Seven Good Hands

As you were warned, I smuggled examples of strong hands into the deals played on Thursday. Rather than 'make up' hands I took them from recent club games. They initially appeared in boards 17-26 which you normally do not play.

I retrieved the scores from the week they were played and gave matchpoints for your scores as usual (finagling to make all the boards worth the same, resulting in lots of decimals).

There were seven replacement boards which I've described below. If you like to turn to the main club on an interesting deal, for these you'll need to know when they appeared and I've supplied a link for each. I've given the 'computer point-count' for each strong hand, you can check your own using the Kaplan and Rubens Hand Evaluator.

Board 1: None Vul, Dealer North

1. South held Q632 Q7 KJ10753 6 and might well have opened 2 in third seat. Because North has passed, the prohibition on a side 4-card major is relaxed.
2. West's 22 HCP is almost worth an upgrade (22.85) but 2NT is OK.
3. Stayman; obviously East would love to find a fit. It is unclear how best to continue if opener doesn't have four hearts or spades and rebids 3. 3NT looks ungainly but best at matchpoints (where 3NT+1 is better than 5+1). If you try 4 over 3 you are gambling on bidding a club slam.
4. What now? East has 7 losers, a 2NT opening usually has about 5 so the 6-level (18 – 7 – 5 = 6) is about right. But slam could easily be poor when opener has too much in diamonds; few pairs have the system to find out. Your choices are, effectively, 4, 6 or 4NT (limping out at 5 if partner has just two aces). 4 is cautious but OK.

Declarer should take her finesses; first in spades (ace and low to ten), in hearts (low to jack) and clubs (because South has spade length, expecting North to hold Q, by cashing A then leading 10 and playing low unless North covers – running the 10).

Played as board 17 on 5^th June 2014

Board 3: EW Vul, Dealer South

1. Though North has 'only' 19 HCP this is a clear upgrade to 20-22 (it's worth 21.55). It's balanced – a 6-card minor is no objection to a 2NT opening – and after all, unlike many 2NT openers, this hand is favourite to take eight tricks.

East will lead a diamond and North can hold up until the third round, learning that West has only two. Therefore losing the lead to West is safe as they have no more diamonds. The heart finesse (low to jack) wins and North has 11 tricks for +660 and a much better score than anyone achieved.

Played as board 19 on 16^th October 2014

Board 4: Both Vul, Dealer West

1. Difficult: worth more than its 20 HCP (22.55) but with a main suit of diamonds, the auction 2 – 2; 3 is an unattractive proposition. Some might even essay 2NT (as board 3) but I'm quite old-fashioned about no-trumps with singletons. I recommend low on this: the lack of a major makes it less likely I will be passed out in 1.
2. After 1 it doesn't get any easier. East would like to bid 3 but that is (a) not forcing and (b) only shows about 16 HCP. So hence the invention of a 3-card suit. Here East could survive the underbid of 3 as West might value the K so highly that she would raise to 3NT. This hand-type, strong with 6-card suit and 3-card support for partner, is appropriately known as the 'nightmare hand'.

Played as board 20 on 6^th November 2014

Board 6: EW Vul, Dealer East

1. East again held a weak 2 with 4 but this time was rather minimum to open, vulnerable versus not. But you have to say, a weak-two would have made the North-South cards hard to bid.
2. This is a tremendous hand (24.95) but to open 2 would make it very hard to show the long suit starting at the 3-level and then bid hearts twice to show five. Again it's unlikely that 1 will be followed by three passes.
3. As this is a bid above the minimum level of two-opening-suit (so here, 2) it is a reverse and is forcing.
4. Most experienced players use 2NT here as a negative but you do not (Google '2NT Blackout'). Therefore North might bid more as the reverse shows 16+ HCP; 3NT or 4 wouldn't be a mistake. But 3 isn't bad either, support usually cheers partner up.
5. Showing a fifth heart and therefore a 6-5 distribution.
6. With partner having something good in hearts, a club or heart slam must have play. Though if both make, 6 scores better than 6, slams are hard to bid and there is much to be said to prefer the safest without worrying about the scoring differentials.

I played this hand! My partner and I bid as above. I received K lead; I ruffed, drew trumps (2-1) and played ace and a spade to the king. I cashed the A and ruffed a spade, reducing to:

Now ace and another heart. West had the K so I had no more problems. Had East been able to beat the queen with the king but hold no more hearts, spades or trumps she would perforce have to lead a diamond here:

I would ruff in South and throw North's 9 from dummy then ruff both the 10-7 with dummy's two trumps. This attempt to remove all East's other cards to force a favourable lead is called an elimination play.

Played as board 22 on 12^th February 2015

Board 7: Both Vul, Dealer South

1. Again, with the minors and two suits to bid, despite the 21 HCP (23.2) North does best to start low (also the short honours in the majors aren't full value).
2. East could make an intermediate jump-overcall (which we purport to play) showing 11-15 HCP and a good 6-card suit. As before, stealing the opponents' bidding space makes these tough problems even tougher.
3. This seems the best North can do, the only alternative being 2, a cue-bid suggesting South bid no-trumps with a stop in spades. But over 1, when South hasn't tried 1NT with that sort of hand, that seems unlikely to gain. Had North held super diamonds and could take nine tricks if South had a minimum with spades covered, then 2 would have more to gain.
4. But South made a cue-bid! I'm not sure if he was 100% on what this implied – much as above, "have you got a stopper for no-trumps?" – but that's what happened and it's a good call. South, who has only passed to now, has some good cards; the K which figures to be useful (ace with North or East), the Q and 4-card club support.
5. I might have done more here and tried 5. Well done those who reached the club game.

Played as board 23 on 26^th June 2014

Board 9: EW Vul, Dealer North

1. With no 5-card or better suit, West has to start with 2 with the self-promise to catch up later.
2. Some players will treat hands like this as balanced and rebid 2NT (23-24) allowing partner to pass (with zero HCP say). I feel quite strongly that is a mistake; although sometimes 2NT is the last plus score, describing a control-rich hand with 5-major and 4-minor closes off too many slams. This hand rates a whopping 25.8 on the computer – the strongest hand here.
3. East should not give up on slam. Clearly the cards East would like West to hold are the Q and the red kings or a red KQ. To help West value her cards, East starts with a natural slam-try.
4. West has some useful cards which she's implied by raising 2 to 3 and not jumping directly to game which would close off this discussion. The Q is a known asset and the J may be useful. The best descriptive move is to show where her other high cards are, hence 4.
5. It is possible that East could have a grand slam and she could torture partner with 4NT…5NT to ask for kings and promise all the aces. But that seems too much like cruelty to partner for me. If West has Q10x KQJx xxx Qxx the partnership can have a respectful discussion afterwards.

In 6 declarer has an array of play options with no clear course of action. On the J lead, queen, king ace, East can set up a trick by leading to the 9. That will provide one club discard and the other might come from a successful heart or club finesse or by ruffing our the Q if someone holds just the queen and two others.

Probably best after the diamond play to draw trumps (ace and queen in case North has four) then lead a diamond to the nine-spot. When South takes the 10 and (say) leads another, discard a club, cash the club ace and king in case the queen drops and if that fails, finesse in hearts. Enough chances to make 6 a good slam and that line works as South has the heart queen.

Played as board 25 on 28^th August 2014

Board 10: Both Vul, Dealer East

1. Third seat West could consider a weak 2 to keep the opponents guessing.
2. This hand shape is very awkward and some routinely pass hands with length right-hand opponent's suit. They argue that if partner is short he will reopen with a double and the North hand can spring to life. There is something in that and, were North weaker, it might work here even with North holding five hearts. But with most of the HCPs located in West and North, very often South won't have the strength to double.
3. This is a freak hand and the level is a guess. The good thing about 6 is that even if partner has the 'wrong' aces (♠ & ) a spade lead will see declarer discard South's 10 on the spade ace. But it's a guess. Well done if you reached 6 as two pairs did.

Played as board 26 on 8^th January 2015