Sunday, February 27th

Right-click here for hands. 11 tables for a normal game -- Sunday afternoon is getting popular!

Board 6: South is too strong for a 15-17 notrump and so opens 1D or 1C according to style. North responds 1H and South's hand is at the upper end of a jump raise, 3H. (4H would be reasonable if partner is known to have sound responses, but most players these days strain to bid a major over partner's minor.) North's hand is Aceless, but only 7 losers and partner's jump suggests 6 cover cards. A good guide to visualization is to try and construct a "perfect minimum" for partner's bidding that would make slam a laydown; 4 Aces alone would justify South's jump, and would not insure 12 tricks. Axx AQxx Axxxx x ? That works opposite North's K10x KJ10x KQxx Jx, but it seems unlikely South would be so short in North's shortest suit. All-in-all, this looks like a good hand to settle for game. As the cards lie, multiple slams make double-dummy, but requires guessing and finessing in both red suits.

Board 18: East's 4-7 "swan" is an odd collection; a good 10 hcp could argue for a simple 1H opening, but East's points are aceless and "quacky" (Quack = Queen or Jack, generally overrated by the point count when not balanced by Aces and Kings). The practical choices are pass (because of the good spade support), 3H or 4H; the vulnerability makes 4H tempting but since East has both majors 3H may be the best call.

South's void in hearts argues for an aggressive double, but only 11 hcp and no Ace justifies passing. West can guess partner is short in clubs and raise to game, but I can't see bidding any higher without seeing partner's cards. I can't justify anyone bidding over 4H, but clearly a lot of competitive bidding took place.

East ruffs the opening club lead, ruffs a diamond, trump to hand, ruff another diamond, another trump to hand and then try the spade finesse for 13 tricks. Some hands are magic.

Board 19: A weak two by South is not my style with 5 hcp, a Jack high suit, side five card major and a void, but for some players "anything goes" when not vulnerable vs vulnerable. I've always felt a weak two is not effective when treated as a pure preempt, so I prefer a semi-constructive style with preemption as a side benefit.

If South passes, West may open a gambling 3NT, showing a solid 7 or 8 card minor with no more than a queen outside. But West has 9 potential tricks and 12 hcp, so a normal 1C opening is reasonable, however, West has no obvious way to describe his hand later, so I'd probably opt for the "heavy" 3NT. East likely passes rather than chase a slam that requires both an extra club and a side queen. A diamond lead would limit West to 11 tricks (removing his entry before he can unblock the hearts) but the usual defense against gambling 3NT calls for North to lay down an Ace to look at dummy (this is relatively safe since the Ace probably isn't covering anything in declarer's hand.) Here, however, that insures 12 tricks for West.

If South opens 2H, a good defense is "Leaping Michaels", where West could jump to 4C or 4D to show a two suited hand with the bid minor and the other major. That frees the 3H cue-bid for a hand like West's that want to be in 3NT if partner can stop hearts. Again, reaching slam looks unlikely.

If West simply overcalls 2H with 3C, East bids 3NT and now West (knowing partner must have a good hand) can plausibly bid slam; I'd opt for 6C since spades might be wide open.

Board 22: A good sequence for E/W would be 1NT-2D (transfer); 2H-3D (second suit, game forcing);
3H (showing support)-4NT (RKCB)-5C (0 or 3 key cards). West can be sure East does not have zero Aces, and with two sources of tricks 6NT may be safer than 6H. 12 tricks are easy after knocking out the Ace of hearts.

Baord 25: North opens 1H, planning a strength-shwoing reverse to 2S over partner's expected 1NT. But South has 16 hcp; the traditional response would be 3NT (flat 16 or 17) but many pairs bid 3NT with 13-15 and exactly 3244 shape. (Personally, I prefer 13-15 4333, a more awkward hand to bid than 3244 in my opinion.) If nothing else South can simply bid 2C, game-forcing in the popular 2/1 style. North proceeds with his planned 2S; does that still show extras? Most experts play a rebid of the major after a 2/1 bid may be any minimum hand without a good rebid, not promising 6; and so 2S (or 3C or 3D) would show extra strength. Discuss this with partner; simply agreeing "2/1 Game Force" leaves auctions like this undefined as expert styles differ. But in any case 2S might be a good 15 and so does not fully describe North's powerhouse.

South is encouraged by the 2S bid but simply follows with his plan of delayed support, 3H. North can picture something like Kx KQx xxx Axxxx for an easy 12 tricks barring very bad breaks, and should try for slam with a 4D cue-bid. This covers South's weak spot and with his undisclosed extra strength South can proceed with 4NT, North shows 3 key cards or Aces, and South bids 6H. 6NT is better but hard to bid since neither player was able to fully disclose his high card strength.