Eight hearts!

Lead: a low spade.

Three teams played this hand tonight, 0-3 on bidding the slam. I'm afraid I'd go 4NT over South's opening 1C. If partner has two aces, you don't care which ones they are. If he bids 5D you can stop in 5H.

Eight more hearts!

Lead: low club

A better lead would be a heart. Make the opponent come to you. In this case the ace was trumped, which allowed declarer to pitch her second diamond on the queen of clubs, finally losing only the king of spades. A spade lead makes it a little harder for South, who now draws trumps, plays the ace of spades and a little spade, then has the ace of diamonds as the entry to the board in order to pitch the extra diamond on the good spade.

Lead: ace of spades

No actual brain cells were injured while playing this hand. Unfortunately for SIX PAIRS, nobody bid the slam. The bid is entirely up to North. North's must jump shift in clubs instead of bidding 2NT, which only shows 12-15 points, perhaps more on the rebid. This shows a 5-5 or a very powerful 5-4 hand, forcing South to raise clubs with her hand nice support. There would be a strong temptation to bid 7 with North's hand, although nobody likes to bid 7 when a finesse is involved. We're so mentally burdened about bidding slam in clubs and diamonds because of our major suit mentality that when a opportunity arises, oftentimes we miss out.

Lead: ace of hearts

East gleefully trumps the ace of hearts, goes to the board with the king of diamonds, plays two hearts and drops two clubs from his hand. All sorts of disasters can start from here. "Oh, I'll just go to the board with the king of diamonds and...." Ruff, ace of clubs. Already down one. Then followed by the top heart, ruffed in hand. Now North still has control of the trumps. Declarer goes down two. Ugly.

Friday evening July 13, 2007

Lead: jack of clubs

"Expert" bidding would start with 1C with this 19-point hand and end up playing some number of spades by South. Imagine a 1C-1S, 3S- bidding sequence. What to do says South. Let's just pass. Instead, most novice/intermediate players would open this hand with 1NT and compensate upward on the next round. It's not exactly a liar-liar-pants-on-fire situation and Rule 40 indicates a player may bid whatever he wants to. If, however, the partnership oftentimes stretches the NT limit to 19 points, then it needs to be announced as such. As it turns out South has five ratty spades and elects to transfer. North can't afford to be idle here, instead choosing to "super-accept" partner's transfer request. South re-evaluates his hand for shortness in clubs and probable solid red suits, then raises to game. Three teams didn't make it to game on Friday.

Friday evening July 13, 2007

Lead: Ace of diamonds.

The advantage of opening the contract with 2C is that West can attempt to glean information before going ballistic with spades. East's bid indicates a five-card suit headed by at least a queen and 8+ points. With fewer points he would bid 2D. Since there were no really relevant questions West could ask at this point, the jump to 4NT was to confirm aces. If a 5C response came back, then West could settle for 5S. Does he know for sure that East has the ace of hearts; no, but there is reasonable assurance. The auction could go 2C-2H, 2S-2NT, 4C-4H, 6S-p. In this sequence the 4C jump by West indicates a club control and the 4H response indicates a heart control (and denies diamond control).