2♠. Your partner makes a weak raise to 2♦: showing four-card diamond support with 6-9 points. Whenever your partnership agrees a minor suit, they should both be aware of the possibility of a no-trump 
contract: new suits are used to show stoppers rather than suggest a different trump contract. With 18 HCP and a five-card suit, game has got to be on the cards, but without a heart stop, it is a little risky to gamble on no-trumps. Instead, you should start by showing the suits in which you have a stop. Bid 2♠, showing a spade stop, but also denying a heart stop. Your partner can respond 2NT to show he has hearts stopped and you can raise to 3NT. It is important that 3NT is played by East or you might lose the first five heart tricks. Played by East, the ♥K is protected on the lead, so you can collect your nine tricks safely.

East Hand ♠ 642 ♥ K7 ♦ KQ92 ♣ 8542

Pass. Your partner makes a weak raise to 2♦: showing four-card diamond support with 6-9 points. You have the dreaded 4-3-3-3 shape, with which I like to downgrade my hand by a full point. Evaluating your hand as 15 points suggests game is beyond you and with the balanced shape, there is no reason to bid on. With your extra strength on this board, you are not so worried about your opponents competing: it is only with weaker distributional hands that you push the bidding upwards.

East Hand ♠ 642 ♥ K7 ♦ KQ92 ♣ 6542

Pass. South opens 1NT and it is your turn to call. How much strength do you need to double 1NT for penalties? A good 15 points or better. How would you evaluate your hand? I hate the 4-3-3-3 shape and like to take a full point off for it, which leaves the hand worth 15 points. Are there any redeeming features to the hand? No tens or nines and all of the points isolated leaves my final evaluation as a ‘bad 15’. Four aces are wonderful in suit contracts, but are worth just four tricks in no-trumps. I would pass and hope that I might just defeat 1NT by disguising my strength. Your partner has 6 HCP but, with the lack of potential in your hand, 1NT is likely to come home even with just 18 HCP – they have all the beef – tens and nines as well as honours working together

East Hand; ♠ K2 ♥ Q95 ♦ 632 ♣ J8765

4♦ . You opened 1♥ , North overcalled 1♠ and then your respective partners supported, creating a very competitive auction. What are your ambitions on the board? 5-5 hands are wonderful if you find a fit – they offer great potential as the declaring side, but are often not so good in defence. If you use the losing trick count, you will be propelled easily to game because you have just 4 losers. Even using the point count system, by evaluating for both length and shortages, you should get towards 20 points which should make bidding game obvious. 4♥  is the natural bid and this does part of the work, but in a competitive auction you need to be aware of what might be around the corner. What are you going to bid over 4♠ ? A jump to 4♦  is a slightly better bid: with hearts agreed, it still suggests game, but should suggest a second suit and leave your partner well placed to judge what to do over an opponent’s 4♠  bid. In a competitive auction when a slam is highly unlikely, a jump like this is more usefully played as showing length rather than shortage. Your partner should go to the 5-level if he thinks you have a double fit, or double 4♠ without. Here, with shortage in diamonds, East does best to double 4♠. There are exactly ten tricks in hearts and probably only nine tricks in spades.

East Hand ♠ 975 ♥ JT32 ♦ J3 ♣ QJ42