a spade. While any heart will probably ensure that the defence will take 5 tricks, a spade lead of QS beats the contract but a 4^th highest spade will ensure declarer makes a spade trick, when declarer plays low in dummy. Against the hand played by North, East may well lead a spade, should East do otherwise?  This may depend on style but is there a reason not to lead a spade? Again the lead gives declarer a spade winner, which is vital to making the contract. If declarer has a spade in the bag, declarer needs to get into the South hand via hearts playing AH and overtaking the QH with KH. This enables declarer to trap KC in the West hand and come to 1 spade, 3 hearts and 5 clubs with careful play.

Do you have the splinter bid on your Convention Card and how often is it used? This hand fits neatly into the requirement for those who play splinters.

After South passes, West opens 1S choosing the higher ranked of two 5-card suits and in this case a major over a minor. North passes and East ignores the temptation to show the heart suit and supports West immediately with 4C, which shows the singleton club (best to be useless), 4-card spade support and usually 10+ points. The club is good news to West with a 5-card diamond suit which can be cuebid to indicate slam interest and 1^st round control. Once East cuebids 1^st round control in hearts, a slam investiagtion should be continued. If West bids 4NT, the bidding will likely continue for most pairs with 5D- 5H (queen ask) – 6H (showing KH) – 6S. Other Wests may bid 5D to show second round control in the suit and East can bid direct to 6S knowing that there is a club loser.

In  the play, North will probably lead AC and E/W will make 12 tricks. Without a club lead, E/W can arrange to take all the tricks.

Plenty of shapely hands in the box with two near slams on boards 6/8 and making slams available on boards 5/14/15 and 17. Board 15 is interesting in that the slam is in a minor suit, which can be difficult to find as many pairs may settle in 3NT, but with a void in the North hand this is one to look further afield.

South will normally pass except those perhaps having Lucas in their system. The same possibility could be with West but assuming no Lucas, North will open with a modest 1C and South will bid 1H, which is good news to North as this offers the possibility of support for the doubleton KH/9H. Having a void, North can add a typical 5pts and show the hand strength with a bid of 2S . Now South’s hand becomes so much stronger knowing partner has at least a 5-card club suit. South also knows the combined hands have a game somewhere. 3D becomes a useful NT probe, which North will reject and bid direct to 5C, which South should raise to slam.

Last board in the box, but a potential slam is available for N/S.

After East passes, South opens 1S and should West make a move with the 6-card heart suit. Many will argue that West should stay passive and pass, especially being vulnerable but if West does bid is it 2H or3H. Either way this is good news for North as any action by West will enhance the chances that South has a long spade suit. One major plus in the North hand is that with all the Aces it is steeped in controls, which are a big advantage when considering a slam. If West comes in with 2H, North can make a useful 3H bid to show support and enquire the strength of the South hand. South with a heart singleton and a 6-card spade suit should now raise to 4S. North is very interested in a slam and the bidding will continue 4NT – 5D – 5NT – 6H – 6S.

In the play, N/S can make 13 tricks if South plays for trumps to be 2 – 2, but as often is this the percentage play, when West may have inserted a heart bid. With the heart bid the odds move slightly towards spades being 3 -1, without the heart bid 2 – 2 maybe suggested, but that’s bridge on this occasion playing for the drop works.

The evening had five hands with 7-card suits or more, each containing either a void or a singleton. One hand had an 8-card suit and one a most unusual 9-card suit. Decisions on how to handle these longer suited hands can be quite difficult and opening at higher levels can not only impede the bidding of the opposition but also that of partner. However we have to make the best judgment we can and trust that the optimum contract is reached.

Board 17 has the 9-card suit, so what options do we have as opener? With a weaker hand a direct bid to 5D has distinct advantages particularly being non-vulnerable. However this hand has considerable strength taking into account the spade void and the club singleton and 1D is suggested as if partner can reply, bidding spce is not compromised. Additionally if the opposition enter the bidding the strength of the hand can be demonstrated ona subsequent bid. Inevitably, after a 1D bid, East will either bid 1S or if the system allows a bid describing a 2-suiter with spades and clubs such as 2NT for those using CRO. East would probably not bid over an opening 5D. Following 2S, South also has some options and a competitive double seems best at this stage, which should encourage North. Indeed the 1S bid does nothing to dampen the aspirations of North even though West will up the anti with at least 3S.

North must envisage that South has made a sputnik double showing clubs and hearts, which is very encouraging and should as a minimum bid a small slam, which is perhaps the percentage bid. Other thoughts on the possible bidding are invited?

In the play 7D will make unless E/W immediately cash AC.

In last week’s hand of the week, we showed how most systems will end up in the same contract. Here bidding could go several ways.

Those playing Precision will open 1C to show a strong hand which cannot be passed and the bidding should comfortably reach a spade game as North’s re-bid can show the 4-card spade suit. However the majority could have more difficulty if North doesn’t open 2C as the recommended opening bid is 1D (one suit below the singleton). If East remains passive as it should, South has no grounds for bidding and West will surely pass. Looking at the situation should East venture 1H (not recommended in my view), West could support with 2H but now North can back in with a double, which South will support and 4S will be reached.

If North opens 2C, how does the bidding proceed, South will respond 2D but what does North bid next – the jury is out? 2S is possible but any suit bid would in principle show a 5-card suit and certainly 2NT is a non-starter. Clearly after 2S, the partnership would reach 4S, but is this good bidding practice.

In the event, 12 tricks can be made in spades but this may need some good inspiration and is an unlikely play.

Systems inevitably don’t cover all combinations of sequences and maybe this hand is one of them for those who play a strong 1NT. For those playing a weak 1NT, East opens and West may initiate a transfer sequence with 2NT (or 3C) to show the 6-card suit, which after East has completed the transfer will be converted to 3NT unless West is over-frisky and considers a slam. In percentage terms using the maxim of one of the leading USA players if there is choice of 3NT or 5 of a minor, 3NT is the bid to make. So it proves here as 5D can be beaten with 2 hearts and a club to be lost.

For those playing a strong 1NT, the bidding is not so easy and West really has to make a calculated choice of response to the East opening. However what West does know is that East is likely to have something in the majors and the diamonds will be not worse than the same length as clubs. So after East opens 1D with the intention of bidding 1NT next time round, West has no logical bid in the system and trusting that partner has a genuine opening can with some certainty jump direct to 3NT with the percentages in favour of the pairing having major suits covered.

This sort of bidding can go wrong but that is the game we play and love. Here both systems either weak or strong NT should land neatly in 3NT with 10 tricks readily available and a possible 11 trick should N/S not cash their 3 winners eg a club winner is a possibility.

4-4-4-1 hands are often awkward and perhaps more so when they have a high number of points. With an unbalanced 21 points, many will shy away from opening 2NT, which is in many systems but only when balanced, so what should North bid on Board 16. Those using Precision use 1C to get the bidding moving but most systems need to handle the hand somewhat differently and in particular as those using weak twos are restricted to a 2C bid to show the game going strength. Again, does the North hand meet the 2C criteria.

Lets assume North ignores the 2C possibility and opens 1D after West passes, South immediately has two options, a direct bid off 4H or with the intention of finding more information from partner a simple 1H knowing that hearts will be the final contract. After 4H, North also has two choices either pass based on the Fast Arrival Principle or suggest a slam possibility with a 4NT enquiry, which will ultimately lead to 6H being bid. It has some risk but under no circumstances should North consider 6NT as partner’s hand is so heart dominated and entries will be at a premium. If South initially bids 1H the bidding will again reach 4H after North shows a reverse with 2S and again South goes direct to 4H to show a single suited hand. At this stage, North has the same decisions outlined above.

In the play 6H comes home for the loss of just the AH as all the outside losers can be thrown away.

All pairs reached at least 3NT on this board, one pair reaching 4NT. Only one declarer made 9 tricks, all others making 8 tricks. It is a good example of improving chances of success.

It is possible South may open an aggressive 1D, but perhaps not the style of many. West in any event will get involved and E/W will reach the optimum contract of 3NT. With West playing the hand, if North leads 4^th highest of spades there is no problem for declarer and even on a club lead, the 4-card suit is identified and declarer can juggle the resources to ensure there are 4 hearts, 4 clubs and a diamond trick to win. If East is declarer, South will certainly lead a diamond and the play is perhaps more difficult, but how can East increase the chances of success.

The diamond lead gives a strong suggestion of a 5-card holding and the standard play is to hold up the DA for 2 rounds, winning the 3^rd round of the suit. Any suit change by the defence is fatal. So winning the third round, the main danger for declarer is if South holds the AS and it is absolutely vital that this suit is not played, giving a target of 4 hearts and 4 clubs to go with the AD. Percentage wise, the chances are that if South or North holds 4 clubs, it will be North who has the holding, so this dictates the play of the club suit. However, best is to cash the heart winners and see if this shows any other useful clues to the distribution. Bingo, South has 4-hearts to go with the 5-diamonds and this further highlights the chances that the clubs are with North. The club suit is then tackled by cashing the KC and QC in the West hand and the chances increase further when South plays the JC. Obviously a clever South would play 10C from a holding of 3-cards to the JC, but the odds have been greatly diminished. Dummy now plays the 7C and the virtually certain club finesse completes the contract. If North holds AS, then declarer will gain an extra trick but the primary objective has been achieved.

Boards 16, 17 and 18 all have making slams on a variety of point counts and shape. 29pts, 31pts and 29pts respectively. All had one thing in common in that all the hands had a long suit, two with 5 cards one with 6 cards. This is often the difference between a slam making or not. Ie very balanced hands are often more unlikely to make with less than say 33pts.

This hand is no exception but has the added factor of the long suit being a 6-card minor. Much may depend on whether East upgrades the hand from a 15pt count on the initial bid to maybe 17pts on the second bid, in which case West will surely support the bid suit even though only holding a doubleton. A slight drawback maybe that West will bid East’s singleton on the first round. Critically both hands have a good selection of the top honours apart from the diamond suit, but if East is playing the contract the KD holding is a good safeguard.

How many in the room bid the slam is difficult to know on a team’s evening but a suggested bidding is 1C – 1H – 3C – 4NT – 5H – 6C. If East doesn’t jump on the second, it is not clear if the slam will be reached and the final contract may well be 3NT in preference to 5C via a bidding sequence 1C – 1H – 2C – 2S – 3NT.

In any play with East as declarer, 12 tricks can be comfortably made on any lead with 6 clubs, 2 hearts and 4 spades.

To Jump or not to Jump

When opponents open and you have a distributional hand, should you jump or not. This hand offers good reasons why a jump is not the best solution. In many cases, many players use jumps in a new suit to show a weakish hand and are frequently pre-emptive. Here East has a totally different scenario with a huge hand of 20pts and essentially a long running suit although having QD would a huge bonus.

So what is the best bid if when North ventures a 1S with the 11pts and a very poor 6-card suit. Is a jump with the East necessary and is there a good alternative? The answer is the often forgotten double card which primarily would indicate support for the other major but for many pairs additionally has the option of a big hand. Here this works perfectly, as after the double partner can bid the heart suit even if South makes a supporting 2S bid. Even better if South passes, West bids 3H and surely this is all East wants to know to bid 3NT with a spade stop, an expected spade lead and excellent chances that the diamond suit will hold up for 7tricks and adding AC makes for a good 9 tricks.

The message therefore is don’t go leaping to a possibly unmakeable 5D when 3NT just maybe a very good alternative. Bob Hamman one of top players in the world is a great advocate of the theory of not ruling out 3NT even though 5 of a minor is possible. Additionally do make more use of the double card, it is a very valuable extra bid.

It is noted that from 6 pairs playing the hand, 3 were down in 5D. 2 made 10 tricks in 3NT.

Of course, nothing works all the time but give yourself the option.

You pay your money and take your chance

Opening light using Rule of 19 can work well and it can also work to the disadvantage of the bidder. As often bidding systems have a key role in the decision making, as possibly on this hand.

In some systems a 2NT opening bid would show both minors but that is not in common use and not used by anyone at the Hereford club. So do we open the East hand or not? It meets the requirement of Rule of 19 and is potentially strengthened by the void spade suit, but there must be a big chance that partner has spades. Perhaps critically, it has only ‘soft’ values in trick making potential and this maybe should change the decision on whether to open or not. A further comment here is that if East passes there is a reasonable chance that the two suiter can be shown later as almost inevitably the spade suit will be mentioned.

If East opens 1D, this will surely encourage West into slam possibilities and the bidding may proceed 1D – 1H – 2C – 2S (4^th suit forcing) – 3H – 3S (cuebid) – 4H and does West now go another step with 4NT which may push the partnership to 6H, which is doomed to failure and more so on a trump lead which reduces the ruffing in the East hand. Clearly 4H is a safe contract but do we always play safe particularly in pairs, teams may be different.

If East passes, the bidding has two different possibilities. Some might open the South hand 2S which is an absolute disaster for N/S which could end up being doubled after a sequence of 2S – P – P – Double (primarily for take-out). Otherwise West will open 1S and the auction could safely run to either 4H or even 3NT for a good solid E/W score.

The author is sure there are other possibilities but the main message maybe be careful on using the rule of 19 and do consider the trick making potential of the hand.

As often, the player in first seat can influence the outcome of the hand and the decision whether to open or not can be crucial to the subsequent auction.

With South to open, many may pass with a mere 4pts despite the 7-card suit. However the void in spades makes the hand worthy of more consideration and a 4-card suit adds to the impetus. As always the pre-empt takes considerable bidding space away from any potential E/W may have and judgment for E/W after a 3D opening becomes more difficult. Some may double the 3D bid but the author would suggest this is incorrect and the clear bid is 3S which shows both a 5-card suit and opening values. As covered previously, double would in principle have tolerance for both majors and here the heart suit does not meet that requirement. With also having opening points, North could raise the anti immediately with a 5D bid and now East has to decide if 5S is making. Have we met this scenario before. On this occasion 5S makes but how many tricks will N/S make in 5D? 9 tricks should normally make and with both pairs non-vulnerable E/W would collect +300. Change the vulnerability this could be +500 but not in this instance.

If South fails to open, E/W will probably reach 4S uncontested for a steady score of +450 and an optimum result without any other consideration. Did all the South’s open 3D?  

Decisions for both teams on this one.

East will happily open 3H in 1^st position, although some may have a reservation. South passes but what for West, 16pts but a singleton in partner’s 7-card suit, which is not ideal. A consideration may be given to 3NT but this should be rejected immediately as the general rule is that with a singleton entries to the 7-card suit will be limited and the hand should have at least a doubleton in partner’s suit. Other choices will be perhaps a disciplined pass or 4H, which could work on a good day. Indeed here it does in play but only because the AH drops conveniently on the first round when a heart is led from dummy. 

Continuing the possibilities, if West passes, North will surely come in with a spade bid over 3H and may even do so with 4S if West bids 4H. Those of a really competitive nature will bid 4H over 3S and South will possibly come in with 4S, but is this wise as West will pounce on this with a double of a vulnerable contract?

In the play as mentioned, East can make 4H with a heart from the West hand (dummy), which is the obvious play. This scores +620, but 4S doubled can be beaten by 3 tricks for +800 but this needs E/W to play the club suit for 3 tricks but would most defences find this play? On the night, it is noted that 3NT was 3 down, 2 pairs were in 4H making, 2 pairs were in 4S doubled making 8 tricks and more surprising one pair N/S somehow were in 2S making.

Lady Luck favours the brave or so it is said. This hand is perhaps a very good example or are the odds of a diamond slam in favour of the E/W pair. This could well be the case.

East opens 1S and South has a very reasonable 4H overcall holding an 8-card suit and two singletons. A slight drawback is the3-card spade holding as the bid would usually suggest shortage in the spade suit. The 4H bid immediately puts West under pressure but perhaps this only serves to strengthen the holding in that hand and a 5D overcall seems a good shot bearing in mind that partner has opening points. The club holding is also a good plus knowing partner has spade controls. NB A 4NT bid might also be acceptable to some partnerships offering two places to play but obviously with a 6-card holding in diamonds this would be preferred. North may feel in position to up the ante but in any event East must fancy the chances of 6D having the top two honours together with a 4-card suit and anticipating that the spade suit is going to be well positioned, and with the heart bid suggesting a shortage in that direction.

It is noted that on the hand 6S is also making but surely this the additional assistance of a 3-3 split in the suit as well as the king being positioned ideally. The vulnerability will almost certainly deter N/S from any thoughts of a sacrifice as this will surely end up with a loss of 5 tricks for a loss of 1100pts, ie 3 spades, 1 club, and 1 diamond.

Hand evaluation can be so important in the game of bridge and this board is quite interesting in this context. As often the bidding positions can have quite a bearing on the final outcome.

Most West hands will pass with two 5-card majors and be hoping to get into the bidding later with Michaels or some alternative. Now North has 12pts but is this a good 12pts with its assortment of Queens, a King and a Jack and this may be passed. However, most us like to get the bidding underway with 1D which effectively prevents any intervention by East and South with 12pts is already thinking of which game is available for the partnership but is not over happy with the diamond bid as this immediately suggests a misfit with partner. South should bid 1S as there could still be a spade fit. West would like to show hearts but with a 5-card spade holding must hold fire and see what develops. North is a bit fixed knowing that it would be nice to show the heart suit and is not strong enough to call any level of NTs, so is committed to a 2D call. As North has limited the hand, should South bite the bullet and raise to 3NT or take the perhaps the best percentage line of 2NT at which North should certainly pass, but would North do so? Equally would E/W find the defence to beat a 3NT contract, if so they would get a good result.

It’s interesting that if North makes a calculated pass (or say if South were in the first seat) and it is South who opens 1C, West will obviously show the two 5-card majors using say Michaels and E/W could reach at least a 2S contract which is doomed from the off and probably 2 down as a minimum for -200. CRO aficionados may even be committed into 3S for what would be a very poor score as this would surely be doubled. What a strange game bridge can be!!

On shapely hands even with a minority of the points, it is often difficult whether to sacrifice or whether to defend grimly and hopefully take the opposition down. Conversely when the bidding reaches the 5-level, the side with most points has the other decision whether to bid on with their own suit or whether to take the penalties for a contract that is almost certainly down. Such is the case with Board 16 this week. As always vulnerability can have a bearing on the decisions made by either side and this board demonstrates this quite clearly with E/W vulnerable and N/S non-vulnerable.

West probably begins the bidding using the rule of 20 with 1S and North while not perfect can show a 2-suited hand including hearts by bidding 2S. Those playing standard Michaels will show hearts and a minor suit, while the increasing numbers playing CRO will show hearts/diamonds. East knows 4S is making and with perhaps no better alternative makes the 4S bid and now South can up the anti by bidding 5C, which should tell partner to pass or convert dependent on whether clubs is the second, those playing CRO can bid 5D direct. The usual scenario now do E/W bid again or hope to gain sufficient tricks to beat their anticipated +620, decisions! Decisions! On this occasion, bidding 5S gains the reward as 5D is only 2 down for +300 the respective vulnerabilities having their effect in favour of N/S, but would everyone pair do this or just be content with the penalty. NB E/W need to take the doubled contract 4 down to improve their score.

A somewhat similar hand is Board 6, where E/W can make 6C but again N/S may find a barrage to 5S, which sets up the potentially same decision making for both sides. Interestingly, N/S would need a further sacrifice in 6S to prevent a really good score of 6C making for E/W, but doesn’t the guessing game make these hands so interesting.

When getting into slam territory, which may not be automatic on this one, it is often useful to consider bidding NTs rather than a suit in pairs, but in teams it is not so important as the difference in points gained of just 10pts has no effect on the imps gained. Such is the case here, but should a slam be bid, yes on a good day perhaps not on a bad day. The decision is almost certainly dependent on how West judges the hand initially.

West opens 1H and East bids 2D which ensures game is the minimum that will be reached. West now has a key decision to make, many using the 6-card suit and 16pts rule will bid 2H and also has the heart suit could be better in strength with missing AH and QH. Those of a more adventurous approach may raise to 3H, which will certainly project the partnership into slam territory. Knowing that partner has 6-card hearts, East should be prepared to support with a 2-card suit and enquiring about key cards with 4NT (or Gerber for those using that tool) will initially ask the question based on hearts and a slam contract will be reached. Now East has a choice of whether to leave the contract in 6H or make a judgment on 6NT, on balance with maybe some uncertainty of the club strength of the West hand, bidding 6H would seem for the best but as it happens with West missing the AH and having AC, 6NT is always making.

If West bids 2H, the final contract may well be 3NT or 4H and in some respects that is th better contract, but others may view this differently. It is also noted that 6NT and 6H are very much dependent on the position of the KD, which in this case is favourable to declarer.

Several good hands to test whatever bidding system is in use. This board is a bit of an old chestnut in deciding whether to sacrifice in the bidding, whether to double or whether to pass. In any event, the first message is that doubling can be quite dangerous when there are shapely hands around, if you have a shapely hand, invariably others around the table have similar shapes.

South opens 1S and West overcalls 2D. North with limited values should pass but East’s hand has gained strength from the first 3 bids and has various options dependent on partnership agreements in place. Clearly an initial 10pts is now worth at least an opening hand and if partner has made a decent overcall a game in 5D is a distinct possibility and in particular the singleton spade is a big advantage together with really solid values in the trump suit of diamonds. 5D is a potential bid but those using the Unassuming Cuebid (UCB) might want to use this bid to assess the strength of partners overcall and also knowing that East is prepared to bid somewhat higher if needed in the auction. In this case, 2S could be the bid from East but South has a good 3S bid and now West is in the decision making seat. Again the singleton gives additional strength and a bid of 5D is quite reasonable in showing a straightforward initial overcall and with the expected and reasonable possibility that East is short in spades. Now South has the dilemma indicated in the first paragraph and in many respects would normally expect to defeat the contract with maybe a spade trick and 2 club tricks. Unfortunately this is not to be on this occasion and E/W can make their 11 tricks.

Interestingly 5S is only 1 down and on the travellers 4D doubled makes +910 whereas those that are doubled in game only make +750 in 5D. Is this fair justice one might ask for those who bid the game? South may also feel slightly aggrieved that two suits headed by A and K come to only two tricks in play.

Another good set of boards this week with good variation on bidding technique and defensive possibilities.

Board 11 is quite interesting as dependent on bidding systems in use and the position of the opening bid had a great bearing on what might be the final contract. Clearly the best hand at the table is East, but East is in 4^th position in the bidding. South has the opening bid and using the sometimes maligned Lucas Bid can open 2S, which shows at least a 5-card spade suit and a second suit usually a minor for most partnerships, which can be 4 or 5 cards. Its strength is generally limited below 10pts. West will normally pass but what for North who has 5-card support? By far the best is to barrage the situation and jump to game on a hand to show what could a wide ranging point value, which puts considerable pressure on East. Double has some danger as this would alert N/S to the strength in the defence and would all partnerships judge this as a take-out bid or a bid to secure penalties. NB Many use 4NT to show hands with 2 places to play other than the suit bid, but East has no such hand here. In any event the action by North has upped the anti.

As we can see if East does double, West will almost certainly come in with a 5D bid and this will probably end the bidding, but did this happen on the night. Of course, without use of a system such as Lucas, E/W may get a relatively easy ride to either 3NT or possibly 5D.

Comments on the hand are : -

•  If you are going to barrage, do it quickly and put the opposition under most difficulty in the decision making
• How different the bidding might be if East is in the opening seat
• Use of Lucas can be a good tool but it needs to be used with discipline and it is usually recommended to have two 5-card suit when vulnerable but can be relaxed to 5/4 when no, and it is further  recommended that the points are in the two suits being bid.

Several candidates this week, but a likely and rare opportunity for a low level double with none of the players really making a poor bid.

After passes from North and East, South will open 1S with most bidding systems and West will make a decent overcall of 2C having a 6-card suit and a 12 count. This is good news for North who fancies a double, but this would be for take-out so North should quietly pass and hope that partner backs in with a take-out double. East has nothing to say and probably hopes that South will repeat spades, but will South make the double that should be made with tolerance for the two unbid suits and with West making a simple overcall will be aware that partner has at least some values. After double from South, West passes as does North converting the take-out into a penalty double. East may make think about a taking out 2C but this could be equally disastrous so passes and hopes for the best.

In 2C, N/S take 7 tricks for a neat +300 score whereas if North takes the double out, the partnership will likely score at most +120. If East takes any action, the consequences are poor for the partnership with a possible -300 for 2H and even worse a possible -800 in 3D.

The message from the hand is to look for these opportunities particularly in pairs and do think about converting take-out doubles where there is a reasonable chance of success.

Discipline is a very good tool in bridge and this is a typical hand type where getting too excited can lead to a bad score.

South has a good shapely hand and most systems will open 1H with a 17pt hand and the 6/4 distribution. West and North will pass and East in the Protect seat will make a very reasonable 2D bid which returns the bidding to South. If partner had bid, there is clearly a game chance with such a strong hand and a forcing bid to 3H would be the choice of most systems (ie a relatively standard 6-card suit and 16+pts). Here we have a different situation in that partner has made a free pass under no pressure and while partner could have a 3-card suit, there will be less than 6pts, so at best game chances are marginal. For this author, the bid should be 2H and then see what develops from E/W and also partner who may now be able to chip with some minimal support if able to do so. The question is why jump to 3H to put pressure on the contract when a simple 2H may steal the contract at a lower level with little chance of game possible.

In this case 3H can go 2 down, although there may be chances of making 8 tricks.

There are many similar situations after take-out doubles, which force partner to bid, who having made a minimum response is alarmed to find partner making unnecessary jump bids to put contracts in danger. It is surprising how often take-out doubles produce poor results because partnerships haven’t taken due consideration of the meaning of the forced bid of the doubler’s partner.

Another of these hands with a long strong major suit.

After a pass from East, does South bid immediately 4S or does having 4-cards in the other major influence the decision? If partner were to come in with a heart bid after an initial 1S opening, then there must a good chance of a slam in that suit or even with such a good solid spade in spades as well. For this reason, 1S is probably the correct opening and in particular as spades is the highest ranked suit.

Here, after West passes, North will usually bid 2D, which is not particularly helpful to South although the bid at the 2-level does represent reasonable strength, so South should move straight to game of 4S on the principle of Fast Arrival saying that’s where we should be playing. It’s possible that 2H could help the auction but it is equally passable this could easily divert attention of both the strength and length of the spade suit. North may have some thoughts of a slam but with a void in partner’s suit, North should otherwise as with partner bidding 4S, South has in principle denied a diamond fit. However, should North proceed with a slam enquiry all will not be lost as the partnership can sign off at the 5-level on this occasion.

The main point on the hand is to be wary of misfits, they often yield less tricks than maybe expected, but bridge doesn’t always conform to general rules as we know too well.

First hand of the night, first to bid and a good 8-card suit in a major, decisions already.

Those playing strong twos which are very few these days could open 2H and those playing Benji or Reverse Benji can begin with 2C or 2D. For many the options will be to either open 4H or make a simple 1H opening as we are not strong enough for a game forcing bid such as 2C with a 5-loser hand. If we open 4H, we possibly keep partner quiet with a slam beckoning, if we open 1H, we could be letting the opposition into the bidding with a suit of their own, which is often the case when one player has a long suit. However, with a good spade holding the chances are the opposition will not be coming with a spade and even more unlikely being prepared to sacrifice with a 4S bid, but stranger things do happen as we all know too well. So 1H is the marginal preference ad partner responds with an acceptable 2C bid which is encouraging. West may make a 2D bid which muddies the waters slightly but a forcing 3H bid by North will probably blunt any further activity by E/W who would be in dangerous territory if they continue bidding. After 3H, South may sign off in 4H or make a cue bid of 4C, which may initiate a 4NT enquiry by North, who will probably sign off at 5H after the 5D response. Whether 4H or 5H, N/S will score 11 tricks for +450.

Interestingly, if E/W try to push their luck and bid 5D, which will certainly be doubled, they will go down 5 tricks for -1100 score on best defence or even 6-down if thye don’t trump high on the 4^th round of clubs.

A final word, the sacrifice on the next Board (Board 2) is much better and works very much in the favour of E/W.

A potential slam hand where one system may work better than others to reach the slam contract. Those playing a strong NT would seem to have an advantage as North will be forced to open with a suit bid, those using 5-card majors would probably open 1D, then 1S from South sets the suit once North supports with 2S. Cue bidding and RKCB enable N/S to reach 6S relatively easily, although with the spade finesse available in both directions declarer will need to get it right. As the cards lie, just playing AS and KS gets the job done but would this happen in reality.

How would those opening a weak NT get to the same contract? The likelihood is that they could subside in 3NT, 4NT (if South uses the Quantitative 4NT bid) or even 6NT (which is probably beaten unless the defence get it badly wrong. Anyway, let’s look at the possibilities but as always good partnership agreements may be needed. North opens 1NT, South can make a Stayman enquiry to which North will respond up the line with 2H. This is not quite what South wants to hear so now has to get the spade suit across, 2S could certainly be to play so a jump bid to 3S is best which must be forcing and in principle showing 4-cards in the suit, otherwise why not make a transfer bid first then force on the next round of bidding. Then North can show support with a 4NT bid which will confirm the fit. Again 6S should end up as the final contract, carefully avoiding the possible pitfall of 6NT.

Several contenders for hand of the week with 2 hands containing 8-card heart suits, various voids and other long suits. However, we’ll look at Board 11 which throws up a defensive opportunity.

After an opening bid of 1H from South, the auction may well proceed 2H – 4H with no bidding likely from E/W using most bidding techniques or those using Multi may reach 4H via 2D – 2H – 2NT – 3C – 3H – 4H.  Either way the defence can prevail with a opening diamond lead. If West is on lead against 4H, the lead will probably be either a diamond or a trump, but many prefer not to lead away from a suit headed by a Jack. On this occasion, East will win with the Ace and return a diamond to show a potential 2-card suit, will win the trump continuation by declarer but then has another decision to make of getting the lead to partner by way of a spade or a club to enable a ruff. Viewing the North hand doesn’t give a clue but West could possibly have helped the decision by playing a higher diamond on the second diamond trick to indicate a semi-preference for the spade suit. A spade from East then breaks the 4H contract.

In a  similar fashion against the contract being played by North, East needs some hindsight to lead the AD, which many including the author would not make as a norm, but here thinking ahead may envisage a scenario that exists of winning AD, AH and getting a diamond ruff, so AD lead is made and the contract is almost dead in the water as the only hope of success is to find West with the AS with the South cards visible as dummy.

If we had hindsight, we’d all be very good bridge players, so what do we open with the West hand after two passes from East and South.

Using Losing Trick count, the hand has 4 losers, but any lead other than a diamond from North could reduce this to 3 losers? If so, 2C could be the opening bid and a 4H contract would be a certainty as the cards lie. 2NT is of course out of the question with two 5-card suits. Many bridge players will shy away from 2C with such a strong holding and two 5-card suits, a recent County Captain often mentioned this problem as having shown one 5-card suit often makes it difficult to show the other and this can lead to the best contract not be found.  So many, as he would have recommended, will open 1H and again if partner can’t find a response then there is a good chance that game has not been missed. On this occasion, the game will be missed unless a pushy North decides to interfere with a double to show the spade suit or should South get equally pushy backing in with a take-out double. In either case this will be fatal as most good Easts will show at least some support for the opening bid by West.

A final thought on the question of the opening bid, does a  teams competition make a difference to the thought process, as games are so key to team success. Is the jury out or should the 2C bid be made? Isn’t hindsight wonderful?

Board 13 again this week.

Can the Grand be reached with accurate bidding? Suggestion is those opening with 1D in the North have a decent chance, those using a strong 1NT maybe not so easily.

Let’s see how those opening 1D in north reach 7NT. With no bidding likely from E/W, a logical bidding sequence may be the following: -

Those playing and opening a strong NT may well subside in 6NT as getting across the key spade and diamond holdings is not so easy after the bidding begins 1NT – 2H or 1NT – 4C (Gerber).

How do we handle huge hands after the opposition open? As often, this does need partnership agreement, which is so important to reaching correct contracts.

On this hand, most South’s will open a club after passes from North and East. West has a huge hand of 21pts and a 5-card major. Does West show the major suit or as many pairs play DOUBLE  first and then show the suit to identify the big hand? Assuming South has a mid-range 13pts, West knows there are only 6pts to be shared between N/E, so in the calculation E/W have around 24pts between them, as we see this is indeed the case here. West does double with the intention of showing spades after partner’s reply. North quietly passes with only 4pts and perhaps quietly hopes that E/W have a heart fit. East is forced to respond to the double and bids 1S to show a hand with less than 8pts. Note: - Many pairs would jump raise with 8+pts. South could conveniently double to show the 4-card heart suit, but irrespective where does West take the auction. With a 4 loser hand and with a good spade fit, 4S should be bid.

In the event, the contract goes 1 down but not to bid 4S would seem the pessimistic view in the author’s opinion.

With most partnerships playing a version of weak-2 in a major either with a direct bid or using the Multi tool, most N/S pairs will end up in 4S, which looks a perfectly reasonable contract but bridge has this wonderful or not so wonderful habit of putting spanners into works and accurate signalling lets the defence prevail.

In the bidding North opens say 2S, South makes a forcing bid probably 2NT asking for more information about the North strength and then signs off in 4S. East has a choice of leads either the single ton heart of from the long diamond suit. Best is the heart which is won by declarer in dummy who leads a trump. West wins and returns the heart lead and accurately signals for a diamond by playing his highest heart, the lowest heart will signal for a club. After ruffing, East leads a diamond ruffed by West who cashes AC and continues the suit for E/W to take the first 6 tricks and a good score for E/W.

The interesting points from the hand are that N/S have done nothing wrong in their bidding, East should not consider any interference with the long diamond suit and partnerships should have a clear signalling technique to identify which suit should be continued. The system used above is essentially based on McKinney.

An interesting playing hand here.

E/W have a makeable 3NT as they are forced into the club finesse after 1S, 1H, 5D tricks. However, after two passes and East opening 1D, if South gets busy with a 2H (weak jump) bid, the likelihood is that E/W might end up in a 5D contract against a potential sacrifice of 4H from N/S. How might this play go with a heart lead from South.

Assuming East takes the opening lead with AH, ruffs a heart and then clears the trumps in two rounds ending in the West hand.  If the club finesse fails the contract is almost certainly down but it works here and a third club now leaves North on lead. There still seems a possibility that there are two spade losers but are there?. Unfortunately for North all avenues give the contract away. A heart lead gives a ruff and a discard as does a club lead. Equally a spade lead fails also as East can duck if North leads low and play the AS if North plays the QS. Interestingly even if North leads the 6S and East plays the AS and East continues the suit as there is no real alternative, North regains the lead and has to concede a ruff and discard.

As often various options in the bidding, but North will open 1S and with no E/W bidding South will respond with 2H to which North will support knowing that South has in principle at least a 5-card heart suit. On-going bids will be system dependent, those playing 2 over 1 will continue with 3H, those using Gerber may bid 4C, others use 4C as a splinter although the singleton being KC may be a deterrent and others may use RKCB knowing 5H is an almost certainty as a minimum.

Whichever system is in use, the bidding will generally take a possible course to 6H but after checking for keycards in Aces and Kings will show that just one Ace is missing. In teams this is the best contract but in pairs a slightly different figure comes into the equation as 6NT scores an extra 10 points.  It’s amazing how often this situation arises and such is the case here.

It’s noted on the night, bidding 6NT outscored two pairs, while two pairs managed to score 13 tricks, which might be surprising considering there is a clear club loser but there could be a good reason for this. eg a low club from North early in the play, do you go up with AC, there are probably two camps here?

How an opening bid may affect the auction. Here is a possible example.

The first decision starts with North, do we open on the rule of 20 knowing that we can’t show spades second time round as this would be a reverse and the only rebid would almost certainly be 2H. Obviously on this layout the heart suit is set for N/S but do E/W remain quiet, probably not. Anyway, after a 1H opening, South may well splinter if part of the system with 3S and West has a double to show the 4-card spade suit, North has a natural 4H bid and East has a not unreasonable 4S bid. Now the decision is back with N/S who will inevitably (South) move on to a potentially failing 5H, but will it? The hand analysis shows that 5H can be one down bit this needs a very unlikely club lead from East, would anybody make this lead? Otherwise N/S can set up the diamonds to allow club discards in the North hand and the contract comes. Equally interesting if N/S double 4S and this is allowed to be the contract this is 3 down for -500, which gives N/S a better score but again how many pairs and particularly South leave the 4S contract in? The decisions bridge players have to make!!!!!!

If North passes, the bidding may well take a different route. South will open 1D, West will more likely bid 1NT and best for North is to double to show both majors, although many would favour 2H. Either way, N/S would again find their heart contract but would East can involved now, probably not, but nothing is perfect.

Several bits and pieces hands this week. Board 18 is selected as the bidding may well be the same for most systems with the possible exception of precision. It also offers a little protective play in the trump suit.

After 3 passes, North will open 1C and South will respond with 1H bidding up the line. What North must not do now is repeat clubs even though there are 6 clubs in the hand. Remember South’s response of 1H does not deny a 4-card spade suit this is often forgotten. By far the best is to show the big hand with a jump shift to 2S, which South can easily convert to 4S. North may make a slam enquiry with 4NT but whatever convention is used the bidding would stop at 5S. Interestingly as little as AC and KS would guarantee a slam so the enquiry is well worth trying.

In the play, East may well lead a heart won in the North hand with AH, who will clear trumps but should take care to play QS first and then cover whatever East plays. This is a good general safety play to ensure the contract making and will always work even if West has 4-card spades to the JS. If East shows out on the second round the play would be to win with the KS and lead 10S or 9S which traps West’s JS. On this layout this succeeds completely and once clubs are established 11 tricks are there for the taking. Note that if North plays KS after QS,  only 10 tricks will probably be taken if the defence cash their winners.

Several candidates for hand of the week, but Board 2 brings out one or two interesting bridge aspects. As often is the case which bidding system is in use can steer the auction, as can the position of the stronger hands in the auction.

East will open either 1D for weak no trumpers or 1NT for strong no trumpers. South has a clear pass with no long suit but a good supporting cast of a balanced 11 points. After 1D some partnerships play 2S has weak to play and this works well here as it impacts any action from North but will this bid be made. After a strong NT, a usual transfer will bring a 2H response. In either case North has a big distributional hand worth and it should be treated as worth probably 17 pts but this can be misleading if the points are in the wrong places and a 5-card heart suit with Jack high is hardly ideal. However, bridge doesn’t always present convenient bids and a positive approach certainly works best here and an initial double is the best answer to whatever system is employed by E/W. In principle this certainly shows the heart suit and a tolerance for clubs. As we often find getting over two suited hands can be difficult and that is the case here. The key to the double is that in the next round North shows the club suit (confirming a strong hand) and as a minimum a game of 5C will be found once South knows of the relative strength in the North hand. East may try a barrage in spades knowing there is a 9-card fit  but how many will take this action, even though the vulnerability is favourable.

It is noted that N/S can make games in 4H (for 620) and 5C (for 600), whereas E/W can make 8 tricks in spades and in 5S lose only 500 points – it’s a funny old game as they say.

There was a similar but single suited hand with a void in Board 9, which has some similarity, where a basic 12pts is well worth an upgrade on distribution.

As often, bidding systems have their stronger points and their weaker points as with this board. Those playing 5-card majors open 1H in the North hand and South immediately knows of at least 5-cards in the suit. After 1S from South (no need to jump partner must bid again), the repeated hearts shows in principle a 6-card suit, for those opening a possible 4-card suit of course 2H can be bid with a 5-card suit. Knowledge of the 5-card or 6-card suit can be key here in making the final bid.

South knows the strength of his hand with the solid spade suit and with 2 outside Aces can happily make a slambitious move and a jump to 4NT asking for controls in hearts (last bid suit). A response of 5C/5D will show 3 controls dependent on which version of RKCB is being played and asking for QH will reveal a further control. South is clear that a small slam is rock solid and the choice must be a NT trump contract as this scores the extra 10 points over a suit contract. Those playing 5-card majors have a slight edge here in that the 6-card suit is known and any 3 -2 split of the heart suit will ensure that 7NT makes and the odds are in favour of this event. Although not known at this stage, it does need 4-cards to the JH to prevent the suit from running. Those playing 4-card majors still have a good chance but if partner only has a 5-card heart suit, the chances of a 3/3 break are much less as a percentage, would South take this gamble or just opt for a safe 6NT?

With a fit in both majors, which slam is best?

After 1H from West, North will probably pass despite a 7-card holding but with only 3 pts and vulnerable pass is recommended. East is already aware that game in hearts is available and simply bids 1S to keep the bidding going. South can offer 2C or if really pushy 3C but again vulnerability may be a deciding factor. Assuming 2C from South, West agrees the spade suit with a splinter of 4D and East knows something is on being aware of the double fit and can bid 4H to show the heart control which is welcome news to West, who continues by moving into a Blackwood sequence or possibly better 5C. In any event, a final slam contract probably of 6 Major will be reached, indeed on the layout 7S is making but only 6H. Why is this as the hands contain far more hearts than spades. This situation occurs quite frequently and 4 – 4 fits work better than 5 – 4 fits (or better) in that one of the hands can discard on the longer suit. In this case, a club can be discarded on the extra heart in the West hand.

It is noted that if the E/W partnership use Voidwood (Exclusion Blackwood) a 7S contract is the more likely if West bids 5D instead of 4D, but this needs more certainty on the strength of the East hand at the relevant part of the bidding.

Another competitive auction, which offers opportunities for both pairs at the table.

West opens 1H and North will overcall with 1S or 2S, what is best for East? While having 3-card support for the West opening especially for those playing 5-card majors, a Sputnik Double showing a minimum of 8pts and both minor suits provides West good information on the hand. With such a strong hand, support for the heart suit can be made later if required. It also ensures that East will have good opportunity to describe the hand further. However, South having 5-card spades opposite a known 5-card minimum suit will get involved and best is up the anti immediately with a 4S bid, not 3S as this gives E/W to continue describing their suits and takes away considerable bidding space. After 3S, West will surely show diamond support and 5D would looks correct whether N/S are at the 3S or 4S level. After all with a void in the opposition suit and 5-cards opposite a Sputnik Double, the West hand has to be worth 16pts despite the actual point count of 11.

5D could well end the auction unless N/S are prepared for one more thrust at 5S, which will surely be doubled and the adverse vulnerability may well deter N/S from this action.

On the night, 3 pairs doubled 4S looking to take advantage of the vulnerability for a -790 score, but surely West cannot stand the double and should take-out the bid. While partner is known to have a good hand, it is too risky to assume there are sufficient tricks to down a contract where ruffing values are likely to come into play. Additionally, should East be making a double in any event?, when a known heart fit is in place and even with those playing 4-card majors the odds greatly favour at least a 5-card suit.

A Phantom Sacrifice or is it?

After West opens 1S, there is a strong likelihood that the bidding could reach 5C doubled with the intention of a sacrifice against a making 4S, but in reality would this be the result? Following 1S, many at the club will show both minors with a 2NT bid, some may have other methods. With 4-card spade support, East will probably ignore hearts and may well raise the bidding to 4S. South could well have other ideas at favourable vulnerability and should up the anti with a perceived sacrifice of 5C, which will either be passed out or more than likely be doubled. In 5C, South goes either 1 down if the AC is inserted to drop the singleton KC or possibly 2 down if the AC is not inserted. -100 or -300 looks a good score against -620. But what are the odds of West getting the spade situation correct and dropping the singleton AS? Normal play of the spade suit suggests that after a spade from dummy, West will cover any of the J 10 or 9 played by South who will gain a trick promotion when the KS or QS covers whichever card is played. Additionally, there is a possible ruff for South if North starts with KD to establish a ruff for South. Again, would this happen in normal play when South has supported the club information from North?  Bridge can be a funny and devious game sometimes. Also ironically 4H is an easier make for the E/W hands, in which case 5C is definitely a good sacrifice.

On the night, 3 N/S pairs played in 5C, for E/W 1 was in 5S, 1 in 4S, 1 in 2S and for the best score 1 in 4H quite a variable mix.

Several contenders this week and by request Board 4 is chosen. With games available for both pairs, it shows how different bidding systems may affect the final outcome.

For those playing weak twos in 4 suits, West will probably open 2D although having a 4-spade suit may deter some players. North will likely overcall 3C and this will set a suit for the N/S partnership. However, East with a void in clubs and 6-card support for partner must jump to 5D to barrage the opponents and now the guessing game begins in this sequence. South is tempted to bid 6C which fails and if this is bid the decision passes to E/W who may consider a sacrifice in 6D which also fails. Clearly in the barrage, the heart fit for N/S has been lost and it is difficult to see how this could be found unless N/S can use a double of 5D to show this possibility. Most pairs will consider the double to be penalties at this level.

Let’s move on to the case where West doesn’t play a weak two and simply passes as opener. North will begin with 1C, East will bid 1D or possibly 2D, but now South can make a Sputnik Double to show both majors and good values, usually 8+pts. West will of course get into the act and again should barrage with a 5D bid, but North has a very option of 5H and again the guessing game begins. Will E/W continue to 6D and if they do, what action will N/S take – Double at this stage is of course best.

It is noted that 3 pairs in hearts and 3 pairs played in diamonds, 3 contracts being doubled, but do be careful in doubling tricks in your own bid suit don’t always materialise into winning defensive tricks.

As often is the case, which system a partnership play can decide a final contract. Last time, we had a hand which was a misfit, here we have a hand where fits are very much to the fore and indeed in the major suits and also in NTs.

The majority of the South hands will open 2NT, at which time North must immediately think slam knowing the partnership has at least 34pts. The choice for North is generally to either make a transfer bid to hearts and then progress or enquire with Stayman initially. What North must not do is leap immediately into 6NT, which is pretty well rock solid. Those using Stayman and in particular those using 5-card Stayman will establish a 5-card spade suit and will probably know that 7S is making, while those using a transfer could do the same with the heart suit using RKCB once all controls and QH are known. For those in herats the bidding may proceed 2NT – 3D – 3H – 4C – 4D – 4NT – 5C – 5D – 5S – 5NT – 6D - 7H (4C/4D being cuebids), while for those with 5-card Stayman may proceed 2NT – 3C – 3S – 4C – 4D – 4H – 4NT – 5C – 5NT – 6D – 7S.  Should the bidding stop there? In both sequences a K is known to be missing but in each case two 5/3 fits are known, which will normally bring home 10 tricks adding the other two Aces and the other King, 13 tricks become a nice total so a bid of 7NT is OK for at least a top in pairs, possibly no swing in teams.

There have been several recent hands where misfits have required partnerships to downgrade hands, but this hand shows exactly the opposite effect. West has 5 hearts and 4 spades while East has 6 spades and 4 hearts. Significantly West has a void in clubs and East has a singleton in the same suit.

West will open 1H and then those playing weak jumps will bid probably 3C although some may up the ante further by bidding 4C. This presents East with some difficulty but despite 8 points the hand is distributionally strong and a cuebid of 4C after 3C works well to establish the heart suit. With such strong distribution West has an ideal hand to upgrade significantly having a void in the opponents suit and can take the plunge of bidding 4NT or for those using Voidwood (Exclusion Blackwood) bid 5C. This should steer the partnership into 6H and with North showing the long club suit, the play should consider placing the other key cards in South’s hand.

The bidding could of course go somewhat differently if South ups the ante to support North’s overcall, would E/W now find the slam in either major – interesting?????

Partnership agreements are so important  - how do we handle long weak hands and misfits? This hand had both and as usual different bidding systems and styles come into play as well. South has a huge hand but when partner shows spades, consideration should be given to downgrade the hand based on a clear misfit.

South opens 1H, but what for North with a shapely 8-card spade, a misfit with partner and just 3 pts. 1S may be right but suggests perhaps more points, 2S is a weak 6-card suit for most pairs and 3S would suggest weak with a 7-card suit, so 4S seems the percentage bid and particular in teams when games should be bid. Now what for South, who’s faced with good trick potential but not with spades as trumps. Those playing FAST ARRIVAL will recognise the weakness of North’s bid and with a misfit and several other potential losers a disciplined pass is the normal recommendation, you could get lucky by pushing on, but the odds are not favourable. If North has more points with the 8-card suit, bidding at slower speed is the best way to use the available bidding space to describe the hand. Arguably, this gives E/W the chance to interfere but if that is the case, South would be unlikely to have such a strong hand.

Asoften, different bidding styles with this one. North has only 15pts but a clear10 tricks on the losing trick count, so the hand could be opened with a gamegoing bid such as 2C. A bid of 4H is another option but both these bids riskmissing vital information on a possible slam. A bid of say a game forcing 2Cwill almost certainly move the partnership to an unmakeable slam and 4H coulddo the opposite and deny a possible slam. A preferred option is to open 1Hgiven that a bid is virtually certain from either partner or the opposition andthis will give space to exploring a slam should an appropriate fit be found. Ofcourse the danger exists that not bidding 2C or 4H may give space to theopposition to find a suitable fit or even a good sacrifice. Such is the life ofa bridge player and judgments have to be made.

Forthis hand after 1H, the bidding will probably proceed 1S – 3D (to show gamegoing intention), but what now from South? South needs to quickly recognisethat the hand is a clear misfit and make a simple bid of 3NT to tell partnerthat the club suit is stopped and based on the information provided by North,that is the best option. This obeys the often quoted maxim of Bob Hamman (USA)that if an option for 3NT exists take it. North may continue to 4H based on theextreme hand distribution but both 3NT and 4H are decent making contracts andthey remove the temptation of getting over-excited and exploring a slam.

Several scenarios are available on this hand that can lead to a good or bad score. Let us consider that N/S are playing a weak NT 12 to 14pts.

As E/W are vulnerable it is probably best for East to quietly pass and hope to come in later depending on partner’s action. South will open 1C and this fixes West who should pass holding such good clubs and trust that partner will make a bid. This works very well as North should pass with only 5pts with game unlikely. East must now take action and must strive to bid. With a 6-card heart suit best is to bid 2H, which is good news for West but South can now bid 2S to further describe the hand shape and strength of 5-card clubs minimum and 4-card spades combined with 15pts.  With good controls opposite a 6-card suit, West should go straight to game but what about North who now knows of the spade fit opposite a good opening hand, should a sacrifice be made?

Generally against a freely bid game and favourable vulnerability

ie Green against Red, 4S is the bid, 3 down doubled which is a profit against a making 4H

Equal vulnerability the choice would not be so clear but 4S may again be the best option

Unfavourable vulnerability and the odds shift to passing in the North hand

If East opens 2H (frisky in the authors view), South can double to show values and in principle 4-card spades and the bidding may take a similar route with West and North making appropriate choices.

If East passes, some South players may put a strong 1NT into play and that could be another story.

 A similar hand type to that of 16/10/12, the frequency of these hands are quite common in that East has enormous trick taking potential if West has certain ‘key’cards, arguably it is worth a 2C opener fo those playing 2C as the ‘big’ hand, but perhaps marginal for it.

Anyway most will open 1D and when West follows with any of the bids describing a minimum of 4-card support and 10/11pts, East must consider slam possibilities.ie 2D, 2NT, 3D. Those playing ‘inverted minors’ will benefit here as 1D can be followed by 2D, which sets the suit and a series of cuebids will quickly identify that West has the relevant controls in diamonds and clubs. Without a CRO interference of 2D (showing both black suits), the bidding could take the path shown above.

East bids 6D knowing AS is missing, but all other bases are covered (the above assumes the pair are playing that first round controls are bid first).

After 3 passes, 2NT will be the normal opening for the West hand. Increasingly players are using 5-card Stayman (or the Puppet version) to enable 5-card majors to be found, this is a good tool to take on board, several are using it after a 1NT opening also.

In the 5-card version, after 2NT, East bids 3C (Stayman ask) and West happily replies 3S to show a 5-card suit. With a 4-card suit, a 3D reply is used. Receiving this information, East can test the slam possibility by bidding 4D, which is not only a cuebid to show 1^st round control but also sets the spade suit. With no heart control West simply bids 4S and now East has the decision to make whether to continue the slam investigation. On this occasion, those going the next step get the reward as the KH is sitting neatly behind the AH and 6S becomes a making contract. Do we go for it in Pairs but perhaps not in Teams, is that the question? Anyway, think about using the 5-card Stayman enquiry!