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Board 7: West has choice of opening 1S or 1D. With such strong diamonds and fairly weak spades, I'm inclined to open the longer suit.With these 6-5 hands, ask yourself if you are comfortable bidding the major at a high level if the opponents preempt in your shortest suit; here, I'm willing to bid spades over any club bid.
North should preempt 3C at this vulnerability and East is strong enough to chime in with 3H; the diamond fit helps. This bid should be treated as forcing; East's hand is unlimited. With four trumps and a singleton, South should leap to 5C. Who knows who can make what, but 5C is apt to either make or be a good sacrifice.
West wonders if he should've opened 1S after all, and whether his side has slam. He has too much unrevelaed shape to consider defending 5C; partner may have stretched his 3H bid in competition but should have something useful. 5S will probably find the proper strain but risks doing so at too high a level, so I would settle for 5D as West. North has already told his story and has nothing to add. East wonders if 5H or 6D would be better; add the ten of hearts and I would rebid the suit, but I would pass 5D rather than guess to raise with no Ace or rebid the hearts which could be a misfit.
As it happens, E/W have an incredible triple fit, but the 5-0 spade break is disastrous with such weak trumps. Five of either red suit scores well. On this kind of wild auction, I'm glad I bid my strongest suit rather than the shorter and weaker major. On another day, of course, spades would be the magic place to play.
Board 11: West's hand is too strong for a weak two, with three first round controls, a four-card major and good intermediates. It's a classic Goren 13 count or "Rule of 20" one diamond opener. The aces should please partner at any contract while the diamonds provide a good source of tricks.
East makes a disappointing but not surprising response of 2C, and West rebids diamonds to limit his hand. If East had hearts, he would bid them sooner or later so West need not fear to lose the major. Over 2D, East tries 3NT.
North may have overcalled in spades, which takes South off a guess for the lead. Failing that, South likely leads his fourth-best heart. Assuming a spade lead, East can hope for 5 diamond tricks, 2 spades, a heart and a club. The key is to have an entry back to diamonds once they are established. Ducking the spade might allow an inspired switch to clubs, so East should win the first spade with the King and run the Queen of diamonds. Normal technique would be to lead a low diamond toward the Queen, but there aren't enough sure entries for that line. Running the Queen will work if South has either or both diamond honors, roughly a 75% chance.
South covers the Queen, dummy takes the Ace and East leads another diamond to establish the suit. North wins and continues spades; East has a problem -- win and he can't afford to lose a heart to either defender, or hold up and he may not have an entry to the diamonds. Not everyone will be in 3NT so East should go all out to make 3NT which means holding up and hoping. North knows that leading another spade lets declarer into dummy, but he also knows the Queen of hearts is a probable entry. A club switch could hand declarer his ninth trick if he has the Queen. I expect North would lead another spade. Declarer cashes the diamonds, pitching clubs, and leads the Queen of hearts -- he needs South to have the Ace (North has the setting tricks in spades) and he needs an entry to the Ace of clubs. Whether South wins or ducks, the Jack of hearts drops on the next round and East scores his game.
Five diamonds also succeeds as long as West does not guess to finesse the wrong way against the Jack of hearts.
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