This deal should be played in a slam by all the pairs, but half of them didn’t bid it. If you can’t reach a slam holding these cards you should discuss why not with your partner.

Most people will be playing a narrow point range for a 2NT opening bid, usually 21-22. An alternative is 2C which usually shows a minimum of 22 points. The advantage of the 2NT opening is that it describes the point count accurately and also the fact that the hand is balanced.

Depending on partnership agreement there are various ways of responding holding the West hand, but a direct bid of 3S will usually show a positive response of 8+ points and at least a 5 card suit. East can jump to a key card Blackwood bid of 4NT which by implication agrees spades as trumps and asks for Key cards: West has two so bids 5H to show them. East will probably bid the slam directly at this point either 6S or 6NT; the latter to take advantage of duplicate scoring with the knowledge that the partnership holds the top two cards in all four suits so even if there is a bad split in one suit it should be possible to negotiate it.

¹ Positive response, forcing, showing at least a 5 card suit

² 2 Key cards

Results

3NTE +4; 4SE +3 (twice); 6SE +1 (twice); 6NTE +1

N-S 1^st Dianne & David Long………..57.9% 

        2^nd G Dempers & L Kolesky……56.4%

E-W 1^st P Brown & M Banks…………62.5%

        3^rd J Tagg & E Jurgensen………51.3%