3♠.

Your partner opens 1♠ and South doubles for take-out. Holding a weak hand with 4+ spade support, you must bid spades – your job is to make it difficult for your opponents to enter the auction. South wants his partner to bid his best suit and you do not want him mentioning hearts. Just 7 HCP, but you do have a singleton: against that you have an aceless hand that should slow you down. However, when deciding between a raise to 2♠ and 3♠ after a take-out double, you should always opt for 3♠ because of its pre-emptive value. You hope that 3♠ will win the auction because North might find it difficult to bid 4♥ when vulnerable – he will not have too much strength after all.  

East Hand ♠ AJT32 ♥ 762 ♦ K92 ♣ A7

3♣.

Your partner rebids 2NT which, in modern Acol, shows 18-19 points. Any bid from you now is forcing to game, which means that you can discuss the best option rather than having to guess. You would like to play in a spade contract if your partner has three-card support, but rather than simply rebid spades, you do best to make your natural rebid in your second suit to make the situation clear: 3♣. Your partner will be worried about diamonds now, but his first duty is to show his delayed spade support and you would end in 4♠. The strong 2NT rebid gives you room to explore, rather than a 3NT rebid which ends the auction. 3NT would have failed on a diamond lead, whilst 4♠ should make comfortably on a normal trump break.

East Hand ♠ K54 ♥ AQJ3 ♦ 84 ♣ AKQ9

4♣.

Your partner has raised to 3♦ showing 10-12 points and 4+ diamonds but also denying length in either major. When a minor is supported, then both members of the partnership should have aspirations towards no-trumps and all their bids will be directed in that direction until they get to the 4-level (above 3NT). Bearing in mind the above, the most sensible bid with your hand is a cue bid which expresses your desire to play in diamonds right away: 4♣. This would suggest a distributional hand which was not interested in playing in 3NT but was very interested in trying for slam. Your plan will be to follow up a cue bid from partner with a 5♣ cue bid which would suggest a void in clubs. Your partner would bid 4♥ on this hand and over 5♣, he should go for the slam, with his control in spades.

East Hands ♠ K76 ♥ A2 ♦ QT943 ♣ T8

Pass.

What does your partner’s 2♥ bid mean? Not an easy one this one, because North’s 1NT overcall disrupts the meanings of all your bids. Had your partner been strong, he should have doubled 1NT for penalties, which means all the 2-level responses show weaker competitive hands. 2♥ means that your partner thinks playing in 2♥ will give your side the best score – you should pass unless you have a very long suit or extremely distributional hand. No-trump bids define a player’s hand accurately and once they are bid (from either side) many of the meanings of subsequent bids are different.

East Hand ♠ 76 ♥ KQT973 ♦ J74 ♣ T8