When both sides are bidding and respective partners are raising.

How do you know how far to compete?

Roughly it says "The no. of tricks you make = the no. of trumps held"

With 8 trumps bid "2", with 9 trumps bid "3" and bid "4" with 10 trumps.

Ideally this is with the majors.

Notice nothing is said about points or vulnerability.

This of course relies on you playing the cards well.

Bd 15 illustrates this concept well. North opens 1D and East bids 1S.

South bids 2H and now West must bid 4S with 3 points and 5 spades.

Board 19 has a good spade game for E-W with 23HCP’s and a singleton.

3 pairs got to game while 3 pairs stayed in 3S, two pairs were successful.

This suggest many players do not have a functioning plan when playing suit contracts.

Step 1: identify all possible losers:  QS, AH, KD, QD, QC. 5 possible losers

Step 2: decide the best approach to play the trump suit. 

             With 9 trumps, play AS and KS to try to drop the QS. Fails, first loser.

Great to see 3 out of 7 pairs bid this slam.

This week I will give insight as to how top NZ players will bid this hand.

West opens 1H and East responds 1S. No need for East to jump showing a heart fit.

West now realizes the enormous potential of the spade fit and splinters.

Splinter bids are used to show a great fit with the last bid suit and a singleton or void.

 A jump to 3NT shows an excellent spade fit and a void somewhere.

East asks which and West can show the diamond void.

Last Friday our club celebrated a very special birthday, our club Patron Jan Jarrett turned 99 years old. Members joined in with our usual Friday Bridge plus a shared lunch with Jan. In recent months Jan has been unable to attend her usual Bridge sessions at the club so it was lovely to have her back at the club playing again and as the photo  shows she was in fine form .

With 8 slam hands, it is clear many do not have sufficient tools or insight to bid them.

Hand records show 25% of slams were bid, but only 20% successfully played.

Board 2 with 33 points, slam was bid and made 5 out of 6 times. Great.

It was the only slam hand with 30+ points, the other 7 had less.

Many players are reluctant to investigate slam unless they have sufficient points.

Two other features to be aware of when contemplating slams are;

Shortages: When a good fit is found.   Long Suit: to run in NT.

It is rare that a bridge hand has a major game for both sides.

Both sides can make 11 tricks, or 12 tricks with the right lead.

High card points are irrelevant in such auctions, N-S have 18 and E-W 22.

Who opens the bidding?

If West opens a tartan 2S, North will overcall 3H and East will bid 4S.

Is South brave enough to bid 5H, surely with a void they should.

West will not give in and bid 5S.

North must now realise that South is short in S's and bid 6H (not Vul).

Are there any E-W players who would seriously think of bidding 6S?

Wednesday night hands continue to test both bidding and card play for everyone.

40% of all contracts failed, 15 by 3 or more tricks, 21 by 2 tricks.

This suggests we are stretching our bidding as some contracts are being made on distribution and kind trump breaks.

And occasionally the bad trump break with flat hands bite us on the bum.

Hand 1 is a prime example.

After 1D -1S - 1NT some Norths rebid spades which lead to 3S, 3NT, 4S.

22 points and no shortages is a recipe for disaster, and so it was.

Board 20 is a good example for East to shine in defending 4H.

Analysis indicates it makes 8 tricks only.

Good to see 3 out of 6 pairs in 4H making, on less than adequate defence.

East has 3 certain tricks and now should be searching for others. How, where?

Not until you see the full hand do you see East must lead a club.

Two Easts got off to a promising start with the AS. The KS is my preference.

When Souths hand is revealed, East should realise West may be short in clubs.

If North opens 1NT with 3 clubs, West has a singleton.

Some of the best bids in bridge, are those described in one bid.

Where length and strength are narrowed to a small margin.

Weak 2 major openings or 7 cd preempts being classic examples.

But what happens with stronger hands as in Board 1.

North has a solid 7 cd heart suit and an extra Ace.

How do you as North convey a suit that is impenetrable and long?

Open 1H and jump rebid 3H? Open 4H as a gamble?

Neither quite convey the idea "I have 8 playing tricks in hearts"

Congratulations to Tom Henwood and Joyce Reid who won the Te Puke BOP Pairs tournament on Sunday with the impressive score of 66.57%.  Joyce substituted Jen Elgar for this round of the Bay Pairs, Tom and Jen are leading the competition with the final round to be played in Whakatane in October.  Fantastic!