CamHenry

Really? When he starts pitching spades his dummy is JTxxxxx/void/void/KT9, and he's got to find 5 discards. My money's on at least 2 spades... :)

Thinking about declarer's auction: 4N is presumably Keycard, and the fact he's able to bid 7NT means he can tell the difference between the ♦A and the ♠K. He's therefore almost certainly holding the ♠AK. Partner's even hearts means declarer also has even hearts; similarly he has even clubs; so his only possible shape is 3=2=6=2 (since he's shown at least one of each round suit and, by inference, 2+ ♠). He's got 6 diamond tricks, two clubs, two hearts, and two spades. He needs the 13th. If I throw a second club, he cashes the diamonds, a heart, and then either leads up in clubs or cashes the spades, winning in either case. If I throw a spade, declarer can just bang down the AK in full confidence that I've set up his J. I therefore pitch two hearts. Of course, a canny declarer then plays his ♥A, squeezing me once more. If my layout is correctly inferred, the contract's unbeatable. === For the contract to go off, I need partner to have something in spades; in that case I can chuck the spades straight away (e.g. give declarer A/AQ9x/KQJTxx/Ax) and I must keep the hearts. I can't see why declarer would bid 7NT here, though. This is playing for declarer to be either 1=4=6=2 or 1=2=6=4. My third option is to play partner for a falsecard, though why he'd do so here when he knows I may well need the information is beyond me. I trust partner, and pitch the spades. At least I've got a good bit of deduction for the bar afterwards if it doesn't work...

I'm bidding 2♠ but I think pass is an LA for me.

As for the LA's: my guess is pass, a game try, and (at MPs) a blocking raise to 3♠ are all in the frame. I think the last of these is definitely suggested over pass by the UI: if partner's got dross, a confident 3♠ bid may go -100 against their making partscore; while if partner's got the heavy hand there's good chances of making 3 or getting to game after the slow start.

Steve's post said "jump shift to 2♦", which might mean "reverse to 2♠", "jump shift to 3♦", or "jump shift to 3♠". I agree that 2♦ would be about as bad as possible! For me, I'm happy treating this as a dead maximum 3♥ rebid.

I agree. 3NT was the most successful call of the auction, but had the highest chance of turning a decent score into a bad one. Saying it was a good call is, I think, resulting.

I think you mean RHO :-) The main advantage of Acol 2s is that they're very descriptive (played well). I prefer playing them non-forcing; we agree that 9.5 tricks is too many (9 is OK, but only just), and that the hand must have some defensive values (so AKQJxxxx and out is NOT suitable). A change of suit shows at least honour-fifth; a 2NT response promises one trick and no fit; a raise promises 2-card support and a trick somewhere. Of course, given the choice, I find the frequency of weak 2s a great advantage. The main problem with strong 2s is that "they never come up" or "I had 16 points so I had to open a strong 2" (demonstrated by a friend of mine, who opened Qxxxx/AKx/AJ/xxx 2♠).

Yes, if oppo lead a spade and unblock the K. I think even against world-class players that's not, in itself, as much of a risk as the abominable 3NT deserves :)

I'm losing 3 aces, and at least one club. I therefore need to avoid the second diamond loser and avoid losing two clubs. If I play the ♣A now, I'm giving up on RHO having underled KQx(x). That seems daft: if he leads an honour from that holding, he's still only taking one trick; if he's underled Hxx I just have to take the finesse next time. Sure, the club honours could be KQ with W, and E's double is on Axx/Axxx/AJxx/xx, but that's a dubious double at best. I'm playing small, giving W an opportunity to find an exit. If he plays a heart, I win and ruff the last one; I then lead up in spades (starting with the 9, in case it picks up a small honour from W).

That hand does have much less risk of an immediate diamond ruff as well.

My 3NT bid (yes, I was W) was predicated on the fact that (a) we can run to 4♦ if doubled (reasonable enough) and (b) they probably won't double (demonstrably correct) and © since we're NV, we can afford to go -8 against their game. It was proposition © that momentarily escaped my notice as somewhat flawed, compared to the alternative of passing out 3♥... On best defence, of course, we lose 7 tricks (3 ♣, 2♠, and two aces). The -150 is ten too many against their 3♥, assuming they play well enough to make it.

[hv=pc=n&s=sk76ha9865da6ckj3&w=sa9h72dkt9543c972&n=sqj4ht43d872ca865&e=st8532hkqjdqjcqt4&d=w&v=0&b=8&a=2dpp2hpp3dpp3hpp3nppp&p=hthjhah2h5h7h4hqdqd6d3d2djdad4d7h9s9h3]399|300[/hv] All calls natural; 2♦ is weak. Your challenge is to identify the single worst call, or possibly the worst play, that led to EW taking 8 tricks and all the matchpoints.

You don't fancy looking for 6♠ facing Qxxxx/xxx/x/xxxx? Even if partner has a doubleton diamond, a 3-0 split can kill 6♦.

Well, it could gain if he's underlead Kx in hearts :) But yes, good point. I still maintain I prefer covering LHO's club honour.

One such phrasing would be "I felt we had already achieved a number of good boards, and were likely to be leading by 10 IMPs". This doesn't speculate about the reasons for that projected lead, merely that it exists. If anyone got offended at that, I suggest they go and take up something non-confrontational, like watching paint dry...

It seems to me that, when RHO returns a heart, putting the J in can't cost. Also, if he's overtaking the CJ, he's either holding Q stiff, or KQ tight. LHO shouldn't put the J in without another honour, so I think you can read the club position. Isn't it better to play a club up, playing high on an honour from W? That way, you guarantee only one club loser; when E drops the Q you cash the SJ, ruff a diamond back to hand, pull trumps then lose a club. You then have the good T7 to pitch hearts from hand. Also note that this is a safe line: if trumps are 3-1 or better you can ruff the diamond high to avoid an overruff, and if trumps are 4-0 then either RHO shows out (so you can lose the club early) or LHO shows out (so you can safely ruff the diamond low).

I can't agree enough. If we hadn't already promised extras, or if we had the ♦K, I'd consider a 5♥ trump quality invite.

My apologies - yes, I did. Partner alerted it, and when asked (people really do ask about *every* alert around here) described it as a GF raise. I had intended to start cue-bidding on the N hand, but partner keeps forgetting there are ways to look for slam below 4NT. (Except, of course, for Gerber: we've made the agreement "It's NEVER Gerber", but on one occasion the auction 1♥-4♣ was described as Gerber. I had to try quite hard to work out what the ethical call was afterwards!)

With one of my partners, we've agreed that a 5NT opening asks for specific Kings. If partner shows the ♣K, I bid 7♣. That gadget aside, I'd probably open 1♣ - I'm not worried about being left there. I now have a toss-up between 6♠ and 6♣; I think 6♣ is the better bid.

Abstain: I'm not sure I want to be here at either form of scoring. In an uncontested auction, I like the help-suit game try. However, if we're defending a spade contract I really don't want partner leading from Ax in clubs; I don't want him leading a passive diamond in case they can pitch their one heart loser; I want him to lead a heart. I therefore wouldn't have bid 3♣. My hand has negligible defensive values; even if partner has Kx/xxx/Axxx/xxxx (about as defensive as he could be for the bid, I think) they have some play for game. At IMPs, I'm inclined to pass 2♠ and let them make the last guess. At MPs, I'd probably have bid 5♣ straight off. I think they're making 4♠, but no-one knows about 5♠. Give them no room to judge.

[hv=pc=n&s=st9hakq986dt7caq2&n=sa3ht753da962ckj5&d=s&v=n&b=15&a=1hp2n(Good%20raise%20to%203)p4n(Keycard)p5hp6hppp]266|200[/hv] As you can see, 6♥ is pretty much no-play: but if either hand has another club, or if the ♣K is in another suit, or whatever, slam becomes a reasonable contract. Though I'm not very keen on the jump to Blackwood, it seems that any slam try risks getting here on this layout. How should we (a) stay out of slam on this layout and (b) find slam when N has 2=3=4=4 shape, for example? (Or when S has 3=6=2=2 instead of 2=6=2=3)?

Let's see about that last statement. You have K85 QJT J9754 A2 Partner could have QJTx/xx/AK/KJxx, and 3NT is shaky (if they duck the first heart), while 3D makes. Now let's give partner a better flattish 14: Axx/Kxx/AKxx/xxx Here, he's got enough in diamonds that (a) he'll probably bid again and (b) 3NT has a lot of play except on a club lead. Let's try another hand: AJxx/Kx/xx/KQJxx we're missing 4 top tricks, and the SQ is probably offside, but 3NT has play since you can probably knock out the HA early (if they go after diamonds, they're setting up your suit). Partner's likely to correct 3D to 3S (playing equal-level conversion) so I'm happy with it. All in all, I think the hands where an immediate 3D (playing Lebensohl) gets us to a better contract are numerous enough that I'm bidding it.

A bit of a tangent here, but last weekend I encountered a pair who played a defence to a short club I haven't seen before. They had agreed that 2♣ was "clubs or Michaels". It's a legal agreement, and at least they knew they weren't going to forget it!

OK, the position is now: -- K AKT7 Q4 AT -- J KJT8 RHO has: ...J9 ...A ...?? ...?? He's already played one club, and has four remaining minor-suit cards. I can't afford to ruff the remaining heart, as then I lose trump control. I'm currently in hand. Let's think about original shapes. LHO was 1=4=?=?, and RHO was 4=4=?=?, both having at least one club. It's obvious that I have to play a trump coup, and fortunately my trumps are the same length as RHO's. Obviously, once he ruffs in I need to be able to overruff. If he pitches the heart ace, I can continue the same line with the HK. The difficulty is going to be guessing how many clubs he has, because if he can ditch clubs instead of ruffing my red cards I can't make. So, the minor suit positions. I started with 4-1 diamonds and 3-5 clubs, so there's 8 diamonds to place and 3 remaining clubs. If RHO started with 4=1 minors, I can't make: I need to play four rounds of diamonds without playing any clubs, and the entry position won't work. If his minors were 3=2, I need 4 diamond winners again (three to ditch clubs), and if his minors were 2=3, I need three diamond winners. Obviously 1=4 minors with RHO (leaving LHO with 1=4=7=1) is possible but unlikely. I'm therefore assuming RHO was dealt at least 3 clubs. I also have to choose between his shape being 4=4=1=4 (in which case I need to cash three more clubs then play on diamonds) and 4=4=2=3 (in which case I need the diamond finesse, and have to play two clubs before cashing high diamonds). I'm going for the latter option, so I start off by cashing the CT then running the DJ. If the J holds, I overtake a club then play diamonds. EDIT: Justin's line involves less thinking aloud than mine, and a contingency that I hadn't realised!

There's a regular partnership at my local club who have a strange inconsistency: they'll produce a 60% game three weeks in a row, then muddle along in the low 40s for a month or two. Could it just be that, every now and again, there's a set of hands that really favours their particular style of chronic underbidding?