13 tricks? Off 2 aces, king and 2 queens?

Cue 80s reference, I love it when a plan comes together.
My partner and I bid to a reasonable 3NT game. And after J♠ lead I'm happy to see partner's diamond suit and club entry justifies my trying to play for 9 trick in NT vs passively playing for 9 tricks in a minor.
 

Now, I pause to consider the layout and my winners. I have the KQ spades, so I figure that opps will win the Ace in North and return the spade; ridding me of spade stoppers. I can take 7 diamonds tricks if diamonds are not 3-0 split and the AK♣ . WooHoo, bringing home the contract. This would be a good board as most of the field would play this in diamonds, my gamble is going to payoff.
I call the spade from dummy and don't get the Ace in the North, winning with my Q♠. I pause to think and reach the conclusion that South must have led from the AJTx or AJTxx holding in spades. Is that any more dangerous than my initial line of play? No it's not. I still need QT3♦ not to be all in the same hand. I play the diamond from hand to the Ace, both opponents follow. Yippee, this contract makes. I run the diamonds, taking note of opps discards. This is important, always pay attention even when you are excited to run off your contract. Let's look at the discards:

Trick 3: North pitches club
Trick 4: spade and heart
Trick 5: club and heart
Trick 6: spade and club
Trick 7: spade and heart
Trick 8: club and spade

Now, we've run our diamonds for 8 tricks (7 plus the initial spade), the A♣ is our game trick, plus will have the K♣ in our hand for 1 overtrick. But, let's count what's been pitched and what we know from the opening lead. South must have lead from AJTx of spades. He's thrown 3 hearts, spade and a club. He should still have the AT spades and 3 other cards. North, having one more card to pitch, has thrown 3 clubs, and 3 spades. That means he started with 4 spades and 1 diamond. We just might have squeezed the opponents in clubs as they have to try keep AT♠ and the AK♥ between them. I play the A♣ and a club back to my hand and viola the Q♣ drops. Making all 13 tricks, that was fun!

Note, this isn't real brilliant play on my part, simply a fortunate circumstance developing from my opponents underleading their ace and discarding a suit that they should have kept (discard a further heart from North instead of the last club and I don't get all the tricks. However, in a large field, only a few pairs managed to consider bidding 3NT after partner's jump raise in Diamonds and those pairs had the 'misfortune' of an opponent that laid down their Ace one opening lead to just make 10 tricks.

 

--GigglyPig

Duck Duck Goose

Always fun when you can sucker the opponents into a losing line of play.
Opponents reach a reasonable contact after a 1-2-3 NT bidding sequence. Traditional defensive play in a auction like this is to attack the majors, West has shown that they don't have 4 cards in either major and a 1NT opener is less likely to have a 5-card major, although that is becoming less likely in modern bridge NT practices. I choose not to lead away from either of my major suit Ks as that is more likely to give the declarer his A and Q and I'd rather try use my Kings to cover Queens.

I choose to lead from the QJT2 of clubs as a safest way out of my hand, keeping the option of getting my Ks. Declarer wins the club and starts on the heart finesse. I could win the K♥ right now at trick two, but I see the K is not going away. If I duck the Jack here, declarer will think his finesse is working. I can see limited entries to the dummy, so let's make declarer burn one to repeat the finesse. He crosses back to dummy with the A♣ and you can see he's now down 1. Losing the heart finesse to my K♥, my J♣ and partner will score the A♦ (with her signal on the J helping me switch) and we have a eventual spade winner too.
This falls into feeding opponents greed. Declarer thinks he can pick up all hearts for overtricks. If after winning the J♥, simply cash the Ace and surrender to the King, he'll make the contract easily. Would you have been willing to forgo the chance at overtricks to guarantee your contract?

 

--GigglyPig

Difficult Play for the Top

The ultimate thrill in Bridge is to get a top for finding a great line of play nobody else seems to find.
In this hand, my partner and I play an unusual system with big hands called Mile High 2♦. This is similar to what most SAYC and 2/1 player use the strong 2♣ bid for. In this auction, 2♦ shows a big hand, and 2♠ by partner shows a minimal hand with longer/better spades than hearts. Partner would be 2NT with a strong hand (like 3 Kings) and 3♣ as puppet stayman with game values. Traditional bidding auctions, might go 2♣ with 2♦ waiting and then a jump to 3NT showing 25+HCP. Either way you need to plan the play below for 9 tricks after the heart lead. How would you approach this hand?

Note, Double Dummy says this hand can make easily. However, in a field of 12 other tables, no other pair made 9 tricks. You can count 7 winners in your hand (the 4 aces and 3 kings), opponents lead gives you the Queen of hearts for an 8th (you did decide to go up with Qx in dummy right?). However, potential tricks in dummy seem unreachable.

You have an 8 card spade fit, but after the AK♠  doesn't drop the Queen, how could you get back to dummy? If you tried a classic duck a spade, you are still stuck playing AK♠ in your hand. You could try see if the Q♣ is a doubleton to score the Jack clubs, but that won't work. Finally, you could try play off your spades, hearts and diamonds, throwing opps in and hoping for a club end play to your K9 (dummy having J3). (which works as West will be stuck giving up a trick)

However, you have a much stronger play after winning the Q♥. You have 7 diamonds only missing the QJ (you have all the big ones down to the 7 after those), so you two ways to bring home a diamond trick. Diamonds could be 3-3 and you'll score that 13th diamond. Also, West could have Qxx or Jxx or QJxx and you can finesse it out from him. Play the 10♦ at trick two. If West covers, overtakes you just created an entry in the dummy to work on your spade suit (for plus 2 instead of down 1). If West ducks, let the 10 ride and repeat the finesse. No entry to the dummy for the spades but since West has both Diamonds honors, you get to 10 tricks (plus 1).

--GigglyPig

Puppet Stayman - Both Majors?

Puppet Stayman is a modification of the Stayman convention to help uncover 5-3 suit fits. If you routinely open NT with a 5 card major, Puppet is a very useful convention. People normally play Puppet when they have a known Game amount of values. You will most likely want to play this after your 2NT openers, because, although you may not open your 1NT with a 5-card major, 2NT openers give you less flexibility.
In the auction below, our partnership plays 1NT-3♣ as Puppet Stayman. We reserve this bid for responder hands with at least 10HCP, so that we know we should be in one of the game contracts. 3♣ asks partner about his major suit holdings. The opener can simply describe what he has. If he has a 5-card major, he bids it. If he doesn't have a 5-card, but does have a 4-card major; he bids 3♦. Then his partner, shows which 4-card major (if any) he has by bidding the other major. This is done so that the strong 1NT opener will be declaring. And, if the 1NT opener doesn't have any 4-card major (or 5-card major) he simply goes to 3NT to play. Remember all these bids need to be alerted.

However, what if the responder has both majors after our opener has bid 3♦ in response to the Stayman. How can we find that 4-4 fit and make sure the strong hand is declaring. A simple, but lesser known, part of Puppet Stayman, is that we bid 4♦ in response the 3♦. This tells partner that we have both majors and whichever one he has (or likes better if he has both too) he needs to be at the 4-level.
In the above auction, we reached a good 4 spades contract for a near top board.  Have you discuss using Puppet Stayman with your partner?

--GigglyPig

Bridge Tidbit – What do you lead if Opponents bid 1N-3N?  Let’s dissect what the Responder’s 3NT bid says. I have 10+ HCP and no 4-card major.  So, your first thought should be to lead a major.  If you have 4 cards in one major and 2 in the other major, which do you lead? It is obvious, the one with only two (or even one).  Why? Because your partner probably has 5+ cards in that suit.  Opener generally will have no more than 4, Responder no more than 3, and the two or 1 you can see in your hand?  13-4-3-2 = 4+.  This is called a short-suit lead.  Of course, if you have a strong suit, lead that and ignore this.  

Inverted Minors, bid more when weaker

A popular convention to learn is Inverted Minor Raises, this makes the single raise of a minor a stronger bid. At least 10HCP and enough trump to have an 8+-card fit. Your actual requirement vary, based on your partnership agreement of what you open 1D and 1C with (e.g. do you open 1C with 4432 shape, to guarantee your opening 1D is 4 cards or more). That leaves hands with less than 10HCP (and presumable no 4-card major to show/bid first). With 8-10HCP, you are probably better off trying a 1NT call, but with weak hands, as few as even 0HCP and long support for partner's opening minor, you can jump to the 3-level.
Consider the hand below, partner opens their hand 1D and a pass to you:

You have a miserable 4HCP, but 6 diamonds. You're partner is very likely to have 4-diamonds in their hand and would only have 3 if they started with a 4-4-3-2 shape. You have a 9-card trump fit, another axiom in bridge is the law of total trump. This law indicates that 9-card fits should be able to 'play' at the 3-level with reasonable success (even when short on points). You put in a 3D bid (alerting it appropriately online, remember your partner will alert your bid in F2F play).
The purpose of the Weak/Preempt raise is to put the pressure on your opponents. If you simply pass here because you 'hate your hand', it becomes easy for your opponents to find their club fit and make comfortable club part score. However, look at the pressure you put West here. He has 15HCP points, shortness in diamonds, but not an ideal shape to make a takeout double. If he doubles (most other tables did), he partner responds in hearts, of course). Now, where to go, what to do. With a simple convention, you've throw your opponents in disarray.
This board played about average, as our ops didn't make the Take out double. About as many tables, didn't take a bid in my hand, letting ops get to and make a club part score. Other tables, made the Take Out double and tried 4H going down (and 5C going down). Overall, Inverted minors help you just as much to bid your strong minor raises as to make effective preemptive bids to fluster and hamper the opponents.

--GigglyPig

How doth the little crocodile

An interesting little slam today, after a standard 1♣  opening, my partner jumps into the auction with a Michaels cue bid. We play it to show either a weak (7-11HCP) or strong hand (>15HCP), preferring to make a simple overcall on the higher-ranking suit with an intermediate hand and hoping to rebid the lower suit. Opponents are prepared to handling the interference, biding the lower of two suit my partner shows, which indicates a strong diamond suit and HCPs. Opponents proceed in their auction, end up in the diamond small slam.
After the my lead of the Q♥ , dummy comes down and declarer can see 11 top tricks with two potential club losers:

What a conundrum, without looking at the above line of play, how would you make this slam? As a defender looking at that dummy, how would you defend?
Declarer can guess the Spade finesse is a very unlikely line of play since East bid to show 5-5 in the majors, and West and the Dummy and now shown the top three heart honors, that pretty paints East with at least the K♠. So, how to avoid losing two clubs? South hits on the idea of end playing East, forcing him to give up a sluff and ruff to shed one of his club losers. He knows the hand shape of East. 5-5 in the majors, after winning the lead, playing and ruffing a spade, he leads trump. That shows East has at least 1 diamond. Seems likely East is 5-5-1-2, which might support throwing in East with a club at the end getting the sluff and ruff. He wins the diamond in dummy and returns a spade for another ruff. Back to dummy with the K♥, and now a heart ruff to his hand. One more round of trump, West having the last diamond. East has a hard decision here. He doesn't see the danger of getting end played yet. The winning play is to drop a club right now, however, he knows declarer has been ruffing both hearts and spades, so he dumps his J♠. Declarer has a glimmer of hope, East is now painted with starting with a 5-5-1-2 hand, West showed up with 3HCP in Hearts, East has only 4HCP in both of the majors, that increases the likeliness of a club honor. If there is only one way to make a contract, you must play for it. South plans to ruff the remaining spade to his hand, play the A♣ and a small club. If East has the Club honor and wins, he won't be able to return a club. He'll have to play his heart, which South can dump a club and trump in the dummy.

In bridge, a Crocodile Coup is when the second hand play of an unusually high card prevents partner from being endplayed. Here, if West plays the KC on the trick, he keeps his partner from winning with the queen and getting endplayed. He can return another club and set the contract! Would you have found that play?

How doth the little crocodile
    Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
    On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
    How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
    With gently smiling jaws!

--GigglyPig

Compressed Bergen for the top

My partner and I play Compressed Bergen raises. This is a system that combines the Jacoby 2NT and both traditional Bergen Raises (4-card support 6-9 and 10-12 points) into a single 2NT response. Opener then qualifies what his opening hand strength is and responder can place the contract. In our case we use Losing Trick count, which is a system similar to Goren's High Card Points to determine that highest level contact the side should expect to make.
Consider the hand below:

In this case, opener has typical 1♠  opening hand, and responder has good support (4-cards), two aces and shortness. How strong is this hand? How effective will the (at least) 9 card fit work with 8HCP? With Compress Bergen, he bids 2NT to say 'partner I have 4-card support and at least better than a bust in playing strength'. We make the pre-emptive raise to 3♠  with less than 6HCP and 4-card support (or maybe just pass depending on how pathetic the hand). In my case, also an interesting hand evaluation issue, how does that K♥  evaulate. However, in using Losing Trick Count, I have an 6 LTC hand (missing the A♠ , A♥ , AK♦, and KQ♣ ). Note, I'm not worried about counting that I'm missing the hearts because of the shortness. I bid 3♦ , which tells responder I have a 6LTC hand (3♣  would mean 5 and 3♠  would mean 7 or minimal opening hand). He counts the LTC in his hand and gets LTC of 8. The LTC system suggests that you can expect to take 24 minus you combined LTC total tricks, in this case 24 - 14 = 10. So, the hands should expect to take 10 tricks in Spades.
This allowed us to bid 4♠ , being the only pair that got to game. Note, in this hand, 4♠  can be beaten by a trick. If West leads their 3♦ from KJT3 holding they can score a 4th trick. LTC only suggests and expected number of tricks (much like having 26 combine HCP suggests you can make a game contract). However, would YOU lead the 3♦  from KJT3?

--GigglyPig

Bath Coup

A Bath coup is a type of holdup play that most commonly occurs at trick one. It's named for the city of Bath, England, where it possibly originated from the game of Whist in the 19th century.

 

		Dummy
		♠ 9
West				East
♠ KQT83				♠ 754
		South
		♠ AJ62

West leads the KS and East discourages with the 4S (standard carding) or the 7S (upside down). South attempts a Bath Coup by holding up on the Ace. Should west continue the suit, South will earn two tricks.

 

In the above, hand, declarer ducks the K♦, encouraging opponent to continue diamonds and allowing him to score both the Ace and the Jack. If declarer rises immediately with the Ace, South will eventually get in and lead a diamond through declarers Jxx holding.  WIth the duck of the diamond at trick, one declarer scores and overtrick for a top board.

--GigglyPig

So they doubled Stayman?

When you open the bidding 1NT, you usually feel confident that your side controls the auction. The opponents have many options to interfere designed to screw us up. One of our countermeasures to these nuisance bids is the Lebensohl convention, which allows our side to figure out whether we have their suit stopped.

However, one situation Lebensohl doesn't cover is when opponents double Stayman, a lead-director for clubs. Chances are you have not discussed this case with your partner and when it happens to you; you consider it bad-luck. In the hand below, ops double the Stayman bid for a club lead. With 5 clubs and two entries, West is looking at 3 club tricks and 2 aces. Even with game points, North is doomed in 3NT.

So, when ops double the Stayman, you need to know how to continue. Is there anyway to take advantage of this development? Do you have clubs stopped? What if the responder has a positional club stopper and opener does not? How do you get a major-suit fit played from responder's side so the club doubler is on lead?

Yes, we can turn the tables on the opponents and take advantage of the information they just provided. We should not sit here and take; nor accept it as bad luck. If the opener has a club stopper, they simply respond normally and go from there. Every bid means exactly what it did before and your should Alert the bids as showing a club stopper. So 1NT-(Pass)-2♣ -(Double); 2♥  shows fours hearts AND a club stopper. Not bad, chances are good that opener will end up playing, but with the knowledge that the enemy will not run the clubs suit off the top.

If the opener does NOT have a club stopper, he passes, which should be ALERTed. The pass simply states opener does not have a club stopper. Nothing more. It does not deny (or imply) a major suit. Assuming the next opponent passes, responder has a number of bid choices. If the responder has a weak hand (i.e. garbage Stayman) he follows though with 2♦ , showing a 4-3-5-1, 4-4-4-1 type of shape and opener is in a pass or correct situation. If responder bids 2♥ , he's showing another weak hand with both majors and opener is in a pass or correct situation again. The bid of 2♠  would show a weak invitational hand (7-8HCP) with 5 spades and a singleton somewhere.
Responder can even jump to 3 of a major, which should be treated as reverse Smolen (showing five of that major and 4 of the other)!. If the responder wants to continue the auction (8HCP or more), he redoubles, which opener needs to Alert as a re-initiation of Stayman, but with the tactical responses to come. Here is how opener responds over the redouble. 2♦  shows four hearts, 2♥  shows 4 spades, 2♠  shows no major, 2NT shows both majors and a minimum, 3♣  shows both majors and a maximum. Now responder, who may have a club stopper, can play the major fit from his side and turn the tables on the enemy making him lead from his club holding!

It goes without saying, you really need to discuss this with your partner, do not take for granted that you and your partner are on the same wavelength. There are variations on the above treatments. However, in addition to saving yourself from hopeless situations giving your a bad result. You can turn the tables for a good result and the look of surprise on your opponents faces when you spring this on them is worth something in itself.

--GigglyPig

General

• Rebidding the “supported” suit (Responder’s suit) at the 2-level shows a minimum hand (6-9 points) and could still be only a 4-card suit.
• Rebids below 2-of-Responder’s suit show minimum values (6-9 points) - natural, non-forcing.
  • If Responder supports Opener’s suit, that shows a better fit there than in the “supported suit.” – implying only a 4-3 fit.
  • If Responder bids a new suit this shows 5-cards in this suit and denies a real fit in the “supported suit” – only 4-3 fit.

• Rebids above 2-of-Responder’s suit show invitational values (10-11 points) - natural, non-forcing
  • If Responder supports Opener’s suit that shows a better fit, there than in the “supported suit.” – implying only a 4-3 fit.
  • If Responder bids a new suit this shows 5-cards in this suit and denies a real fit in the “supported suit” – only 4-3 fit.
• Rebids of 2NT are natural, invitational (10-11 points), show a stopper in the opponent’s suit, and have only a 4-3 fit in the “supported suit.”
• Responder can also jump to 3-“support suit) to show invitational values and confirm at least a 5-3 Major suit fit.

• Rebid 4M with a known 5-3 fit in the Major (if no slam interest).
• Rebid 3NT with no fit (only 4-3) and a stopper in the opponent’s suit.
• Cuebid the opponent’s suit with a game-forcing hand that is not sure what to do (no stopper in the opponent’s suit.) This is similar to a Western Cuebid, asking for a stopper.
• Cuebid the opponent’s suit with a hand interested in slam. A later bid of the “supported suit” implies a 5-3 and a slam try, because with only interest in game responder would have just bid it.
• Pass with a game-forcing hand and length in the opponent’s suit. Some partnerships might agree that this can be done with an invitational or better hand.

• 4NT should be Keycard in the “supported suit.”
• Double Jump Shifts (into unbid suits) are splinters showing at least a 5-3 fit in the “supported suit.”
• Pass – with a strong holding in the opponent’s suit and a good hand we can convert the support double to a penalty double.

Responder’s Rebid after a Support Redouble

Conclusion

So many conventions after 1NT, do we need another?

1NT is such a powerful opening bid, is describes the hand quickly. It also allows for partner to use any of many conventional responses to virtually, perfectly place the contract. 1NT opening bids are 58% more likely to get to a making contract than any other low level opening bid. With so many conventions in the players arsenal (e.g. Stayman, Jacoby Transfers, 4-way transfers, puppet stayman, Smolen, etc) do we need another one? In this case, I refer to School House Rock: Convention, Convention what's your function?

 

Traditionally after a 1NT open, responder has only to put their in one of three buckets, minimal 0-7HCP, invitational 8-9HCP, and game (10+HCP). However, hands like the above don't fit that bucket easily. Consider hands of 6-8HCP, but also being 5-4 in the majors. If you know you have a good fit with your partner, your hand evaluation goes up a little bit, however, without a fit, you will be far short of total points to make 2 or 3 NT. Some might, when presented with a 7HCP hand and a 5-card major, simply transfer to that major and pass it there, figuring the percentages that 2-major will score slightly better than leaving partner in 1NT. Gambling Stayman is better solution. In Gambling Stayman, you have a hand 6-7HCP that would normally be stuck between passing partner or the aforementioned transfer and stop. However, you know that if your partner has 4-card opposite your 5-card suit AND a maximum NT opener, you would really like to play in game. In fact, even if he opening a more typical 15HCP hand, having a 9-card fit should play well at the 3-level (law of total trump). So, if you start with a traditional 2♣  (Stayman) bid asking partner to bid his first 4-card (or better) major suit holding, you have a plethora of data and evaluation in front of you. If they bid 2♦  (denying a 4-card major), you simply bid your 5-card suit (and partner will be the captain from there)  Opener should now know that this auction would have likely gone transfer and pass in that major (and that may be what the majority of the field it bidding), With the knowledge of your hand shape, they can leave it (even with a 5-2 fit), try the other major or 2NT based on their hand.  In any case, they can expect to be no worse that the rest of the field will be in a contact and may find a better one. If they bid your 4-card major, re-evaluate your hand. Now you can count your 'shortness' points and decide to make an invitational bid raising to the 3-level. And if partner bids your 5-card suit, you can certainly raise it to the 3-level for partner to bring it to game with any good NT opener.
Be sure to discuss what bidding after Stayman means to your partnership, some may expect a completely different hand after 1NT-2♣ -2♦ -2♥  (or 2♠ )

--GigglyPig

Do you know your 2/1?

In 2/1, partner's bid of a 2-level over your 1-level opener is forcing to game. Have you had discussions if you can stop at 4 of a minor? What about what bid allows opener to show a non-descript minimal hand? In common 2/1, the rebid of your suit is a 'waiting' bid. A common misconception is that it shows 6-card or better length. This is a discussion to have with your partner. What does 2♥  in this auction 1♥ -2♣ -2♥  promise? Not much! In my style, it would mean I'm denying a 4-card diamond suit, still only promising 5 hearts. It also tells partner I have <14HCP. I could still have 4 spade cards, because a bid of 2♠  there would promise extra values, also a bid of 2NT shows extra values. Note, some partnerships do reverse the meaning of 2NT and 2♥  here; 2NT showing a 12-14HCP non-descript hand, and 2♥  showing extras in either length or points. This is a matter of partnership agreements.
Anyway, in this auction, we're rewarded by all the pairs that haven't discussed their understanding and ultimately end up in 4♥  going down 1. You can play though my 3NT here, we reached a 100% board, but that was a gift of opponents not continuing their attack on diamonds, allowing me an overtrick.

--GigglyPig

Double, I mean Double.

What does Double mean after opponents over call with 1NT (15-18HCP)?  In this auction, I double to show partner that we own the major of the points (postive response, can't raise his spades).  This is a great situation to re-evaluate your hand for 1NTx as penalty.  My double shows that we are likely to make 1 or 2 NT and could still reach game if they had a good opener with favorable distribution.  2♥ was a near top in the game, but setting 1NT two tricks vulnerable would have been the nuts.

--GigglyPig

Do you play Q-Ask or did you just write in on your card without discussing?

Have you discussed bidding after you ask for control (RKC, 1430 or Blackwood) and your partner responds.  Usually you now just bid slam at 6 or bail at the 5-level right.  But what about hands that have potential for Grand Slam.  Are you missing them.  In this example, the partnership confused on whether they play Queen-Ask or not.  It is marked on the card, but never discussed.  A bid after 5♣ (showing 1 or 4 key cards) of 5♦ is Queen-Ask.  It is asking partner is they hold the Queen of trump.  If they held 2 control cards, 1430 bidding has 2 bids to show or not show the Queen of trump (5♥ is 2 without Q and 5♠ would be 2 controls with the Q).  After 5♦ asking, partner has three options.  If he doesn't have the Queen, he simply bids the agreed suit at the 5-level (5♥ in this case).  If he does have the Queen of trump, he shows this by bidding the cheapest suit he can with a King.  In this case, 6♦.  This shows the K♦ , Q♥  and denies holding the K♠ .  The final option is if he hold the Queen, but has no King to bid.  He simply bid the slam (6-level) to show that hand.

--GigglyPig

Points, Smoints.  If 6-5 is come alive, what is 7-6?

This is an opener's quandry.  I think there is good cause to simply open this 4♥, however, this hand is a bit too powerful to play for 4♥ opposite any partner strength.  It is techinically a 4 Losing Trick Count Hand (Missing AKQ♥  and Q♦ ) and an opening 4-major bid usually shows a 5LTC hand with 7 or 8 card suit length (and assumes some honor strength in the suit).  For those wondering, ACBL Basic Convention Chart requires opening 1 level bids to be of 'Average Strength'; which is 10HCP and Basic+ chart requires hands to be at least 'Near Average Strength' which is 8HCP.   Or, if the hand mets the rule of 19 (HCP + length of longest two suits is equal or greater than 19).  This hand only has 7HCP (which would be below the designation 'Near Average Strength'), however, 7HCP plus 13 for length in the two suits, means it actually means the rule of 20.

I choose to open at the 1-level to keep my options open for either the heart or diamond slam.  My opponent makes a good defensive overcall in ♣ at the 5-Level.  My partner sees the top two trump in our suit and competes to 5♥.  Other tables, where North makes just a 2-level club overcall have the room to seek and find the 6♥ cold slam here.  However, several other pairs didn't reach the slam and a few allowed North to sacrifice in clubs, so we ended up with a Avg+ board.  For those who follow my line of play here, I bet (but won) on the diamond suit splitting, a safer line of play would be to cross back to my hand after winning the Q♦ with a ruff, ruff a small diamond and then play the AK♥.  This ensures making 6 even with a 0-3 trump split and diamonds splitting 4-2

Do you play Rule of 20?  It was popularized by Marty Bergen in the 90s.  It is a useful style question your should ask your partner, if they would play it and what restrictions they might have.  For example, Rule of 20 plus 2, means you only open Rule of 20 hands if you have 2 Quick Tricks (two Aces, an Ace and 2 Kings, or AK in the same suit).  Some partnerships, won't open Rule of 20 when Vulnerable or maybe just when Vul vs Non Vul opponents.  Others won't do it unless at least 5-5 in the long suits. In any case, this is another discussion you should have with your partners.

--GigglyPig

Watch those discards

In this hand, GigglyPig was playing too fast (a lesson we should all take, is slow down and watch what opponents play)  After, opps get out to their heart tricks, they've taken their 2 hearts tricks, clearing my stopper on the third round.  If West started with 5 hearts (QJTxx), he now has 2 good tricks.  We currently have taken 1 heart trick and need 8 more.  We have 3 more in Spades, 2 more in Diamonds and 1 club.  For a total of 6 tricks, we need to build 2 winners.  We could trick finessing the AQT twice and hope KJ are in East.  We can build a trick in diamonds assuming 3-2 split and perhaps 2 tricks in diamonds with a finesse or both honors tight in the East hand.  Since West is a dangerous opponent being able to take 2 heart tricks if the club finesse fails.  We should concentrate on diamonds.  I started with the KD, West playing small (the 4) and East dropping the Jack.  This is the time to stop and think, review the bidding and cards played.  I didn't do that and continued with the diamond finesse through West.  East gets his now singleton QD and hearts were not split 5-3, but 4-4, so he can cash a heart.  Opps get 3 hearts, 1 diamond and eventually 1 club as the KJ are offside.  Opportunity missed, not seeing to drop the Queen on 2nd round of diamonds to make contract

--GigglyPig