Hand 1 North Dealer, None

S:9832
H:AJ107
D:K10
C:AJ2
S:4 S:AKJ10
H:K432 H:Q8
D:Q865 D:9742
C:10854 C:K63
s:Q765
h:965
C:AJ3
D:Q97
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1C 1S 1NT All Pass.
Many would overcall on Easts hand with such a chunky
spade suit. Who wouldnt? It is an acceptable
overcall in any form of scoring but unfortunately it
backfired this time as NS got talked out of their 4-4
spade fit and into notrumps which is likely to score
better.

Hand 2 East Dealer, NS Game

s:5
h:A97
C:AJ10642
D:A43
s:632 s:KQJ9874
h:Q1086 h:J4
C:7 C:85
D:QJ962 D:85
s:A10
h:K532
C:KQ93
D:K107
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
3S X 4S
6D All Pass.
There are 3 ways 6D can be made: playing hearts to break 3-3; or squeezing
West in hearts and clubs; or endplaying East. The endplay is better as it
works also for the other two cases as well. Winning the s:K lead the declarer
pulls trumps and cashes ace and king of hearts and clubs and lead the s:10,
discarding his last heart. If the squeeze on West is operating then East
distribution must be 7-2-2-2 and he can only return a spade at that time.
What if the hearts had been 3-3? East would be 7-3-2-1 and hes endplayed as
well.
6S sacrifice is likely to cost EW 1100, not much to recommend for it as its
not likely to save a lot of matchpoints for EW as the slam may prove too
difficult to make on many tables.

Hand 3 South Dealer, EW Game

s:9863
h:KJ1032
C:1095
D:A
s:AK107 s:4
h:765 h:94
C:KQJ7 C:842
D:K5 D:J1097643
s:QJ52
h:AQ8
C:A63
D:Q82
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1NT P
2C P 2S P
3S All Pass
It can be foreseen that a wide variety of final
contracts are likely on this board, from 1NTx by South,
1NTx by West to 4Sx by South. Assuming South opens 15-
17 1NT, West may double that and a re-double from North
may panic East into running to their best contract: 2C
or 3C. Against that South has to lead a heart from his
AQ8 to hold it to 8 tricks. A most amusing scenario
would arise if South were to open 1C. West would of
course double for take-out and North may re-double to
show his good 8 points and now would Easts Pass means
Partner lets play 1C redoubled? Regretfully I do not
think anyone will be playing this archaic agreement in
these modern days.

Hand 4 West Dealer, Game all

s:A94
h:1043
C:AJ95
D:987
s:QJ102 s:87653
h:98752 h:KQJ6
C:K10 C:63
D:AQ D:54
s:K
h:A
C:Q8742
D:KJ10632
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1H
P 2H 2NT P
3D All pass
Yes, 5D is a good contract but getting there may be too
difficult for most players. It would be poor tactics
for EW to compete 3H as that allows South to put in a
competitive double and North is only too glad to
convert it for +200 or +500. EW perhaps best remember
the saying let sleeping dogs lie
What if West had passed his borderline hand? 3 passes
to South and he applies the Rule of 15 and may decide
to pass the hand out!
EW may take 10 tricks in hearts or spades through gross
unfortunate defense North led the ace of diamonds
and hastily grabbed his ace of spade when the suit is
led from Wests hand and that gobbled up partners
king. In exchange South will have the best Hard Luck
story to tell after the game.

Hand 5 North Dealer, NS Game

s:A9
h:A97432
C:J
D:AK102
s:108654 s:QJ3
h:106 h:8
C:Q863 C:K1075
D:Q9 D:J7643
s:K72
h:KQJ5
C:A942
D:85
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1H P 2NT P
3D P 4D P
4NT P 5S P
6H All Pass
Souths 2NT is the popular Jacoby 2NT, showing at least
13 HCP and 4 trumps for partners major, no singletons
or voids. Norths 3D shows a singleton and 4D is a
cue-bid. 4NT is Roman Keycard Blackwood and 5S reply
shows 2 keycards with the queen of trumps. Unable to
phantom what South has in clubs North signs off in 6H.
13 tricks are available, however, and the key to
bidding it lies in finding out Souths doubleton club
in the bidding. Perhaps the Precision players can do
better, provided East doesnt interfere over 1C:
North South
1C 1NT
2H 3H
4C 4H
4NT 5S
7H P
1C is of course 16 HCP or more. 1NT response shows 8
to 13 HCP and a balanced hand. 2H is natural and 3H
indicates very good support with 4 or more controls.
4C is the Epsilon asking bid and the 4H answer shows
the D:Q or doubleton in clubs. Roman Keycard Blackwood
takes care of the rest. There is no need for North to
check up on the kings as South must have at least one
more for his 4 controls shown.

Hand 6 East Dealer, EW Game

s:65
h:AKQ107
C:K982
D:104
s:A104 s:K983
h:J9 h:852
C:Q65 C:A104
D:A8763 D:Q95
 s:QJ72
h:643
C:J73
D:KJ2
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P P P
1H P 2H X
P 2S All Pass
Wests takeout double can hardly be criticized when the
scoring is matchpoints. It is usually bad to let
opponent play in such low level contracts in their most
comfortable fit. His borderline double works out badly
this time as 2S is likely to go off two, even three
tricks against passive defense but one is expected to
take a little risk in order to win in matchpoints. At
some table, however, the maneuver works as North come
to the rescue and compete with 3H, which goes down one
against careful defense.
Not unexpectedly we should find some South declaring a
notrump contract. Against that West leads a low club
and when the dummy follows low East does best by
inserting the D:9. This will keep South restricted to
6 tricks.

Hand 7 South Dealer, Game all

s:10765
h:QJ92
C:106
D:843
s:AK82 s:Q43
h:4 h:A76
C:A542 C:KQ98
D:AK96 D:Q72
s:J9
h:K10853
C:J73
D:J105
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P 1D
P 3NT P 4C
P 4D P 4S
P 5H P 5S
P 5NT P 6C
P 7D All Pass
Easts 3NT response must promise a 13-15 balanced hand
with no 5-card suit or 4-card major, hence he must have
4-card in either one of the minors. Assured of a fit
West bravely ventured forward with 4C. 4D confirms the
trump suit and 4S and 5H are cue-bids showing the aces.
5S shows the second round control in spades and implies
first round control in clubs! Club was bypassed when
East cues 5H, denying the ace of clubs, so Wests 5S
not only shows second round control in spades but also
suggest some interest for grand slam, and that
logically cannot be if West is not looking at the Ace
of clubs in his hand. Easts 5NT asks about the trump
quality and West admits to one honour with his 6C.
As it turn out the Multi-2C: or Roman 2C: would have an
easier time here:
West East
2D 2NT
4D 4H
4S 5H
6H 7D
2D shows either a weak-2 in a major or a 17-24 points
and a 4-4-4-1 distribution. 2NT inquires about the
hand. 4D shows 4-1-4-4 and 17-24. 4H and 5H, both
bids in partners short suit, inquires further. 4S
indicates West is 17-18 points and 6H shows 8 controls.
At this stage East could write down Wests hand for
anyone who cares to find out and he bids a confident
7D.

Hand 8 West Dealer, Love all

s:AJ
 h:QJ1092
C:76
D:AQ82
s:87 s:KQ964
h:K653 h:A
C:K85 C:J104
D:J943 D:10765
s:10532
h:874
C:AQ932
D:K
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P
1H 1S 2D P
2H P 3H All Pass
Not surprisingly some table would have reached the
heart game, South looking favourably at his C:AQ placed
after the overcaller. It might actually be made if
East started off with C:J. South covered the queen and
West takes his king. A finesse against the C:10 later
allows North to discard his spade loser.

Hand 9 North Dealer, EW Game

s:9
h:QJ962
C:109
D:AQ864
s:KQ2 s:876543
h:K1087 h:4
C:AQJ54 C:83
D:J D:7532
s:AJ10
h:A53
C:K762
D:K109
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P P 1NT P
2D P 2H P
3C P 4H All Pass
Justice is fully served if some South decides to gamble
it out in 3NT. That takes 10 tricks normally but 4H
takes 11 tricks and probably gets doubled as well! Poor
West has more than enough reason to double 4H after
all 16 HCP lurking behind a strong notrump opener PLUS
4 trumps to the K-10 is NOT a daily occurrence! And
despite all his resources West finds 4H practically
ice-cold!

Hand 10 East Dealer, Game all

s:9
h:8543
C:AJ852
D:J96
s:A10642 s:KQJ5
h:Q96 h:K1072
C:7 C:K109
D:K1053 D:42
s:873
h:AJ
C:Q643
D:AQ87
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1D P 1S
P 2S P 3C
P 3S All Pass
10 tricks can be made if West times his play carefully.
He needs to negotiate 2 ruffs in the dummy while
preventing South from ruffing hearts. Norths entry in
diamonds and clubs needs to be neutralized before
hearts are played. If West can make 10 tricks he is
likely to get a good matchpoint result, thus bidding
game is an entirely unnecessary risk.

Hand 11 South Dealer, Love all

s:K8
h:AK
C:1092
D:J97632
s:J3 s:754
h:87 h:6543
C:KQ8753 C:AJ4
D:AQ5 D:K84
 s:AQ10962
h:QJ1092
C:6
D:10
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1S 2D
P 3D 3H P
4S All Pass
What should North bid after the overcall? Double
without any heart tolerance is asking for trouble. He
cant bid notrump and the club suit is distinctively
leaky to be shown at the 3-level. So Id go with the
Pass. After Souths free bid of 3H North would have
some catching up to do so 4S is not unreasonable. Some
East might have doubled this, holding 10 HCP himself
with partner overcalling at the 2-level. But Souths
bidding should tip him off to expect a very
distributional Declarers hand, 5-5 or 6-5, and with 3
smalls and 4 smalls in the majors it is questionable to
double the final contract.
A sacrifice looks risky, likely to run into -500 or
more, but this time it turns out well, costing only
300.

Hand 12 West Dealer, NS Game

s:-
h:AKQJ8
C:AKQJ1094
D:104
s:AQJ7543 s:K10862
h:1072 h:-
C:5 C:J32
D:85 D:AKJ92
s:9
h:96543
C:876
D:Q763
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
4S
4NT 6S All Pass
This is probably the wildest hand of the whole set. 6S
is cold and North could salvage some matchpoints if he
got off on the diamond lead. But more likely than not
he would be leading the h:A rather than the C:A and who
could blame him? Is it not reasonable to expect the ace
from a 5-card has the better chance of cashing than
from a 7-card suit? So we expect to see 6S making 13
tricks, doubled even on some tables. 7H goes down 2,
losing those 2 obvious losers; its too much to expect
East not to lead his D:A-K against 7H. Even then its
not obvious for North, whos probably looking at the
best hand hes not likely to see in many months to
come, to take the sacrifice.
Hand 13 North Dealer, Game All
s:Q7
h:KQ85
C:QJ10985
D:A
s:A10652 s:KJ
h:2 h:A1094
C:A642 C:7
D:K87 D:QJ9642
s:9843
h:J763
C:K3
D:1053
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1D 2C P 2D
X 2H P 2S
P 3C P 3D
P 3S P 4S
Wests 2D indicates a good raise for clubs at least to
the 3-level. North doubles to indicate that he would
have like to bid 2D if it wasnt taken already by West.
Wests 3D suggests 3NT, hoping for East to hold
something like Qx in diamonds (East failed to bid 2NT
earlier, so it is futile to expect East to hold a good
stopper). 3S indicate a doubleton honour support and
this being matchpoints West selected the risky 4S than
5C.
North leads the C:Q against 4S. South unblocks and
West wins the ace and leads a club. The risk has to be
taken, as the trumps in the dummy are needed to stop
the diamonds. North takes the D:A and forces dummy
with a diamond. West can make the contract now if he
cash the s:K and returns to hand with a heart ruff to
take out 2 more trumps with his s:A-10, benefiting from
the drop of the s:Q. Souths s:9 would be good but
West runs 3 rounds of clubs to discard a diamond loser
while South ruffs. Another diamond is conceded and
West claims the rest. But West would be disappointed
that his exploits did not earn him a top as 5C would
score 12 tricks, as good a score as 4S making 10.

Hand 14 East Dealer, Love All

s:QJ54
h:KJ96
C:J
D:KJ108
s:98762 s:K103
h:- h:A1043
C:10987 C:AQ64
D:6532 D:94
s:A
h:Q8752
C:K532
D:AQ7
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1D 1H P
2D P 4H All Pass
this may be the flattest board of the set. The 4-0
break in trumps would not worry the declarer too much
as he needs only one ruff in the dummy, the other
diamond loser can be discarded on dummys good clubs.
A marked finesse against Easts 10 of trumps would see
the declarer chalking up 11 tricks.

Hand 15 South Dealer, NS Game

s:J108
h:A5
C:KQJ1065
D:Q6
s:A42 s:KQ963
h:QJ86 h:972
C:943 C:2
D:1043 D:9752
s:75
h:K1043
C:A87
D:AKJ8
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1C P
1D P 1H P
2S P 3D P
3S P 4C P
5D All Pass
Norths 2S is Fourth Suit Forcing, not showing the
spades but a game-going hand with no obvious bid to
make. 1S would have been natural and forcing, but for
one round only.
3S is a probe for half a stopper, like Qx, since South
had denied a full stopper by not bidding 2NT earlier.
4C denied having even half a stopper but showing a top-
heavy club suit. 5D thus seems to be the logical game
after this.

Board 16 West Dealer, EW Game

s:A2
h:K2
C:KQ52
D:KQ1064
s:65 s:K743
h:Q63 h:A10985
C:J96 C:A87
D:A9753 D:2
 s:QJ1098
h:J74
C:1043
D:J8
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P
1NT P 2H P
2S All Pass.
Singleton club lead, ace and club ruff is the likely
opening scene. Thereafter East takes 3 more tricks for
one down.

Board 17 North Dealer, Love All

s:Q65
h:1085
C:Q42
D:Q1084
s:- s:K10743
h:AKJ9 h:Q62
C:J965 C:87
D:AKJ73 D:952
s:AJ982
h:743
C:AK103
D:6
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P P 1S X
2S P P X
P P P
D:A, h:K, h:A will probably be the opening salvo from
West. Another heart to Easts queen and a club return
will force South to ruff. With 4 tricks in the bag the
contract is now heading for one down, more if South got
careless in the play.

Board 18 East Dealer, NS Game

s:AK97
h:K108
C:Q10
D:KQ84
s:84 s:1065
h:A542 h:J763
C:K87532 C:J64
D:9 D:1062
s:QJ32
h:Q9
C:A9
D:AJ753
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P 1C 2D
X P 2S P
3D P 3NT P
4S All Pass
Norths sequence (double, cue-bid, convert back to 4S)
shows a better hand than a direct raise of Souths 2S
to game; a hand in the range from good 15 to about 17
or 18 HCP. Unfortunately South, his minimum hand and 2
pairs of Quacks (Queens and jacks) could hardly
proceed to beyond game. 12 tricks, however, can be
made easily as there were 2 suits fit and the club
provides the vital diamond discard.

Board 19 South Dealer, EW Game

s:KJ975
h:95
C:83
D:KJ106
s: s:1064
h:AQ1063 h:8742
C:AKQ75 C:96
D:AQ8 D:9432
s:AQ832
h:KJ
C:J1042
D:75
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P 2C
2S X 4S X
All Pass
Its good to have an agreement, after opponents
interfere youre your strong opening bid, what would
indicate a bust hand of 0-4 points. Here, Easts
double show 0-4 and a Pass would indicate a better
hand. Forewarned, West will choose to take the penalty
rather than risk uncertainty at the 5-level.
If West did choose to bid over 4S, 4NT would be for
takeout. East, despite his Yarborough ends up as
declarer in 5H. 5H has no chance on a club lead but if
South started off with a spade, East best play would be
to ruff in dummy and cash the ace of trumps. If the
king drops hes home. If not he can continues with
another trump and hopes for diamond to break 3-3, and
failing that risks the club finesse in the end.
Unfortunately nothing works this time. But the
inferior play of C:A-K, low diamond works. North ruffs
high and East discards a club. North can only return a
spade and West ruffs. Now ace of trumps and another
clears the suit and two more pitches are available for
Easts clubs and he still have 2 more trumps to ruff
Wests club losers.

Board 20 West Dealer, Game All

s:A5
h:KQ106
C:2
D:AKJ743
s:KJ10732 s:Q6
h:A h:987542
C:QJ64 C:K103
D:85 D:Q10
s:984
h:J3
C:A9875
D:962
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
2S
X P 2NT P
4C All Pass.
Souths 2NT is the lebensohls convention, requesting
partner to bid 3C after which South will show his
real suit or pass if his suit happens to be clubs.
This sequence is weaker than a direct takeout to 3D,
which is about 8 or 9 points. North, holding a better
hand than one can expect for his double, has no desire
to play only 3C, hence the jump. When the queen of
clubs drops he makes 11 tricks.

Hand 21 North Dealer, NS Game

s:AQJ1098
h:8653
C:Q2
D:4
s:K3 s:752
h:AQ h:42
C:K6543 C:AJ987
D:KQJ8 D:1072
s:64
h:KJ1097
C:10
D:A9653
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P P P 1NT
2S P P P
North almost has a classical weak-2 in spades, if not
for the 4-card heart. Its not a good idea to preempt
first in hand with another 4-card major suit. It makes
finding the fit in that major so much harder.
2S, however, makes 10 tricks despite Wests handsome
looking 18 HCP. But I do not expect anyone to be able
to bid up to 4S.

Board 22 East Dealer, EW Game

s:J105
h:98
C:A8752
D:763
s:64 s:K92
h:QJ3 h:AK10765
C:KQ9 C:3
D:J10854 D:AQ9
s:AQ873
h:42
C:J1064
D:K2
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
1H 1S 2H
2S 4H All Pass.
C:J will probably be led. Dummy puts up the king and
North wins and a spade return gives the defense 3
tricks in the bag and king of clubs is fated to score
the setting trick. Theres a classic avoidance play
here, that is, for the dummy to play low on the C:J.
If North overtakes with the ace to fire a spade back,
the C:K-Q will be available for 2 club discards later.
Otherwise the declarer has all the time in the world to
set up the dummys club for spade discards.

Board 23 South Dealer, Game all

s:A
h:KQ765
C:K543
D:652
s:K5 s:842
h:J1098 h:A
C:96 C:AQJ107
D:KQ843 D:AJ97
s:QJ109763
h:432
C:82
D:10
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P P
1H X 2H 3C
P 4H P 5C
All Pass
The jump cue-bid of 4H indicates no loser. But West
simply has not enough to go on.
Board 24 West Dealer, Love all
s:10763
h:1083
C:A10
D:9874
s:K5 s:842
h:J9542 h:76
C:Q83 C:K9762
D:Q63 D:K52
s:AQJ9
h:AKQ
C:J54
D:AJ10
Suggested Auction:
North East South West
P
P P 2NT P
3C P 3S P
4S All Pass
With the aid of the double finesse in club, 10 tricks
are there for the taking. Hard luck on those 3NT
addicts, who probably can manage no more than 9.