1:

?

...............Q72

...............64

...............KJ96532

...............4

----..........................AK98

Q10753...................AK98

Q10.........................A7

AK8753...................J106

...............J106543

...............J2

...............84

...............Q92

?

Starting with a slam sometimes seems a bit unfair, and this one had a surprisingly high proportion of pairs to get there - five of the twelve. Slam was reached by Loubot, Linj, Glynneth, Pharah and Paun, all in competitive auctions. If E-W were left to themselves it would have been easy: 1D-1H; 4H-4S; 5D-6C and then East, knowing spade duplication to exist, would probably have been content with 6H. Glynneth had the easiest auction: 2D-X-P-4H; P-6H. Because the opening bid was 2D instead of 3D Lynn's 4H showed a good bit more than 4H over 3D-X would have done; with a diamond control, Gareth had an easy 6H raise. Pharah had the only auction of the five on which North began with a pass: P-1C-2S-3H; P-4NT-P-5C; P-6H. The other three auctions began with 3D. Linj were similar to Pharah: 3D-X-P-4H; P-4NT-P-5C; P-6H. Paul kept the seven-level in play: 3D-X-P-4H; P-4NT-P-5C; P-5D-P-6C; P-6H. Had Paul bid 6D over 6C, which showed the club king and heart queen, Don would probably have bid 7H. Loubot did not have a key card ask: 3D-X-P-4H; P-5D-P-6H. I like Eastbot's 5D, as the East hand feels far more invitational than ask-worthy. West has quite the slammish hand, needing only control of diamonds, and Louise could have looked for 7H with a bid of 5S.

?

Louise, NJ and Lynn all made the overtrick. I would like to think that they all realized that North's holding seven diamonds made South a strong favourite to hold the queen of clubs, but I must allow for the possibility that they all received an opening lead of the singleton club. Don did not; when it came time for him to play the clubs he led the jack and overtook with the ace, after which he did not have the luxury of a guess, as South, with the Q9 remaining, was guaranteed a trick. It is possible that an inferential count was available. Suppose a trump lead; after winning the second trump in dummy, declarer can cash two spades, ruff a third and take one high club before returning to dummy with the diamond ace. Now, assuming North to hold seven diamonds for the 3D opening bid (a perfectly good assumption if a 2D opening bid is weak) then that makes thirteen cards shown, marking South with the club queen. Poor Phyllis (B) did not have the assist of a 3D opening bid and indeed only knew that South had length in spades. Naturally she played for the drop in clubs.

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4:

?

...............96

...............A32

...............J874

...............AJ54

AQJ1053...........87

J8......................Q974

103....................AKQ5

K103 .................Q97

...............K42

...............K1065

...............962

...............862

?

This one came down to the opening bid. Back in the day there would have been more 2S opening bids, which presumably would have been left in. In our game it appears there was only one 2S opening bid. Everyone else apparently opened 1S, usually reaching 4S. Keianne managed to get to the superiour 3NT via 1S-2D; 2S-3NT.

?

Switch West's clubs and hearts and there would have been little difference between 3NT and 4S. 4S would be fine for IMPs. At matchpoints it depends largely on the opening lead; a heart lead forces declarer to find South with king to no more than three, or the same if a club is lead with a heart shift. Chances improve a bit if declarer gets to try to discard a heart on the third diamond. 3NT has chances if the spades don't behave, especially if South does not hold the heart length. And at matchpoints no-trumps scores the ten extra points when both contracts take the same number of tricks. Keianne were E-W top playing 3NT +2.

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5:

?

...............KQ109643

...............AK

...............964

...............5

82...................................J

9852...............................1043

A75.................................Q1083

J762 ...............................AKQ103

...............A75

...............QJ76

...............KJ2

...............984

?

North is too weak for a Namyats 4D and starts with 1S. Then came either a double or a 2C overcall. One redouble auction went 1S-X-XX-2H; 4S. I don't particularly care for West's 2H; there is no need for West to bid anything and here the 2H bid went a long way towards E-W's missing their profitable sacrifice in 5Cx. I do like North's 4S rebid; the suit does not require support and this is not a hand that wants to sit for a penalty double. By bidding 4S at once North removed any chance of East's getting the clubs into the auction and the 5C sacrifice was missed.

?

The play in 5Cx was instructive. When West's doubleton turns out not to provide a ruff, declarer needs to hold the diamond suit to one loser to pick up eight tricks and -500. The key is to leave the diamonds as late as possible for declarer, ideally not even to have to play the suit at all. If N-S begin with two rounds of spades, declarer can draw trumps and play a heart. After North cashes two hearts a diamond back gives declarer an extra chance to guess right. But North has a surprise resource - a ruff-and-discard. Declarer can still prevail but will need one good guess instead of having two chances at it. Lernot were able to avoid having to help declarer at all - Gernot led a trump. Declarer drew trumps and led a spade, but Larry cleared his two hearts before the second spade. Even then East could have run the queen or ten of diamonds, won the ace when North covered and then finessed the eight - too difficult a guess to expect. Had the third round of spades been played declarer could also have endplayed South into leading a diamond from the king, which might have been marked as being in the South hand by the key point of the auction.

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8:

?

...............85

...............K754

...............1062

...............8764

AQJ........................10942

932.........................J8

A8753.....................QJ

KQ .........................J10952

...............K763

...............AQ106

...............K94

...............A3

?

1NT by West passed around to South. Even if playing a double as penalty or showing equal values to the 1NT opening bid South does not have a good hand for the action. One West opened 1D, resulting in 1NT S =. Of the eleven auctions with a 1NT opening bid there were four Souths who came in. One chose to bid 2H for the majors and eventually declared 3H. Two of the doubles resulted in a contract of 2D W. One double was left in.

?

1NT cannot be defeated even with the unstopped hearts. With the spade finesse succeeding, once the club ace comes out in the second round, West can reach the clubs by giving South the king of diamonds. Boric were fortunate, however; declarer led the ace of diamonds at trick two, eventually led the spade ace first and was lucky to escape for -1, which tied them for N-S top. 2D can be set by force, most neatly by starting with three rounds of hearts, the main point being for N-S to avoid leading spades for West at any point. Both declarers in 2D made the contract for a moderately good score. Jeff was able to back up hi bidding by taking eight tricks in 3H for -1 and the other side of the just-above-average bar.

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12:

?

...............AJ632

...............A83

...............8

...............Q932

K10........................8

Q542......................KJ1096

KQ105....................A643

1075.......................A84?

...............Q9754

...............7

...............J972

...............KJ6

?

Here was another sacrifice hand with a ten-card spade fit for a vulnerable N-S and E-W with a 5-4 fit in which to sacrifice at the five-level. Does East double or overcall 2H after North opens 1S? South should bid 4S over either. West has a fighting chance of bidding 5H if East overcalled 2H but has a tougher time of it after a double from partner, which suggests more defence than 2H while also reducing the likelihood of finding a nine-card fit. One West doubled 4S, ending the auction. And several Norths did not open. Pharah had an uncontested auction ending in 2H E +2 after a Drury sequence. Louise's opponents defended with care and set her 4H one trick but just taking the bid was good enough. Two Easts got to declare 5Hx -2 and E-W top was defending 5Sx N -1 when declarer tried to drop the trump king.

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13:

?

...............A72

...............K6

...............Q94

...............Q10974

Q4...........................K1083

AJ75........................92

J2............................8753

AKJ65.....................832?

...............J965

...............Q10843

...............AK106

...............----

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The main question on this hand was whether South would open a Flannery 2D in third seat. Three Souths did so and the only reason there was not a fourth was that North at that table opened 1C. When South opened 1H West overcalled either 2C or 1NT. 2C often ended the auction; 1NT could have been doubled, which, if left in, would have allowed North to double a 2C runout for penalty. North's 1C opening bid led to 4H S; the three Flannery openings led to 3C W, 3NT N and a conservative 2H N.

?

Par in hearts was nine tricks but Jeff made 4H, quite likely after the spade queen opening lead. That may not be enough in and of itself to force a make but, if dummy follows with a spade and East gives West a ruff instead of pushing through a club, declarer can get home by running the heart ten through West to avoid losing a trick to the jack or nine. The Flannery openers all scored reasonably; declarer in 2H took ten tricks, 3C W might have been -3 but finished -2 and North made 3NT. 3NT ought not to be makable by force; eventually declarer must give E-W either a second heart trick or a second spade trick and then E-W can arrange to cash five tricks.

?

16:

?

...............J9

...............AKJ54

...............63

...............A854

----..............................Q108

873..............................Q1062

KJ9742........................Q105

QJ62............................K97?

...............AK765432

...............9

...............A8

...............103

?

This was Tracy's best (and unluckiest) moment of the game. The other Souths all settled for 4S one way or another. After Howard opened 1H and rebid 1NT over Tracy's 1S response, Tracy counted nine probable winners and jumped to 6S, which would easily have won a bidding competition.

?

6S makes whenever trumps split 2-1, a 78% chance. If the South spade suit were headed by AK9 instead of AK7, declarer could have led the jack trying to induce a cover if East held Q108, allowing the marked finesse on the next round. With trumps 3-0, on a club opening lead declarer should finish -3 instead of -1 (-2 on a diamond lead) as the contract can still make if the heart finesse succeeds.

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18:

?

...............K92

...............5

...............AK9873

...............765

Q1073......................4

AQ962.....................KJ843

Q5............................642

A8............................J432?

...............AJ865

...............107

...............J10

...............KQ109

?

This became a big Battle of the Majors. We had yet another 5-5 fit, this time in hearts. The bidding almost always got to game. If South opened 1S then North likely raised the valuation; otherwise East raised to 4H when West opened 1H. A Flannery auction starting with 2D from West might have had a chance of ending in 3H E.

?

E-W had four clear losers in hearts. I mention this hand at all only to point out the possible play in spades of leading low to the nine if West does not force out the king. If there were no chance of E-W's forcing North to ruff a heart declarer would have an even safer play of the ace first and then low towards the K9, holding the losers in the suit to one any time both East and West followed to the ace. Thus the only way for E-W to force a set would be to lead ace and another club. West can always win the third round of spades by force, and the East hand can be reached with the heart king to give West a club ruff.