Thursday, December 27th

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Board 4: West has an awkward hand: 19 hcp and about 9 tricks, but no major suit and very unbalanced. A 2C opening may work out, but it will be easy to miss 3NT on an auction such as 2C-2D; 3D-? Responder may not be willing to bid 3NT, and the King of spades may be exposed in any case. West may need an entry in partner's hand to finesse a diamond, so the simplest plan is to open 1D and rebid 3NT. This shows a "strong gambling" type hand, not a balanced one.

East responds 1S and thinks for a bit over partner's 3NT. The singleton in partner's suit isn't encouraging, and the spades are not good enough to insist on (opener may well have a singleton or void), so pass is probably safest. I think West must open 2C for the partnership to reach slam; a simple auction might be 2C-2S; 3D-3S; 4S-4NT, etc.

Everything goes right and 13 tricks roll home at spades, diamonds or notrump. Seven spades looks like a good bet but at matchpoints I'd be happy with 6S making 7. Only five pairs reached slam, all at 6D, so no reason to risk the grand slam.

Board 6: East opens 1NT and West can immediately picture slam opposite as little as xxxx Axx Kxxx Ax (perhaps conceding a club.) An old-fashioned forcing jump to 3H would be fine, or transfer and then 3C. A new suit at the three level after Stayman or a transfer is game-forcing. East can simply
confirm support with 3H, or make an "advanced cue-bid" of 3S. This will temporarily sound like no support for hearts, but East plans to bid 4H next.

A reasonable auction might run 1NT-2D; 2H-3C; 3H-4D; 4S-4NT; 5S-5NT; 6C-? 4D is clearly a slam control bid after East confirms heart support; East might bid 4NT himself if playing some form of Key Card Blackwood, but if playing simple Blackwood it's better to cue-bid the sapdes and let partner ask. 5NT confirms all the Aces and 6C denies any Kings. This allows West to count 6 trump tricks, 2 side Aces, 3 top clubs and at least one more club if the suit breaks no worse than 4-2. As one of the long suits might behave badly I'd settle for 6H, hoping to score well if partner makes seven.

South leads the King of diamonds (no point in leading a singleton when the enemy has all the Aces!) East wins and can cash one or two high trumps, pitch a diamond on the Ace of spades, and should then set up the clubs before pulling the last trump. Seven hearts won't make if clubs split worse
than 4-2, and six making seven is odds on and will be worth extra matchpoints against those declarers who pull three rounds of trump, so take a small risk by cashing the two top clubs. When both opponents follow, ruff a club high, ruff a spade back to hand, pull trumps and play clubs from the top. Even at a team game, it's better to leave one trump out -- if you pull three trumps and clubs are 5-1, you have only 11 tricks. If South ruffs the second club he's ruffing "air", and if North has one club and three hearts you were always doomed.

All but one pair reached slam, three bidding the grand; but two of those failed and four other declarers took only 12 tricks, so six making seven was worth a solid 8.5 out of 11.

Board 22: After East and South pass, West may jam the bidding with 2D, or go quietly after glancing at the unfavorable vulnerability. Over 2D, North doubles, South bids hearts and North leaps to game. If West passses, North has a borderline 2C opening -- excellent controls but not much in the
way of tricks. I'd settle for one heart. South might pass (deducting one as responder for no Ace or King), but with four trumps I think South should raise. North, of course, bids game.

On that bidding East counts partner for no only about 4-6 points, so an aggessive lead in either minor seems too risky. I'd punt with a trump; from three small this will not often blow a trick and the auction does not suggest a threating side suit in dummy. Declarer pulls trumps, cashes three spades and exits with a diamond. A club to the Queen at some point and a club ruff will produce eleven winners, good for 7.5 out of 11 matchpoints.