This page is a repository for interesting hands. Such hands will normally appear first on the Home Page, and then be moved to this page. If you would like to write up an interesting hand, speak to Don Kersey.

On this hand from the Wednesday August 3 game, every South played in hearts, four times in slam and three times in game. Only three declarers took 12 tricks. The key to the hand is the play of the spade suit. Declarer can start the spades by leading the queen for a finesse against the king, or by cashing the ace and leading towards the queen-jack holding. The first line will take three spade tricks when the suit splits 3-3, or when the ten of spades is singleton or doubleton, or when East has precisely 87; this is about a 56% chance. The second line will take three spade tricks when East has the spade king, or the suit splits 3-3, or the ten of spades is singleton or doubleton, or the king is singleton, about a 78% chance.

Interestingly, as the cards lie, declarer can recover after choosing the inferior line in spades. Suppose the play starts with diamond lead to the ace, ace of hearts, heart to the queen, diamond ruff, and the queen of spades, East's king winning. East's only safe return now is a club honour. When declarer then cashes the spade ace and West shows out, declarer can run the rest of the hearts, and East will be squeezed in spades and clubs.

This was the most interesting bidding deal from the evening game on Wednesday July 20. When the bidding begins as shown, South is already heading for a slam, and it should occur to South that the singleton club may make a spade slam better than a heart slam. Indeed, on these cards, seven spades is easy to make, while twelve tricks is the limit if the slam is played in hearts. South should continue by bidding 3♠, confirming the double fit, and aiming to play any slam in spades. At the table, no North-South managed to bid 6♠; all the spade declarers were in 5♠, and all the slam declarers were in 6♥.

Is there any way to bid seven spades? Not playing standard methods, but this hand is a good advertisement for "6 Ace Blackwood", one of Eddie Kantar's inventions. When a partnership has confirmed fits in two suits, 4NT asks about keycards in both suits. So when South bids 4NT, North  bids 6♣, showing two keycards plus both major suit queens! Now South can bid seven spades, which will make unless the spades split badly.