There was a select entry on 20 October with many players abroad. It was good to see the mentees showing at the top of the leader board.

My eye was caught by this board which was universally played in 4♥  for E/W +620.

East vulnerable with his solid suit opens 3 or 4 ♥  and plays in game. South begins with top clubs and before playing to the third round. North must stop and think. My old theme, count Declarer's tricks.

At the  vulnerability East must have at least 7 good trumps and has also shown three clubs, so now has just three unknown cards. There are four tricks on the table so the K♦  is never going to win.

What hope is left?

Declarer cannot be beaten unless Partner can get a diamond ruff. So trump the trick and try a diamond!

Pedants (and Deep finesse) will note that it can go two down if North ruffs the second club and the third giving partner two ruffs.

Never give up and stay awake!

The popular Café Bridge event was efficiently hosted this year by Naval and Military club over 30 boards. Forty pairs entered and it was won by Arun and I with 68%. Six RAC pairs were in the top10, and Sally and Paul Found recorded an excellent 4^th with just over 60%.Board 2 was the most sensational.

Five pairs bid to the easy 6♥ , two to 6♦ one away, and three to 7♥ where only once did it not make.

Arun and I, playing the Benjamin system, opened 1♥ (two suiters are bad for the Benjamin method, leaves them vulnerable to the pre-empt)

After the 2♦  response North went the whole hog with 3♠ . Now 4♣  and West disliking both suits repeated 4♦ . Roman KeyCB 4NT (suit agreed ♦ ) 5♦ , 2 keys +Q♦

A spade was lead, Declarer drew trumps and cashed diamonds from the top. +1510

Let us look next at why 6♦ is not making. East opened 2♣  as a game force and over 3♠  has no time to bid their hand out, settling in 6♦. The ♠ A  was lead and ruffed and Declarer needs to draw trumps. To get to hand the second round of clubs is ruffed, then over ruffed and another spade led. Nicely defended.

Can 7♥  be beaten? Yes - on a diamond lead declarer cannot enjoy all the diamond winners!

Can that lead be found?

Let us try.

East has shown at least 6 hearts and 5 clubs with values big, or maybe even more shape. West, despite knowing East has two big suits has shown a liking for neither and persisted with diamonds. East has enquired in diamonds and got the most positive answer, yet still persisted in hearts – they must be solid. North has bid 3♠  vulnerable so must have the Ace. Conclusion, if East has cards outside hearts and clubs - they are in diamonds not spades - so East must be void in spades – no hope there. Dummy must have very few hearts. So let us count the possible tricks seven hearts, three diamonds, surely AK of clubs. Thus it boils down to a trump to kill ruffs in Dummy, or a diamond. If there is only one trump in dummy then declarer cannot utilise it without cashing high clubs. So on balance a diamond might well be the best hope.

There is one final story worth telling. A couple of years ago, in this event, I put my partner into a grand slam. I held AKQ10 opposite his XXXX and he found J9XX over the 10 and this cost us the  win.

We agreed that we would never again bid a Grand Slam at pairs.

While working on hands I quite literally blundered into BBO and caught this hand live momentarily. I had to stop.
South dealt and showed a weak NT type of hand and N went quickly to 6NT which I noticed had gone off in the other room. On the lead of 8D Dec won the K and immediately finessed the QH (not the J so E dare not duck) E returned 6D . Dec won QD and cashed AJH, W threw a D . AS cashed, then AQ and a third C to dummy and W shed a S after a little thought.
Dec after minimal thought finessed the 10S .
The whole play taking less than 90 seconds.
Note how he explores all the options in turn, immediate H if it wins its over, cash H to get the count, then a club 3-3 break, that rules out a black suit squeeze as well. Then the inferential count. Note also the preservation of AD as a crucial entry back to the now blocked S. And the AS cash before the key decision.
It is so easy to tangle the entries in both hands
Who was North? Benito Garozzo of course.

West Playing 12-14 NT opens. East has a 15 point hand but most importantly three aces and one king. It is easy to construct hands opposite where black suit slams are cold. After the transfer 3♣  is natural and a game force. 3♠  indicates a minimum (typicallywith three spades). East tries again with 4♦, then signs off after 4♥ (I have that Ace) . Maximum exploration, but no slam, North leads ♦5 to the ♦ 2, ♦ J and ♦ K. It looks as though the ♦ Q is in the right place, so Declarer counts, four spades three diamonds, one heart and two clubs for ten tricks. But can see those who did not explore the slams, and simply bid 3NT, have the same 10 tricks. Can declarer make eleven? If the clubs break, or if they do not can the last be ruffed in hand? This is pairs, so there is no trump safety play consideration - rely on the 64% 3-2 break. So ♠ A,♠K, ♣ K,♣A and a third club. South wins and tries a heart (good, so North has the QS). Take the ♥ A, finesse ♦ 10, cash the ♦ A, ruff the last club and concede to the ♠ Q.  420 scores only average. + 450 would be a top

It is not often that this lowly card changes events. Ross Cope organised an excellent training evening for those going to Paris for the ACF match.

He chose 16 challenging boards to test our "slam zone judgement ". None more so than Board 12.

At all tables West opened with 3D passed to S who has a horrible problem. He is conscious that 4S is cold and that any minus score will be bad for his side. At all tables 6S was played and KD lead. AD wins and S plans the play. As can be seen 12 tricks are there but no entry to Dummy! Eventually an idea came to him. If the 8S should be single then the 7S becomes the key entry, so he cashed the AS and noted the 6 and the 3. The percentages favour the 3-1 break and it is clear after the Preempt that it is more likely to be East.

Light dawned, cash the KS and exit with the 4S! When this hit the table there was a sharp intake of breath, particularly from Dummy!

East won the trick and played a H which ran to JH and it was all,over.

Could East have foreseen this? The clue lies in Declarers long hesitation at trick one.  He must have, say, 7 top S. AD and surely AH with three top clubs that makes 12, so why has he not put the hand down "drawing trumps"?

He must be void in Clubs. So first play, 5S then the 8S. Tough but worthy of  the highest praise.

NS only are vulnerable and N may if playing Three weak 2s open 2D.

East  has an obvious TOX and S has a choice. 2H would be forcing but even at the vulnerability perhaps at least 4D or I prefer 5D. Opponents surely have good S fit and if they go to 4S you will feel obliged to go to 5D anyway. This puts W in a horrible position.

One pair were allowed to play in 3 S and got the lead of KD followed by JH. Dec took the AH and ruffed a H to his own hand.

if you look at the trump suit in isolation the book play (76%) for four tricks in the suit is to take two finesses. However look what happens. The 10S loses to the K and the H return is ruffed and over-ruffed . The C switch is also ruffed holding  West to + 140 and an undeserved 80% of the match points.

After the first two leads N cannot hold both S honours, he would have 11 points so a simple AS and another scoops 11 tricks.

Count the points.

South dealt and showed a weak NT type of hand and North went quickly to 6NT which I noticed had gone off in the other room. On the lead of 8♦  declarer won the King and immediately finessed the Q♥  (not the Jack so East dare not duck) East returned 6♦  . Declarer won Q♦ and cashed AJ♥ , West threw a diamond . A♠  cashed, then A,Q and a third club to dummy and West shed a spade after a little thought.
Declarer after minimal thought finessed the 10♠.
The whole play taking less than 90 seconds.
Note how he explores all the options in turn, immediate heart if it wins it's over, cash heart to get the count, then a club 3-3 break, that rules out a black suit squeeze as well. Then the inferential count. Note also the preservation of A♦  as a crucial entry back to the now blocked spades. And the A♠  cash before the key decision.
It is so easy to tangle the entries in both hands.

Who was North? Benito Garozzo of course.

Shirley and Roy handed us a zero on this board, bidding and making 5♣ .

Roy won the heart lead crossed to the ♦ A ran the ♣J,  ruffed the second heart, drew trumps and gave up a spade.

Routine? Apparently not. The hand was played 7 more times, 3 in minor suit part scores, once in 3NT by W(should go down ) and again by E (should make) and twice in 5♦  all going down.

The play in 5♦  is a book lesson, establish the side suit before drawing trumps. Whoever plays it on a heart lead, if Declarer draws trumps in three rounds ending in Dummy and takes the losing club finesse. The heart continuation leaves him without resource when the spade loses. The hand is more difficult than it looks, win the heart and immediately give up a club. Ruff the heart and play the ♠A and ♠Q. Ruff the third heart, cash ♦K♦Q, cross to ♣ 10 and draw the last trump. Note that you cannot afford even one round of trumps before setting up the clubs.

In the Gentle Duplicate the two results were 3NT +2 and 5DX +550. Well someone can play the cards!

The cards on 11 August were not very lively so let us turn back to the 4th August. West deals and has a borderline strong two bid. On the night it was opened 1 ♦ . East with a choice bid 1♠ . Now the crucial decision, 3♦  does not do justice the strength of the hand. West needs to find a game force as so many options for game remain. He bid 3♣  inventive !

E raises to 4♣  and W to 4♠ . E sensing a double fit decides to bid 4NT - RKCB his partner has bid three suits so must be short in hearts. Now what is the agreed black suit ? If it is clubs then he has three keys, and if it is spades, only two. What are your agreements? After 5♣  - 3 keycards E bid   6♣  and a slightly nervous West converted to 6♦. Nothing to the play.

Easy enough surely, but only two pairs bid it .

Have you ever made a slam missing the top two trump honours?

On the 4th of August it was mentor night and 11 tables in play.

Board 1 provided much hilarity.

East opened 1♠  and West raised to 3♠ . We needed points after a careless start. So East bid 4NT - RKCB and got a 5♦  reply - one key. Of course this could be K♠  but seemed more likely to be A♠  after the double raise. In which case there are good chances that the slam would depend at worst on a finesse - 6♠ .

After a red suit lead Declarer played  a spade with spectacular results. They apologised  to their  unlucky opponents. The slam was also found by Sally Found and John Craggs by similar methods.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

Ten teams played on Thursday 28 July. On Board 2, just pairs two bid the cold minor suit game. We were not one of them. All passed to North who opened 1♥  (playing 5 card majors 1♦  should make it easy) then 2♣  - 3♣. South despite a seven loser hand, looked at his "useless" majors and passed.

North should recognise with at least 24 points between the hands that 3NT is a distinct possibility. Give South one more spade and 3NT is cold. So North should bid 2♦ . South raises to 3♦  and when North supports to 4♣ , a singleton spade is advertised and South can bid 5♣ . Show where your strength lies.

Note from Nicole: 4441 shapes are notorious for their difficulty to judge how to bid accurately. Should one upgrade or downgrade a 15HCP 4441? Upgrade - easier to bid, but you might find yourself plying a level too high. Downgrade and you face an immediate problem for a rebid. How many of you have ever played inverted minors? The auction given alongside this week's hand offers an auction using a convention which inverts the meaning of 2♣ and 3♣. To find out more ask me about it - or follow this link.

The cards were lively on 21 July. None more so than on Board 3.

Both sides have exactly twenty points but the distribution for EW is very different.

Looking at all four hands it is obvious that EW have a cold 6C, and the par result for N/S is to lose -300 in a sacrifice of 6SX.

Not easy at the table and I suspect systems played a big part in the results. 2 x 6♣X, 2 x 5♣X, and five times N/S were allowed to play in spades. If South plays in spades it is less easy to find the diamond ruff. Two Declarers made 11 tricks in spades.

South passes and the first divergence may occur. We will assume (for now) that 2♦  is not played as weak, so West too passes.

North opens 1♠ . Now what sort of  jump overcalls are EW playing? Is 3♣  weak?  If it is weak then probably a simple 2♣  is best.

South - 4♠  and West with a miracle fit must consider 6♣  but probably just says 5♣ . North I think now does best to pass, not without defence, and at the score 5♠  is quite attractive.

Now West will surely bid 6♣  and North will not resist a double.

Go back to the beginning. Let West open the weak 2♦ . If North doubles South may well wind up playing the spade contract. If so, or calls 2♠  East must bid 3♣ . In your system is this constructive ?

Now South will either make a responsive double, or raise spades and the delicate decisions are as before. Is everybody clear on their agreements?

When you are third hand to play on your partners blind opening lead, you have a priceless advantage - you can see dummy. When it goes down I fold my cards and study. To evaluate partner's lead and plan.
South dealt and played in 4♠  (NS only vulnerable) after the auction shown. K♣  lead and East considers. In the visible two hands, there are 19 points. South cannot be worse than five good trumps. 
Count the tricks, 5 spades, 2 hearts, one diamond and surely a club ruff makes 9. You can see that if allowed to duck a heart, the suit will come in.

What to do?

As a rest from slams I offer the following defensive test. The Olgiata team had a training session and this hand caught out two of our better players.

Test yourself and listen to the bidding. South dealt and opened. East bid a daring 5C (goes - 200X) South now 5H. All pass.

The lead is QC, what is your plan?

Slam bidding again. Astonishingly all six NS bid a slam, 6♣ , 6♦  and 6NT, two 6♣  and 6NT only were successful. As can be seen, the ♠ K and ♦ K offside, and a 4-2 diamond break, should scupper any slam.

Should 6♣  be bid? Assuming N plays 6♣  a neutral trump lead is won in dummy and the losing spade finesse taken now a diamond finesse would render success. So yes the slam is slightly better than 50% and should be bid, although theoretically impossible to make as the cards lie.

What do you open on the big North hand?

Benjamin Acol, or all purpose 2♣ forces are bad for two suited minors, so I personally would suggest the given auction. After 3NT the crucial moment arises. At pairs North knows that  the NT game is likely, so to continue virtually commits to a minor suit slam. Why not! So 4♣  confirms the big two suiter and over the cue bid of 4♥* , North bids 6♣  offering the choice of slams.

4♥ is controversial - what would it mean for you? Do you think you have sufficient HCP and shape to really consider slam a possibility when partner only opens at the one level? 

Unlucky.

Let us return to slam bidding, the Circle's weakness.

Only one pair of four bid the cold 6♠  on this hand from the relaxed Sunday game, all of course made 12 tricks.

West deals and opens 1♠ , strong enough to rebid 3♦  over 2♥  if needed. East has great support for partner's suit and a seven loser hand - so knows game is secure. Moreover, has additionally two first round controls and a second round control in diamonds.

The best bid therefore is to splinter with 4♦ . "I have at least second round control in D, support to at least 4♠  and other values. " West delighted at this response has a 5 loser hand and knows he is going to try 6♠  at least. So 4NT (RKCB) which draws 5♠  (two keys and QS).

Now could the grand be on? Has anybody got the ♦ A? So 6♣  (first round control) and East realises that the values in clubs are duplicated.

Enough 6♠ .

The cards this Thursday were wild and none wilder than this. Freaks are never easy to bid and this more difficult than most.

North deals.With no-one vulnerable, the first key decision is whether to open. One of my pet hates is slavish adherence to the Rule of 20. The problem here is that a fit in either minor may lead to glory, but which? Is there a fit? Open 1C and you have killed the hand for your side. Moreover we are the dealer, so expressing both suits immediately cannot be done. So I think the best move is Pass. East now depending on system has a choice of bids.

1NT (15/17), 1H , or a minor suit opening. Simplest is the strong NT. Now when West transfers with 2♦  N can bid 4NT, which must mean, pick a minor. Over 1♥  - 4♥  the same bid can be made. Why go to 4NT? Because with your weird shape they are surely going to 4♥  and your side to at least 5 of a minor. And it is best to express the hand as quickly as possible then final decisions can be left to the unknown hand - South. Over 4NT Easts action depends on what he has opened. If NT then a pass to partner is best, enabling South to choose 5♦ . More difficult if the hand has not been limited. A double is tempting leading to 5♦ X + 1.

Par here is 6♥ X-3 or minus 500 with 6♦  a make.

A major weakness in the circle is slam bidding. Minor suits are particularly poor.
Only one pair found the making 6♣ on Board 27. Playing Acol or Five card majors West opens 1♣  and East responds 1♥ . Our pair playing five card majors made a non-standard reverse. However, opener now with a solid club suit and seven clear winners will typically bid 3♣ . Now I suspect came the parting of the ways with the lazy bid of 3NT and the obvious twelve tricks cash out when the ♠ J drops.
It costs nothing to bid 3♠  on the responding hand. This says "I am not minimum, I am not looking for four card major from you, this was denied with 3♣ " So why am I bothering?" Partner must have club support. Now another lazy bid of 3NT would put us back to square one. West must say "I have made a limit bid and described my hand well, but I am not minimum - so 4♦  costs nothing". Now it's easy, 4NT - 5♣  (3 keycards) 5♦  (have you got QC? ) 5♠  - yes - 6♣ 
 

Perhaps the last bit was unnecessary, because the 4♦  Implies solid clubs.
 

But the real lessons are:
Controls are more important than points in suit contracts. Give your partner information - with more information, better decisions can be made.
In the play, only a diamond lead puts Declarer under any pressure.

♠ K ♥ A ♦ AKJ96543  ♣KQ9

A coaching session was held recently with David Burn, useful and instructive.
He talked fleetingly about the opening bid of 4NT. Of course frequency is low. As luck would have it, this came up as Dealer in a LBH league match on 25 May. What do you open? In both rooms they opened 2♣  ( this works fine if you play Ace responses - neither did ) then it went 2♦  (relay) - 3♦  - 3NT both teams ended in a NT game.

If you consider the hand, there is no way you will let go under 5♦ . Yes it is true that you are missing the Q♦ . However if you ignore that, what you want from Partner is Aces.
So 4NT is the bid. Now 5♣ no ace, 5♦ that ace, 5♥ , 5♠ , the same 5NT two aces, 6♣  that Ace
Partners hand  ♠J83 ♥Q765 ♦107  ♣A432.
Easy.

All Circle members are EBU members. In the June edition two articles caught my eye. The first “Responding to Doubles” on page 36 has much to teach us all. The only thing I would add is – remember when responding that you are not bidding your suit you are supporting partner’s.

Of more technical interest is Neil Rosen's article on page 18 “Surround plays”. It reminded me of a hand from twelve years ago that Simon Cocheme of IBM drew to David Bird’s attention in the Evening Standard.

West for the RAC lead ♣ 9 to show lack of interest in the suit. Declarer won the ♣ Q and played a heart to the Q. East switched to a diamond, but only one card was good enough, the ♦ Q. Declarer won his ♦ K; but when he lead another heart, up went the Ace from West and over to the ♦ A. When the ♦ 3 was returned Declarer’s 9-4 were nullified for one down.

These situations come up more often than you think – be awake!

NS 6♥; NS 6♣; NS 3N; NS 4♦; NS 1♠; Par +1400: EW 6♠×−6

RAC did not distinguish itself in slam bidding at the Centenary Cup as we saw last week. On this hand we fared no better. That said we were in good company – only two of 14 pairs bid the making slam(s) – 6♣ by the event winners.

At our table, the bidding was an uncontested  1♣  1♥ 2NT (19-20) 3NT. We led the ♠2. Declarer won and cashed top tricks resulting in 3NT one down. Our teammates did no better. This time the opening bid was 2NT - 3♣(Puppet Stayman asking for a four or five card major) – 3♥ (I have one 4 card major) – 3NT all pass. Same result, Our confidence for a big swing evaporated.

Should we have reached slam? Certainly it is right to try somehow – and on this auction 2NT – 3♦ (transfer) 3♥ - 4♣ fits the bill nicely. Now South can value their hand differently - with 10 cards in the two bid suits, only three can remain – how much is wastage points wise? To find out, I suggest you temporise with a 4♦ cue bid, North will not know which suit you are planning to play in, but when he co-operates by cuebidding his spade void you can move confidently to 6♣.

Worse still 3NT could be made. Declarer takes the fourth round of spades and realises that if West has the ♥A then he can cash out his last spade. So he cashes five clubs throwing ♥2. West hast to find four discards. Two hearts and one diamond are painless, but the last club forces another diamond. He must be clinging to ♥A and a spade and his last two diamonds.  It is true that he could have come down to QX in diamonds but if he had started with that he could have thrown a spade but could be endplayed when put in with the ♥A. So ♦J from the table and if not covered passed to West.

NB: You can gain information from the table presence and the cards you see discarded by your opponents. On this hand if you see three diamonds you can be fairly confident West does not hold the queen – play the JD at trick ten. If you see three hearts play East for the AH, if you see two hearts and two diamonds – it your guess! But try the JD anyway first – East might cover with the Queen.

This game is great for never giving up!

The Centenary Cup for Pall Mall Club Teams of 8 was played in the delightful rooms of the Oxford and Cambridge Club on Monday this week. The RAC team of myself partnering Paul Weston, Marina and Terry, Ross and Howard, David and Andrew were runners up to the hosts - full details are on their website.

It has long been apparent that slam bidding has been a serious RAC weakness. There were five hands on which slam could be made, played therefore ten times but only bid by RAC four times. However this 14 Imp swing was one of which we were not proud!

The bidding is as above. In response to 1♥  West would love to make a game forcing bid, but needs better and longer spades to make a jump shift response. West reluctant to rebid his poor suit leads to Wests 4^th suit forcing 2♦. 2♥  shows a  minimum at least 5\4. 4NT is ace asking Roman Keycard Blackwood style, 5♥ =two - the queen of hearts. 5NT asks do you have any unbid K (ie not king trumps)?

West fell from grace ending the auction with 7♥ because from the bidding he knows a minor suit Ace or the ♥ K must be missing.

The lead was a diamond. Declarer won in hand.

Now what is the best percentage play for no trump losers? The ♥ J or a small heart? The books will say finesse the Q which is what

Declarer did and when the ♥ 10 fell on the right it was indicated that a second round finesse of the ♥ 9 was the winning play.

Only one other pair missed the small slam. We apologised to our opponents for our poor bidding; but took the points

As always better to be lucky than good.

RAC lost to Olgiata on Saturday 1 May. Not quite the crushing defeat of last year.

This hand was extremely costly for the RAC. All Souths played in 3NT with silent opponents and on a heart lead. Look first at only the N/S hands. Declarer has six top tricks and needs three more. Diamonds can only provide a source for two more so a spade trick is vital and must be lead immediately. This loses to the ♠ A and another heart is returned. The only hope now is an “avoidance play”. West must be kept off lead. Cross to the ♠ Q and lead a small diamond. If the Queen comes up Declarer ducks and is home. So on the low diamond South wins and plays another, ducking (and his prayers are answered) to the Queen. Notice: the first diamond must be lead from Dummy.

I have in fact altered the actual hand. The ♠ A was in West and once a spade is lead 3NT cannot be beaten. Unfortunately both Olgiata players got it right and both RAC did not, -26 Imps

My team did not last long in the Devonshire Cup this year. This hand contributed.

North passed and East who had demonstrated a desire for sound pre-empts opened 3♣.South bid 3NT and there it stayed. West lead the ♣7, Declarer played low from dummy and East won the ♣ A and returned a club.

South won and should count his tricks looking to secure nine as overtricks are not important in the Devonshire. Declarer can count three spade tricks, two club tricks and three diamond tricks – eight tricks with potential for more should diamonds break. But suppose they do not? The Devonshire is great for teams tactics with rubber scoring. At these forms of scoring, Declarer should look first to secure the contract.

What do you know from the bidding? East must surely have one heart honour but probably not two (or they could have opened 1♣  not 3♣). Once this is realised declarer should lead a heart to ruin defensive communications immediately. On the day sadly this did not happen, Declarer gave up the third diamond. East played another club and had no answer when the ♠ J failed to drop and the ♥ A provided the vital entry to East’s hand.

When everything looks easy, what is the catch?

Nobody likes to sit down for their first board and find they are in the slam zone. It happened to us.  Playing five card majors North opened 1♠. South bid 3♥ , a strong jump shift – (16+ HCP and either a stand- alone heart suit or five + hearts and secondary support for spades.) North  alerted and stated, when asked by West, that it was a “splinter bid showing primary spade support and shortage in hearts” - clearly not yet awake.

Ethically, South must assume partner knows the true meaning of the jump (ie act as if there’d been a wall between them. South must act as if he did not hear the explanation). Over 3♠ which should be natural and better spades, South made a 4♦  cue bid, planning to later tell partner about the spade fit, and over four spades, bashed the slam.

Before East led South corrected the misexplanation. "It is not a splinter, I have a game force hand with good hearts (and now spade support)”

Pity poor East. It is clear that his opponents are off the rails, and do not know what they are doing. Leading from a K is unattractive, not to mention they have showed first round control of diamonds and defence needs a quick trick. Our opponent reasonably, but unsuccessfully chose ♣Q, the unbid suit.

The board was played nine times and four pairs bid the slam. At the other three tables the ♦ 2 was lead but the slam defeated only twice.

What would you have lead after this weird bidding?

A note on table presence: Do your best to avoid asking questions during a live auction if you have no intention of bidding. As can be seen only the opponents can gain by this.

It is a hand that would not merit comment other than at matchpoint pairs scoring. North do you open as dealer? Clearly a borderline decision and at Teams or Rubber you would not due to 1. a poor quality suit (you do not want it led) and 2. you have only eleven high card points. You do not know it yet, but should you opt for pass,so will everyone else and the hand will be thrown in.

This happened 6 out of 10 times. However. You do have two defensive tricks and a five card major suit - so at match-points - yes do open. Turn now to East. It’s now or never. You want a heart lead, so a risky 2♥  overcall could be made. Again at Teams or rubber no. After partner opens 1♠ South has a simple raise to 2♠  and there the auction lies. On repeated trump leads North is held to eight tricks. One player was allowed to get away with 1NT as South, making after a disastrous diamond lead (note the value of an overcall). Note also that East can make 3♥  so the optimum is – 100 for NS for a near bottom.

The lesson here is that at pairs you cannot afford NOT to take risks.  

A coaching session was held this week with the eight players selected for the coming match against the Italian Olgiata team. The practice hands were taken from Bridgewebs countrywide. The criterion being "match deciders" where both sides have opportunities.

On this week's hand at one table East opened the bidding with 2♥  weak. South now made a double, presumably to show spades, West raised hearts and North jumped to 4♠ . Everyone passed and four spades made twelve tricks. An easy slam missed?

The bidding was better at the other table (as shown). This also made twelve tricks. It was Dorette who spotted what we all missed. If West makes a Lightner double of six spades, which says "do not lead clubs or hearts or trumps" East will put a diamond on the table , West will ruff at their turn, and six spades will fail. One down!

Should table one claim to have won the board? Like I said both sides opportunities.

The Swiss teams on the 31^st March was effectively decided on board 20 in the penultimate round when the eventual winners met the runners up. The match was all square, but this was the last board with West the dealer and all vulnerable.

For the winners 3NT was reached on the above auction. 2♠  showed a transfer to clubs. When partner responded 3♣ saying I like clubs, West bid 3NT. The ♥ 4 was led and on the run of the clubs North threw four spades and three hearts, and South four spades and two diamonds, for 3NT one down.

At the other table, West opened with a dubious 3♣ , tempting North to double. East should now bid 5♣  (for -500) but chose instead to pass, Now South jumped to 4♥ which made +1 and 11 imps to the winners.

In Swiss events of five board matches, it is one hand that usually decides the match.

Paul and I bid (as I suspect did most) 1♦  - 1♠  -2♣ (more informative than 3♦). Now we bid 2♥  4th suit force  - 2NT. East should now bid 3♦  which must be forcing - at the table partner took no chances and simply bid game. Clearly the best game is 5D - but if you find yourself in 3NT provided you make the following precautionary action you will find your way to nine tricks.

On a spade lead ♠ 9, cover the ♠ 10. North must and return a spade to the ♠ Q . When another spade was played Declarer simply ducked and the suit is blocked.
There is no winning defence and all Declarers made the game.
Irritating!

If we could ask one gift from the Bridge Gods what would it be? Bidding? Too vague, finesses to be right? Would we bother to play?

No!  What about the ability to make the killing opening lead?

North deals at Love All playing a weak NT opens 1♥ . The bidding continues, settling at 3♠. North is on lead. Partner is obviously minimum, the high cards are likely to divide between East and West. -  Where might a surprise extra trick come from? At the table North underled his ♣A, ♣9 South played the ♣6 (looks like it might be a doubleton). Declarer won the ♣10  and lead a spade to the 9. South ducked and it was all over. Looking at all four hands, if South wins the Ace of trumps and returns partners lead he will secure a club ruff to beat he contract by one trick as Declarer must also lose the four aces.

There are always a couple of hands in a duplicate evening that separate success from failure and this was one of them. With both sides holding respectable major suit holdings there was plenty of action in the bidding, but as is usually the case spades win out in the end, but Roy was only one of two declarers that succeeded in landing his contract. East kicks off with the Queen of Hearts which runs round to the King, Ace and a trump. If the diamonds break 3-2 then declarer will prevail with 5 spades, 4 diamonds and 1 club as long the diamond is on the right side. However if the diamonds break 4-1 then an extra trick via a ruff will be required. Roy drew two rounds of trumps and played Ace and another diamond. East then fell from grace and ruffed Roy's loser, and now the trump in dummy brings home the contract. It would have been a different result if East had not trumped the second diamond. Now Roy would have had to surrender the lead to West who can push a ♣ through and now East play a trump and now declarer is a trick short.

The contract is undefeatable if after winning the first trick, declarer plays Ace and another diamond. Now a third diamond from dummy allows West in who plays a club, but now a trump or a heart force from west does no damage as declarer who can now ruff a diamond in dummy, draw trumps and claim.

Opportunities for good play from both sides.

Sometimes you have to scratch around for an interesting hand, but when one side concedes 1520 the senses are awakened. After a welcome whiskey in Killarney, following tonight’s Open pairs, I was trawling through the hands for this week’s duplicate and unsurprisingly my eyes spotted this little gem.

Who was to blame for the carnage? As often happens with multiple pile ups the answer is that it was a combined effort. As I wasn’t present I have to guess the bidding, but this wasn’t a difficult task. The first problem is the action by North. Whilst I can empathise with the need to take some action with an opening hand, this is a dangerous venture when it relies on support from partner in one suit. However on this occasion North got lucky.

In my view a double of 1H guarantees four spades, so when East makes an automatic redouble, south must bid 1S. The end result still isn’t pleasant because the best that NS can get away with is down 1, but look how difficult it is for EW to find the winning action of pass-pass-double, and that only works because 3NT by EW fails by one trick.

This hand from the last Swiss teams has several interesting bidding features to it. Few could argue with an opening of 2NT, but then the bidding in the room starts to diverge. One partnership tried 4NT which was taken as old fashioned Blackwood. On hearing 2 aces responder blasted 6NT. On correct defence this can’t be made, but more of this later.

6♥  is cold but should you bid it. The traditional wisdom is that you need 33 or more points for a slam but this only applies to 6NT. For trump games a slam on 4-4 fit can be made on a lot less if the high cards are in the right places.

On this deal both doubletons are working, and to get there it must be right to kick off with 3♣  to ask about the majors. The sequence illustrated uses puppet stayman, and 3♦  denies a 5 card major but promises at least one 4 card major. This hand is slightly unusual because responder has two 4 card majors and now announces slam interest by bidding 4♣ . 4♦  would show both majors but game interest only.

Opener bids 4♦  to accept the slam try in hearts. 4NT would be a slam acceptance in spades. South has choices. 5C would be control showing, which has merit of finding the A♦ . In the sequence shown 4NT is 1430 Blackwood which reveals 3 key cards. This doesn’t allow room for a queen ask so South is on a slight guess but nevertheless presses on with 6♥ .

In teams there is need to look for 6NT unless you are playing point a board, but at pairs there is a great deal of temptation to go for the max and to bring this in you need some help from East with a spade lead, and now your 10 tricks have grown to 11. One short of the magic number, and therefore the ingredients are therefore a squeeze. The first job is to test the hearts, and once you find they break the next is to rectify the count by ducking a diamond.

When declarer regains the lead on the next trick, East will be powerless to hang on to both spades and diamonds when declarer cashes the hearts and the clubs.

Under the leadership of Terry Hewitt the Night of the Stars goes from strength to strength. Now nestling alongside the Lederer many of the competitors that compete in the latter event make themselves available for auction, and this year the event raised over £50,000 for several worthwhile charities.

There were several hands that produced appropriate fireworks and hand number 17 was no exception. If your system allows you to open 1NT on an eleven count you silence East, however if it doesn’t then fortune favours the brave when East has the opportunity to put a spanner in the works with a bid of 2♥ .

This was what happened at our table and South is ok on the first round with an automatic double. North bids 3♣  and now the spotlight is on South. In the event the bid of choice was 3NT and this was passed out. In south’s defence he took the view that has North’s 3♣  bid was forced it was up to North to make a further try if there were undisclosed values, and there is a good case for 4NT.

However when I gave this hand to one of the commentators at the Lederer his first question was were we playing Lebonsohl, because if we were then Norths bid of 3C shows at least 8 points and now South has enough to bid 6NT but even if he doesn’t go there directly surely 3H is a better bid. Now North should realise his hand is massive and bid 4H.

I am a great fan of Lebonsohl, especially as part of a defence to opening 2 bids as it allows the responder to the double to distinguish between weak forced responses and constructive raises. Without this gadget South is bidding in the dark after 3C

6NT gathers you a score of 55%  but finding the squeeze for the 13^th trick ratchets this up to 88%. Regardless of the lead you cash out you diamond honours in the south hand before turning your attention to the club suit. On the 4^th club west has to give up a spade or a diamond and surrender.

Board 24 posed the usual interesting challenge for both sides, when the perennial question of to bid or not to bid cropped up as it always does at the five level. Four spades is undefeatable so South should bid 5 diamonds at the first opportunity. The objective in hands like this is to be the last to make a guess and for this reason East should bid 4 spades not 3 on the first round. South should still bid 5♦  though and now it is down to West to eschew the adage that the 5 level belongs to the opponents or bid 5♠  which on this occasion is correct.

Should North end as declarer , and west find the lead of the King of Hearts, an inspired play will be required to drop the King of clubs, but is there any choice? Assuming the King has been lead from touching honours surely West must have the KC for his bid.

Interestingly if East leads a spade now declarer has time to make an alternative play after discovering the ‘bad break’ in the trump suit. With an extra round of breathing space declarer has time to lead a club from south up to the Jack. This play wins if the holding in the West hand is Kx.

Lots of opportunity for good play all round.

This week, I have selected a hand from a Business House League match played at the RAC. I was asked by one of our opponents how we had bid the hand, which is excuse enough for its inclusion. East west on this occasion were using a Strong NT. Weak no trumpers would need some form a check-back to reach the 4♣  bid.

I play 3♣  in this sequence not only unconditionally game forcing but also made where there are slam ambitions. There is no point in providing a road map to your opponents if the only two contracts of interest are 3NT or 4♥ . There is an argument for West to bid 3♦  as an indicator of acceptance rather than 3NT which is really a sign off, so all credit to East for having one more try with 4♣ .

A system agreement I have with my regular partners is that when you shift out of 3NT to 4 of a minor 4NT is natural and not Blackwood. In pairs and for that matter point a board you really want to be able to play in 4NT over 5♣ /5♦  so as this is a sign off you need another bid to ask for key cards and this is where kick back come in.

There are many variations to this bid, but this is easiest to remember. After 4♣ /4♦  the next suit up is Kick back RKCB, and the responses follow the next step principal, i.e. in this example over 4♥ , 4♠  would show 1/4 or 3/0 depending on the method you are playing.

This time though you discover that your partner has two key cards and the queen of clubs, and so west can bid 6♣ .

I was lucky enough to be invited to play in the Portland invitation pairs just before Christmas, and I was told an amusing story by Willie Coyle who was the eventual winner of the event, along with his partner, the wily Bernard Teltscher. I believe their combined ages is somewhere in excess of 170. The story concerned the merit of leading doubles and Willie is in the hardly ever camp, but there is one holding that a certain MJ Flint would never leave from and that is Jack doubleton, in fact he found this so abhorrent he would change partners.

It is still possible to break 4♥ if your partner leads the J♣  but South must then resist the temptation to go up with the Ace otherwise declarer now has two club tricks to go with seven hearts and surely the 10^th trick will come from either a spade or a diamond. It shouldn't be that difficult to find because the lead of the Jack must deny the Queen. It looks like the lead is from a doubleton and not only that but Jack doubleton, but in this case you have bid the suit so your partner is excused. What south should appreciate is that unless West has a singleton Queen it costs nothing to duck the lead of the J♣

However even is North leads a spade say, South my still find he is put to the test later in the hand, as declarer can draw trumps, ruff out the spade suit,  and play Ace and another diamond, now the ducking play is a lot more obvious.

What is so curious about this hand is the entire room miss-defended the hand. Normally when I see a clean sheet like this I suspect that the double dummy solution is so obscure it is beyond the capability of humans, but that is not the case this time.

Louise Boyle played hand 23 well. To make 11 tricks you have to play the black suits for one looser in each suit. The play of the club suit is straightforward, you have to guess the layout of the missing honours as they occurred and insert the Jack on the first round.  The play of the spade suit is far less obvious. In order to play the suit for one loser again you pray for split honours but this time there is no double finesse position so the correct play is an intra finesse. When you lead a low spade from dummy towards your jack East is fixed. If he puts up the king then a finesse position is created against west’s queen. If he plays low the Jack is draws the queen and the Ace fells the King on the next time round.

There two holdings that are definitely not worth their Milton point count Qx and Jxx, unless they are working cards. In this hand the Queen of clubs is working because of partners holding in that suit, and, with no intervention the bidding should go 1S-2S-3C-4S. There is no play to the hand as long as declarer plays up to the AK in clubs and back to the Queen opening up the known finesse position. It is much more difficult if West opens the bidding with 2H.

Here is the other side of the coin. This time the QC is not working because East is missing the KC. This is a difficult hand to bid. Let’s suppose you are playing 5 card stayman and your partner opens 2NT. After 3C you discover that opener has 5 hearts and assuming a maximum of 22 points that leaves 9 points for the opposition. Almost certainly you are missing a King and an Ace. If the missing King is spades then you are in great shape as you have a double fit and the QC is pulling her weight, if the missing king is the KC now the slam is not such a good proposition as you will now need to hope the King is with North. So you are down to a guess. I guessed wrong.   

The most interesting slam from a bidding point of view is hand 15. South will open 1♠  regardless of what system is being played, and in old fashioned Acol North has enough to stretch to 3♣ , but how many people still do that. The modern style is to conserve bidding space with strong hands and out comes 2C which is increasingly likely to be almost forcing to game. Over to East who will bid either 2 or 3 hearts. Suppose the bid is 2♥ ; South has a number of options, 3♣ ,3♥  or even 4♥ . 3♣ seems a little tame to me unless you are playing 2 over 1 in which case it is the correct bid. The singleton heart has increased that value of the hand and it’s beginning to look as though that North’s values are in the other suits, so the choice is between 3H and 4H. 4H might be miss-construed as showing first round control so 3H seems the right bid agreeing clubs and showing extra values. North can probably bid 3S now and eventually 6♣  will be found.

West can make much more of a nuisance of himself by bidding 3H which is far superior than 2H as it consumes valuable bidding space, and now South probably has to bid 4♥ .

There is a twist in the tale though because if North-South do find the slam East has an easy save with 6♥  for a mere 500. Well done all those who sneaked through +620!

There were a number of interesting hands from the teams night. As usual a number of slam hands with not one bid. First though let’s look at a part score hand because there is an interesting point in the play. East ends up in a contract of 2♥  unless you are playing a Weak NT and open 1NT with a 5 card suit, which you shouldn’t do, unless you are playing 5 card majors. In fact this is a pretty good example of why 4 card majors and a weak NT works because you can open 1♥  and rebid hearts.

South has a pretty normal lead of a diamond which declarer let’s run to the Queen but is captured by North’s King. North now has the opportunity of a surround play by leading the 10♠ . Whatever east plays, south wins the trick with the Ace and returns the suit.  Dummy’s 9 is surrounded by the Q8 of spades in the North hand and now the defence will come to two spade tricks. Or will they?

Declarer wins the spade return and crosses to the Ace of diamonds, return to hand with the A♥  and dispose of the losing spade on the Queen of Diamonds.  So unfortunately North's fine defence goes unrewarded on this occasion.

This deal threw up 11 different results, and although some of the contracts were predictable others were byzantine and you have to get quite imaginative to come up with a logical sequence to reach the final contract. West has choices of Pass, 2♦  or 3♦ . It looks as though one EW was allowed to open and play in 2D which ended up in an average score.

Suppose you are south and 2♦  comes round to you, are you tempted to take any action because if so you are heading for a bad score as any contract by NS is doomed, and this is not the hand to get busy with a double as to my mind this promises at 4 cards in at least one 4 card major.

So on the face of it, it looks like a victory for 3 weak twos, if this isn’t part of your armoury and 2♦  means something else then West has to choose between pass and 3♦ . The vulnerability favours the 3♦  opening, which is partly why I don't like a weak 2♦ opening as it often results in sending in a boy to do a man's job.

Should West elect to pass the bidding will come round to South who will either open 1NT or 1♦ , the latter probably silencing West, the former possibly forcing a brave 3♦ . Over 1♦  North can introduce his hearts which may be passed out or corrected to 1NT by south. 1NT should drift off but one NS was allowed to make it for what should have been a well deserved top if it wasn’t for the fact that my opposition found a devilishly clever lead of a small heart  against my contract of 3♦ .

Looking at all 4 hands I should have risen with the King but as my left hand opponent wasn’t someone I credited with under leading Aces I played small with disastrous results as I lost the first three tricks, and then compounded the error by playing North for the Ace of spades.

The correct play is to put up the King of Hearts and play the 10♦  from dummy. South might as well let this hold, and declarer follows this with the Ace and another club which is ruffed and crucially shortens declarers trumps. In hand the Q♠  is now led which runs round to South, who now cashes the QH and gets off play with a spade or a diamond. Declarer is now home because there are sufficient entries with the spades and to ruff a further club. The final coup de grass is achieved by exiting with a heart south is forced to ruff and is now forced to lead away from the KJ♦  presenting declarer with the ninth trick.

Once again a routine slam proves elusive. There are several routes to Rome, and the one chosen by the only pair who bid the slam was to employ a bid of 2H opposite the 1D opening. This has fallen out of fashion because it doesn’t pass the frequency test. However if you do bid the west hand this way, there is no way that east will stop short of slam. Suppose however that you bid 1H now East has a choice of showing his shape and strength with a reverse bid of 2S or get across the full value of his hand by rebidding 2NT. The problem with 2S is that bidding can easily die in 3NT as the results show. Far better in my opinion to bid 2NT for now West will now see that there is a slam on. There is no danger in missing a possible spade contract as West can make further enquiries using a check-back bid or 3C or 3D depending on what devices take your fancy and after discovering that there is no major suit fit a straightforward bid of 6NT should bring the auction to a conclusion.

How would you bid the hand sitting west after your partner opens 1H, playing 4 card majors with a weak NT.  You presumably kick off with 1S and when your partner rebids 1NT you simply bid 3NT. The more observant of you will realise that you are a card missing J♠ , and this is what happened at the table. With six spades wouldn’t you at least try 3♠  over 1NT which may or may not be converted to 4♠ , but in response to 3NT I think you have to trust your partner. In the room only two players converted to 4♠  which un-doubled is a good score, as only two pairs in the room found their way home to 3NT.

Amusingly by the time that the missing J♠  was discovered no revoke had been established, and as it belonged to dummy, despite being face up on the floor could not be deemed as an exposed card.

The play is far from straightforward and requires fortuitous distribution. Suppose south finds the heart lead, not easy after the opening bid of 1H, North wins and returns a heart which declarer ducks. After winning the third heart, it looks at first sight that it is a 50/50 guess which minor suit to go after, but there is a cast iron case why it has to be diamonds, because in addition to the King of clubs you are also missing the T♣  which will be promoted if North has the K♣.

With no entry to dummy apart from the singleton spade declarer has to hope that the spades break as they do. So over to the Ace of Spades, cash the KS  and run the Jack of diamonds – it wins! Now hoping that North holds 3 diamonds to the Queen declarer cashes three more diamond tricks.

The stage is set for the throw in, declarer exists with a heart and south can cash his heart winner but has to lead away from the K♣  and the game is made.  

There were no less than seven hands which offered temptation of a slam bonus and two of these qualified for grand status. However for this week I have selected a part score. Hand 16 goes to show there is no foolproof method to tell you what level to bid to. The south hand comes in at seven losers, however those pairs that bid to four hearts were to be disappointed.

Two out of nine pairs ended in No Trump contracts, which fails if the defence find their diamond fit. Playing a weak NT South finds the heart fit via stayman,  and it’s hard to see how to stop short of game. The same is true for the pairs playing a strong NT, the bidding will progress along the following lines. 1♣ - 1♥ - 2♥ - 4♥ .

Unfortunately, the club pips are not enough to bring the contract home, exchange the 7♣  for the 8♣  and 4♥  is on. Even so declarer has to spot the intra finesse position of the club suit. South leads the 8♣  from hand and west can’t afford to cover with the J♣. East wins with the trick the 10. Now when declarer regains the lead he leads the Queen of spades from the North hand pinning the Jack.

Well done to the pairs that managed to spot the deficiency in the south hand and stayed out of game.

Finally back to the slam hands. Andrew Robson has written often about the danger of bidding grand slams, and the two examples this week show why. On hand 11 there is no difficulty in wrapping up 13 tricks because of the 3-2 spade fit, it is a much more precarious contract if the suit breaks 4-1. Given that you have a 75% score in the bag for the small slam it doesn’t seem good odds to take the risk of exchanging this score for a possible additional 4 match points. The same applies on hand 17 where the grand is facilitated by the favourable position of the queen of hearts.

Two slams eluded almost everyone last week. Here is the first.

The bidding is fairly routine until the bidding comes round to South who has to make a decision on whether to bid 3♠ or 4♠. If he elects to bid 3♠, North may make a slam try by bidding 4♣, but as south’s 3♠ is forced may well just sign off in 4♠ glad that he has found a fit. South has a much better hand than he might have done and so should he choose 4S after which there will surely be no stopping North.

This is the second of the elusive slams. There are lots of options for north to consider over the double.

First of all re-double. The problem with this bid is that you are going to be forever trying to convince south that you have a spade fit, and I prefer to keep this bid for when you have the majority of the points and when defending might be the best option which is not the case here.

The second option is to bid 1♥, this is clearly forcing and promises 5♥ but again it is going to be an uphill struggle to persuade south you have 4♠ not 3 when you get around to providing delayed support.

The third option is to bid 3H as a fit jump, but of course you need to have this agreed first as a lot of players play this as a weak pre-emptive bid.

Finally there is 2NT. This is traditionally played as a good raise to 3 but why not extend this to be a Jacoby bid of 13+ with 4 card trump support. This seems to have a lot of merit

I was scratching around for a hand with something interesting in the play, but nothing stood out for me. In terms of rarity value the cold grand slam – Hand 1 has some interesting points in the bidding. For purposes of the illustration I will use a sequence using a strong NT. The first point of interest is the 3♣ bid after the completion of the transfer. I play this as forcing to game as I think most people do, but it’s worthwhile checking that this is your partnership agreement.

East’s hand certainly improves by the time a response is required to 3♣. The key bid here is 3♦. This has to be a control showing bid with slam interest. What now for west? there seem to be two choices. 3♥ or 3♠, 3NT would be showing a 5 card heart suit without anything to say about the spade suit. 3♠ clearly would show a spade control, but for me 3♥ shows an extra heart and this has more going for it than showing the Ace of spades.

True from East’s point of view, there are potential spade losers, but this seems the only chance to show the nine card fit in the trump suit which is important for the 13^th trick.

East rolls out Blackwood, and bingo, not only has his partner got the A♠ but the queen of trumps as well, and now the benefit of the 3♥ bid becomes clear, as 10 of West’s cards are known, and the search for the Grand slam can bid by bidding 5NT or 6♣ depending on your methods.

My style is to bid 5NT which confirms the possession of 5 key cards and asks for the lowest king, whereas 6♣ asks specifically for help in that suit. West dutifully bids 6♣ and East replies with 6♦. West has a 4 looser hand and East has now promised 4 controls, so it is just a question of which grand slam to bid, West should bid 7♥ and resist the temptation to bid 7NT, which needs a 3-3 break in clubs and therefore only a 38% chance. 

Only one pair found the slam on hand 4, possibly aided and abetted by an ultra aggressive intervention from South. The bidding started quietly with West opening 1♦ (East West were playing five card majors), and East responded with 1♠ only to be greeted with a 4♣ barrage from south, 5♣ would make the bidding really interesting.

West now has interesting options, and to my mind a double would show a minimum opening hand and a pass something stronger. If this was the case here then pass is an excellent bid. West bid 5♣ giving East a chance to settle in a game contract, 5NT would probably mean pick a slam, but west recognising the value his spade holding bid 6♠.

Interestingly south should bid 7♣ and concede 1400 as opposed to 1430 as the slam cannot be beaten. At the table South led her singleton diamond and Andrew Kisiel sitting east found his way home by leading small to the Q♥ after drawing trumps and cashing diamonds. After the 4♣ bid at this vulnerability the position of the K♥ is pretty well marked.

The play becomes a little more elegant if South kicks off with the K♣. Now East draws trumps and cashes four diamonds. On the last spade South is down to two clubs and two hearts, and has Hobson’s choice of baring her K♥ or being thrown in with the lone club and having to lead away from her K♥.

What are the odds that in 24 boards 25% will be slams of which 2 are grand. Very small I would venture to suggest. This was board 1 which I played against my erstwhile contributor, and I remarked at the time this hand was a likely candidate for the hand of the week.

The play is very difficult and requires a tough judgement call for declarer. First of all let us consider the bidding. Tony Scouller,sitting south, decided to make my life difficult with a destructive bid of 3♣ The gamble with this sort of bid is that it might help declarer in the play although in practice my partner hadn’t played against Tony enough to suspect that he might have made this bid on a 6 card suit.

I chipped in with a double (4NT bid showing a two suiter is an alternative) to see what happened next and my partner found a very good bid of 4♥. I then bid 4♠. My partner found another good bid of 5♥ and I raised to 6. We were one of only only two pairs in the room to find 6♥ Our opposition settled in  4♥ after East opened 2♥, not a bid you want to make in front of the children.

On a club lead, declarer has to consider that the distribution an unfavourable distribution of the heart suit.  If the heart suit is divided 4-1, the only way home is via a trump coup.

Winning the Q♣ lead, declarer must play 3 rounds of spades discarding a diamond on the second round and  ruffing the third. Next over to dummy with the A♦ and a diamond ruff.

Now the moment of truth. Did south makes his bid on 6 cards or 7 clubs?

Hopeing it is a six card suit, declarer crosses to dummy with a club, and ruffs another diamond. Now, by ruffing a club in dummy with the Ace of hearts (key play), North is powerless and has to throw his last diamond.

At this stage North holds ♥QJ63 and declarer ♥K1098. On the last diamond declarer over ruffs whatever North plays, and exits with the ♥10. North is now end played and has to concede the last two tricks.

I am not brave enough to try and compete with the expert commentary that accompanied the Night of the Stars, so here is a hand provided by Tony Scouller that came up in a Business House League match recently. Bouncing your opposition out of the auction does not come without risk as you give away a lot of information, and in this week's deal it allows declarer to piece together layout of the cards in double quick time.

North leads 10♦ which is revealing, you duck this to South who wins with the Queen and returns a spade which goes Jack to your Ace. It is starting to look like North opened with King - Jack to six spades, a doubleton diamond. With no honours in hearts North must have the K♣ for his bid, and in any case you need him to hold this card for the contract to succeed.

You draw trumps and North follows three times which confirms your theory, and after finessing the club Queen and bring down the K♣ North and remove his diamond exit card by cashing the A♦ The stage is now set for the throw in as North is left with only spades and declarer can exit safely with a spade.

As is so often the case the key play is at trick one, if declarer mistakenly takes the first trick with the A♦ the end play isn't possibile.

I have been in Venice since last Thursdays pairs so this week’s hand of the week is a little later than usual. As always I am indebted to Tony Scouller’s help with the analysis and there were two boards that had a claim for attention but in the end Board 12 with a humdrum safety play that every one missed, made it to the podium ahead of Board 23.

The latter was cold for 6 clubs which eluded every one, although one pair did dry 6 spades without success, but more of that later.

On hand 12, my partner presumably made the same mistake as others, and was seduced by the appeal of running the Queen. This is the wrong play, because without the 10 you end up losing 2 tricks in the layout shown. As you can afford to lose one trick in Spades but not two, the correct play is as follows.

On a heart lead, you play small to the Ace which fells the King. Before conceding a trick to North’s ten of spades you must establish a ruff for the tenth trick so you lead a club to the King which North wins and plays back a heart which you win in hand and get off play with another heart. Whatever south leads now gives you your 10^th trick.

Board 23 shows the difficulty of Blackwood and minor suit slams. Regardless of the NT system employed you the bidding will go something like 1♣-1♠-2NT-3♣-3♠-? If East now bids 3NT that will be the end, but surely he is worth another try. One method is to agree that any minor suit bid at the 4 level is a slam try and a 4NT bid after that is a sign off. This allows you to play in a NT contract rather than 5♣ or 5♦. If you play this then you need a replacement to 4NT and the gadget that allows you to do this is kickback where the next suit up is your favourite version of Blackwood. So in this case if West wants to enquire about controls then opposite 4♣ he bids 4♦ and 4♥ becomes the first step response.

6 clubs is cold but in pairs addicts it pays to go for the maximum and bid 6NT. This makes on a strip squeeze against North. After testing the spades which must come in for the slam to have any chance North cannot withstand the pressure after declarer cashes his clubs. Either he has to come down 2 diamonds in which case the Q♦ will drop or if he retains 3 diamonds he will be down to the bare Ace of hearts and now can be thrown in and is forced to lead away from the Queen of diamonds.

This weeks hand contains a most curious challenge which even when all hands are visible isn't at all obvious. As Pamela and I suffered a bottom at the hands os director Nicole Cook I will include our bidding. My only comment about this is Pamela's gutsy double. Should we manage to find 5 defensive tricks then we would surely secure a top. The double in the north seat must mean partner I have some values in the outside suits it's up to you if you want to pass or press on to 4♣

Pamela kicks off with a trump which looks very reasnoble from where I am sitting, but paradoxically this gives declarer an early entry to his hand to be able to play a small diamond to the K♦ from here there is no way back for the defence.  Try the effect of leading a club, now declarer is deprived of a vital entry to dummy, and declarer hasn't got time to set up the hearts.

Wast bids 3NT after some hesitation

1.     What do you lead?

2.     would your choice alter if your partner had doubled?

Most South's will open a weak 2 in ♥'s. If South passes it is difficult to see how East West will avoid a large penalty after P-P-1♠-1♥-P-P-X. So assuming that weak 2s are in play, what do think the best sequence is to find the optimum contract. Submitted entries will be added below.

The Chairman writes - Ian Payn opened 2H and after thought I bid 3D (forcing) Ian after long thought bid 4D and I went 5D Roy Ham brilliantly led 2D on any other lead it is cold! If IP had bid 3H I would have punted 3NT or would I – yes I think so. That said I do not quarrel with 4D and consider myself very unlucky to have run into that lead.

Bob Bowman bid 3D and Sister Beatrice passed! and as a  result they landed on their feet. Personally I think 3D has to be forcing and it’s a question of how much value South gives to the QD which as it turns out is gold dust.  The other route is for North to bid 2NT (OGUST) and the way I pay it is 01123 which relates to the number of honours in the trump suit. So in this particular case it would elicit a 3D response (minimum with one heart honour) and probably the one call that North doesn’t want to hear, as this means there is precious little outside the hear suit. North now has to choose between 3S, 3NT and whatever he bids now I can’t see South bidding again, so for this reason 3D seems to be a better bid, and on reflection I think you should reserve OGUST for when one of the possible contracts is in the suit opened. If you agree with that logic and accept that a new suit is unconditionally forcing, then there is a negative inference that North is looking for an alternative contract to hearts, and as 3NT is one of them the Queen of diamonds starts to stand out as a very important card. Dominic

Hand 14 this week illustrated the power of the shortage. With a combined count of 28 East-West had a cold grand slam available with a trick to spare, 5 could only find game!So what is the recommended to route to success? One way of avoiding the slam is for East to miss the opportunity to make a move on his rebid. At our table the bid was 4 spades and being a pessimist I took the view that I faced two loosing diamonds on the lead and passed. So I am going to assume that East finds a control showing bid showing slam interest of 4♦. Now I think West is at the crossrads of who takes control of the aution, and I would be interested to hear about possibile autions from this point in. I will release my preffered sequence later in the week together with my reasons.

There are various ways of missing the slam. If after 1C-P-1S-P- 4S The player with the long spades may take the view that he is looking at two diamond loosers and pass, which is what I did. Stopping at 5S is explained by a RKCB sequence where the reponse to 4NT is 5♣ showing 0 or 3 key cards and the 4NT bidder signs off on the basis that parter has no controls.

My prefered bid over 4♦ is 4NT rather than 4♥ because the hand with the long spades is the one that needs take control, as there is no logical way to get over to his partner that he has a void club or 7 spades. Now partner comesback with the joyful news that he holds 3 key cards, and you can now ask about the Q♠ and when partner confirms this you can now bid 5NT confirming that you hold all five key cards. Partner will show his kings and I prefer a system where you show the lowest king, and so in the is case if partner bids either 4♣ or 4♦ the grand is certain because either will take care of the second diamond loser.

The alternative sequence is to cue bid the 4♥ now East cue bids with 5♣ and West shows his second round control with 5♥ and East now bids 5NT. This has to be a  Grand slam force and West can bid 7♠ on the basis of the quality of the suit.