The power of 1NT

Lead: ace of clubs

What would you bid as West over South's 2S? Gamble with 3H and go down 3? How about 3C? Also down three. 2NT? Down five! South gets the first six spade tricks then shifts to a diamond. It gets ugly. On the other hand, three spades makes if EW screws up their clubs. If West cashes and leads his third club to East, who then returns a fourth club and South is pickled and is forced to trump high. Discarding a heart does no good. By trumping high the defenders promote either the ten or jack to a winner, down 1.

Good competitive bidding.

Lead: jack of spades.

East's jump to 3S over North's 2D overcall shows a preemptive hand, not a strong jump-shift. The NS score of -100 will be a top board if non of the other teams decide to compete. Four spades is cold. If EW go to 5S, they'll be down one--darned if you do, darned if you don't.

Tough to bid

Lead: jack of spades.

Agreed, this is hard to bid. With his king of clubs, West would rather be playing the contract. South will make the decision-making a whole lot easier if he leads the ace of clubs; in which case West wins the return, then carefully utilizes all three of the board's trumps to ruff diamonds, clears hearts in two rounds and claims with the good spades.

North finally gets to use a splinter bid!

South needs to recognize partner's 3S bid for the splinter it is. Splinter bids don't come up very often; a limit raise or better in opener's suit, 13+ points and shortness in the bid suit. West's annoying 2S bid is simply ignored. East's equally annoying 4D bid does place the ace of diamonds for South, who is really only concerned with club controls; thus the four spade bid tells North "I have spades stopped and I'm interested in slam." North has to figure South has diamonds under control and bids 5C to show the ace of clubs. South jumps to slam and is very pleasantly surprised to find the A-K of clubs. As it turns out, even a sleepy declarer can't lose this slam with West's only heart being the pitful 2.

NT better than a suit.

Lead: nine of clubs.

South's first reaction should have been to use Stayman instead of transferring; 1NT-2C, 2H-2S,
2NT-3H. North can now place South with five spades and four hearts. If North opts for 3NT he'll be pleasantly surprised when he gets four hearts, two clubs, three diamonds and a couple of spades for 11 tricks and a 660. 4H on the other hand also can make five, but it's only worth 650. In the back of your mind if you're torn between two choices, opt for NT.

A good partnership.

Lead: King of diamonds.

While this was a low-end jump shift (15 points), they were a good 15 points with four quick tricks. There was no way to splinter since the hand's shape didn't allow it. The four diamond bid was cuebid for controls, as was North's 5C bid. Without the control in clubs North would bid four hearts and the auction would be over. It never hurts to get lucky in bridge. North's lead of the jack of hearts was covered and all of the honors fell on the same trick! Play was routine with the top three spades, top two clubs, the ace of diamonds and seven heart tricks--rack up 1010!

In this case hearts are better than NT.

Lead: two of hearts

East's only opportunity to show his spades would be at 2S, but you can't fault him for showing a nice six-card suit at 2H. West on the other hand should take things slower by bidding 2NT instead of 3NT, which would allow East to bid 3S to show a strong second suit; who in turn might bid 4S only to find themselves in a horrible game try with lots of things to trump and not enough soldiers to throw at the relentless defense. Why should this contract end up in hearts? Bad shape. It's better to be in a 6-1 than a 5-2 or 4-3. At least declarer knows it's unlikely he'll lose control of the suit. East goes on a ruffing campaign after cashing both aces and losing a club, eventually taking ten tricks. NT played by West on the other hand doesn't fare as well, barely scraping by with 9 tricks. If West tries to develop the hearts he'll go down one; instead he needs to concentrate on a second trick from clubs before the defense can cash the diamonds.