Sunday, January 8th 2012

Right-click here for hands.

Board 19: South opens 2C with  his 27-point monster (adding one for all four Aces) and North replies 2D (negative, waiting, or semi-positive) or 2H (steps) according to style. South bids 2S; this is 100% forcing. North raises to 3S, showing support and at least one slam control (the King of diamonds, in this case.) (With a fit and no Ace, King or singleton, but some values (such as a pair of Queens) North should raise straight to 4S.) It's easy to visualize 12 or 13 tricks opposite as little as xxxx xxx Kx xxxx, so I think South is justified in driving to slam. Add the Queen of hearts to that and 13 tricks are practically on ice, so South should give the partnership a chance to bid a grand slam. 4NT, Blackwood or RKCB, may seem pointless when South has everything; but his 5NT follow-up tells partner the good news and invites seven. (Billy Miller wrote about this a few minths back in the Bulletin.) On today's hand, of course, North has little to spare and merely replies 6D to show one King or perhaps that specific King (a popular treatment among RKCB bidders.)  This still leaves two possible losers (the third heart and fourth diamond) so South settles for 6S. 6NT would be risky as South may need to ruff a red card for his 12 trick.

As it happens the Queen of hearts falls doubleton and South rolls 13 tricks at either spades or notrump, but six spades making seven scores 6.5 out of 8 and it isn't worth the gamble to try for a top with 6NT or 7S.

Board 24: 2NT by North looks routine with his balanced 20, but I'll admit I disliked the small doubleton and opted for 1C instead. There's little risk of missing game if partner passes 1C. Reaching slam should be automatic after 2NT -- South adds 20+13 and should drive to six. The obvious approach would be to transfer into spades (3H) and follow with a leap to 6D, offering North a choice of slams. Another would be 3H-the-4D, forcing; when North shows a preference for spades South can continue with 4NT (Blackwood or RKCB) and bid 6S after determing that only Ace is missing. Or wait -- 33 hcp should be enough for 6NT; with a sure loser, 6S won't score an overtrick, so at matchpoints 6NT is appealing. Surprisingly, only 4 pairs reached any slam, and two went down, so 6S with South's unbalanced hand was a sound choice.

East leads the Jack of hearts, hoping his J10 will combine with something in partner's hand to set up a trick or at least not give one away. Assuming South showed his 2-suiter, it would not be safe to lead a diamond or trump. North counts 5 spade tricks, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and 2 clubs, so he should simply pull trumps and play clubs until he drives out the Ace or scores two tricks in the suit.