AL78

IMP pairs: [hv=pc=n&s=sat4hk85dkj43ck95&n=sq82hat72d762ca73&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp1nppp]266|200[/hv] LHO leads the ♣6, 4th highest. Plan the play.

This hand came up at IMP pairs earlier this evening. I was playing with a partner I have not played with since before the pandemic, and she hasn't played for a couple of months so was a bit anxious when we were discussing Lebensohl and multi-Landy earlier in the week. ♠AQ862 ♥KT98 ♦A8 ♣93 The agreed system is Benji Acol, weak NT. At green vuln, LHO passes, partner opens 1♠, RHO passes. You have not discussed Jacoby 2NT and it isn't on your card. What do you respond?

It looks like a combination of a trump coup and an endplay. If East ruffs high, declarer discard from hand and East is endplayed. If East ruffs low, declarer overruffs cheaply and plays a club and East is forced to ruff his partner's winner, then declarer makes the last trick with the trump ace. It is a bit like when you learn squeeze play for the first time, you learn that you need to rectify the count so that you have one loser, yet some squeezes (e.g. a strip squeeze) operate on two or more losers.

I'm not sure what is going on in this auction. Partner can show you spade support at the three level but not at the two level in the previous round of the auction? Opponents blast to slam on not very many HCP? You have shown a strong Michaels hand in the auction, and partner has decided on that basis to punish the opponents. Trust partner. The only thing I can think is that EW have a diamond fit and one of them has a club side suit, and each hand has a singleton or void in one of the majors, which would mean with a huge minor two suiter they may come close to slam, but if that was the case, NS have a huge major two suited fit, which is inconsistent with North's silence on the second round of the auction. More likely someone at the table belongs to the I-will-not-defend club.

As you work through the deals and move onto more advanced levels, the theme of thinking about issues with blocked or potentially blocked suits, and what to do about them, comes up repeatedly, and they often require non-intuitive plays at trick one, which means you have to think through the play of the whole hand before you play from dummy.

Firstly, you need to win the opening lead with the ♣A. This guarentees communication with dummy and the long diamonds in case the defence have the ability to hold up until the third round (which they will if the diamonds are 3-0). Secondly, don't try to cross to dummy and finesse in diamonds. Just play the ace and keep playing on diamonds until the defence take their king. The defence cannot stop you making your contract, you will soon get in to cross to the ♣K and cash the rest of the diamonds, which brings you to nine tricks.

1NT - 2♣ 2♦ - 3♥ I don't agree this was invitational in pre-transfer Acol. If it was, what was opener supposed to do with a minimum hand with a small doubleton heart? I would have played that sequence as GF, asking opener to choose between 3NT or 4♥ depending on whether or not they have support.

Win ♥Q. Play on trumps. When defence take their ace, win the return, draw all trumps, cash ♦AKQ. If they are 3-3 or JT come down or West shows stiff T or J I have my 12th trick (via a marked finesse if necessary). If that doesn't gain, cash my remaing heart winner(s) and watch the discards (I am counting the opposing distribution on the play of spades and hearts as well). There are two possibilities: 1. Either defender holds the club queen and the outstanding diamond and is squeezed. 2. The club finesse works. I cannot say for sure what I would play for as it depends on the count of the hand so far, and I am not great at working out probabilities where multiple suit layouts need to be considered. If someone starts squirming on the last heart winner, that might sway me toward the squeeze, and the mark of the club expert is to go down on a failed squeeze attempt whilst everyone else takes the boring finesse which works.

This is s decent structure and is close to what I play in a regular partnership (without the mixed raise and 2NT showing a raise). One issue I see with this is if you remove 2NT as a natural bid and cue bids guarentee support, what do you do with invitational values and a flat hand with no 5 card suit and no direct support? I have heard the idea that 2NT is never natural in a competitive auction but I am not convinced about it.

If you test the clubs, you'll find them 3-2. The hands I posted are a slightly adjusted version of a real deal in order to make East a danger hand where finessing hearts into a stiff honor will make you go down in an otherwise cold contract. The actual deal was this: [hv=pc=n&s=saj42h92dj74ckq96&w=s65hqj8753dq2c543&n=skq7hakt6da6cat82&e=st983h4dkt9853cj7]399|300[/hv] In the actual deal, a diamond lead isn't a threat since the jack is a second stop, hence I adjusted it so that NS have only one stop and asked the question, do you go for the extra overtrick playing for both heart honors to be with West?

Typical club players (whatever that means) who would happily open with your hand vulnerable in third. What is the chance of partner finding a TOX in the pass-out seat when you are holding a 20 count over a weak two opener? This wasn't me playing, it was one of my regular partners playing with a less experienced player.

[hv=pc=n&s=saj42h92dt74ckq96&n=skq7hakt6da6cat82&d=e&v=b&b=10&a=pp2h3nppp]266|200[/hv] 2♥ is a weak two. My question is, at MPs, lets say you got the ♦5 lead, 4th best and the defence knock out your ace (West will play the queen on the first round and the nine on the second round if you duck). When it comes to playing the heart suit, would you be willing to play West for both heart honors and go for 12 tricks, taking the risk that East could have a stiff honor and run diamonds against you?

East was one of my partner's who was playing with someone else here. She decided to penalty pass and was soon writing -560 on the scorecard. The full deal: [hv=pc=n&s=sk3h53dt943cat754&w=sahkj86dk8765cq62&n=sqjt96haq74dajc98&e=s87542ht92dq2ckj3&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=p1d1sppdppp]399|300[/hv] A spade partscore by North was the popular result, most making eight tricks. Only one contract played EW direction, 3♦ going one off for a very good result.

Matchpoints, game all. [hv=pc=n&e=s87542ht92dq2ckj3&d=s&v=b&b=7&a=p1d1sppdp]133|200[/hv] 1♦ shows at least four. Your call?

In the OP the overcall showed 5+/5+ in the majors, so I don't think it is necessary to have a Stayman bid incorporated into Lebensohl in this situation (are you ever going to want to play in a major if you know they are breaking 5-0?). Maybe use the cue bids instead to show/deny a stopper in that suit and ask partner to bid 3NT if they have the other suit stopped. Maybe we are getting a bit too technical for the beginner forum, and the primary objective in a competitive auction is to be on the same wavelength.

2NT is a puppet to 3♣, one of the uses is for responder to compete in a part score with a weak hand and a long suit. 2NT puppet followed by 3♦ means "I want to play in 3♦", so opener must pass. In the posted deal, opener has a perfect fitting hand and 5♦ has good play, but the 4-0 break means it is off if you cash the wrong diamond honor first (there is no way to strip East of side suits and endplay them in diamonds).

I would not have bid 3♠ on the East cards. The hand has nothing extra to justify making another bid in a non-forcing situation. Surely West is going to bid on if they have the expected invitational hand.

I'm inclined to pass. Partner has shown a six card suit in which I am void and opponents have overcalled in my six card suit which is better than theirs. Screams misfit, let the opponents play the misfit hands.

At some point yes, teaching them the constructive part of bidding is only teaching them half the system. It is a question of whether you will have time in 8-10 weeks after teaching them the fundamentals, which will depend on how quickly the students grasp things.

I think somewhere in there you should cover the logic of whatever system you are teaching them. You should explain the scoring, i.e. games, part scores, and cover categories of hands i.e. weak, intermediate, and strong, and how the combined strength of the two hands determines where the auction is going. People love to categorise things. That leads on to the concept of weak, invitational and strong, and how the bidding system is structured around showing those hands. Thus if partner is showing hand strength A, and you have hand strength B, A+B means bid game or stop in a partscore, and which game/partscore is dependant on whether or not you have a suitable trump suit (e.g. 8 card fit).

I'm playing (trying to) that with a couple of partners, but in the UK weak NT land I play double as penalties. The only issue I find with multi-Landy is there are several continuations where responder wants to force which I struggle to remember on account of the fact that the convention comes up a single digit number of times a year.

Yes, I would expect partner to do something other than a non-forcing I-want-to-play-here-if-you-have-diamonds bid with a hand where 3NT is on if I hold a decent Astro hand.

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to put the scoring, it was MP's and a fairly weak club field. The full deal: [hv=pc=n&s=st752ha98dq62ca32&w=s6ht753da754cq754&n=s93hkqj642dj98c98&e=sakqj84hdkt3ckjt6]399|300[/hv] This was a friend of mine and her partner, East bid 3♠ which became the final contract, +2, 18%. I don't know whether or not North overcalled 2 or 3♥ (I don't think I would at red against white and flat shape), but if not, I was wondering if 4♠ or 3♣ would be suggested on here. It looks to me like even with a minimum response, there is a good chance one of the four losers will be covered, and it is hard luck if the 6-7 HCP are all in hearts, so I would have probably bid 4♠. 6♣ is there but you are unlikely to find that.

♠AKQJ84 ♥- ♦KT3 ♣KJT6 1♠ - 1NT ? 1NT is 6-9 HCP. Your call?

From the EBU blue book section , level 4 "7C Opening Bids from 2♣ to 3♠ inclusive 7 C 1 General, including ’Multi’ style opening bids These may be played as one or both of (a) and (b) below (a) Any meaning or meanings as long as they all show a strong hand (16+ HCP, or 12+ HCP with at least 5 controls), and/or (b) At most one from the following four options: (i) One or more meanings which all show at least four cards in the suit opened, or (ii) One or more meanings which all show at least five cards in the same one specified suit, or (iii) One or more meanings which all show at least 4-4 in the same two specified suits, or (iv) Any combination of meanings that show either or both of 1) At least five cards in a suit, specified or not, which must not be the suit opened, and/or 2) At least 5-4 in two suits, either or both of which may be specified or not, but both of which must not be the suit opened. Notes: (1) A ‘Benji’ 2♣ or 2♦ opening (or any other opening with a similar meaning) which may have ‘eight playing tricks’ in any suit must by agreement satisfy (a) above. If the minimum strength does not, by agreement, satisfy (a) above the long suit (or suits) may not be the suit opened (in accordance with (b) (iv) above). ... (5) It is permitted to open (say) 2♣ to show an unspecified long suit that is not clubs under (b)(iv) above. If such an opening may contain (for example) a solid eight card major with little outside this should be clearly described and not called simply, ‘Strong’ or ‘Acol’." This does imply in England at least you are allowed to open 2♣ to show a hand like this at level 4+, but you must disclose the agreement that it could be a long solid suit with little outside.