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Now we can take another look at the deal in my previous article, but when East leads the three of spades against 6NT. If there has been a lead directional double by West when South has bid 2S as a rangefinder, declarer will almost certainly not make because what appears to be a ‘safe’ lead of the diamond jack will give declarer enough clues to make, as we saw in our previous analysis. The lead of the spade three puts declarer under immediate pressure and there is no reason not to put in the queen in the hope that East has the king, or that the clubs behave, or a squeeze develops. Thus, the queen loses to West’s king and West then returns a low spade, taking out dummy’s ace and leaving declarer in an awful spot. How should declarer proceed?

Board 13 Dealer N All Vul

	742 AKQJ 97 KT62
KJ986 8763 Q973		T53 5 JT86543 84
	AQ T942 AKQ2 AJ5

In my previous article we discussed drawing, in fact not drawing, trumps. Continuing on that theme, how would you like to play in a six card trump suit opposite a void and, suspecting that nearly everyone else would be playing in 3NT. All very well if your trump suit is solid but North’s in this deal was headed by the AK but then the next cards were the 9853. Let’s take a look. This comes from X-Clubs on Wednesday 5-July 2023.

Board 5 Dealer N NS Vul

	T5 AK9853 A5 A32
984 Q762 KQ4 T74		K762 JT4 982 Q65
	AQJ3 JT763 KJ98

I am a great believer in the “Law of Total Tricks” but in its simplest form, without the whole rigmarole that has been advanced by a number of expert players and authors. Being a simple soul in bridge terms, I have my own very simple version of the “Total Tricks” theory and I abbreviate it to “TNT”. To put it in simple terms, in a contested auction where both sides are bidding their own suit:
TNT

Unfortunately, due to the lack of sufficient entries from readers, this feature will not be continued.

Here is a summary of the panel’s answers and assigned score to the bids and opening leads, based on the panel’s answers, the majority answers scoring the most points, rightly or wrongly, along with my own comments where they may be of interest to the reader.

You are SOUTH in each case, and playing MATCH POINTS at your local club. Basic Acol, 12-14 1NT with transfers. 1C,1D,1H,1S all natural and 4+ cards.

This is a new feature that I would like to introduce to X-Clubs. Each week, I will select four BIDDING problems and four OPENING LEAD problems from actual deals at X-Clubs. I will pose these problems to a panel of club players and then assign points to the answers according to the panel’s views as well as results from the actual deals. All readers can enter into this competition, all they have to do is send their bids or opening leads for each of the eight problems, to me at villyn@xtra.co.nz before midnight each Sunday, this week the deadline is Sunday 21 May.

At the end of every four weeks, there will be a monthly prize of a Lotto Ticket (which could make the winner a millionaire!) awarded to the highest scorer. Good luck!