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This deal comes from a recent X-Clubs session which was used as one session of a Swiss Pairs series at our club. In this form of the game both the contract and the opening lead could have made a huge impact on the result of an 8-board match. That is because of the possibility of a slam being bid, and the opening lead if the slam was played by either North or South. But the events that I expected to see did not eventuate at our club, with nary a slam bid anywhere. Even across the whole of X-Clubs the 6S slam was only bid four times, with surprising results. But more of that later. Let’s have some guessing practice to see what we can learn about leads against small slams.

Dealer N NS Vul
You are WEST and pick up this hand:

3

KT9762

KT

JT72

This was the bidding:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1NT	Pass
3	Pass	4	Pass
4NT	Pass	5	Pass
6	Pass	Pass	Pass

If only we could make the sort of opening leads that Deep Finesse always manages to find! Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to see the full deal a priori, nor the time to work out our best attack even if we saw all the cards, but sometimes it can be a good exercise to try and think like Deep Finesse. There was not one opening leader against a 5C contract who found the ‘killing’ lead, so let us try and go through some ‘Deep Finesse’ thinking without the benefits of seeing all the cards. This deal comes from an X-Clubs session which was played as part of a Swiss Pairs event at our Hutt club. I believe the fact that this was, in effect, teams play should make the killing opening lead much easier to find.

Board 13 from Tuesday 4/03/2025
Dealer N ALL Vul

	8753 652 AQJ65 4
JT9 K94 KJT9832		AKQ4 AKQT T73 76
	62 J98743 82 AQ5

The temptation of bidding a slam is something that leads many of us astray. It is a double edged sword and one that has to be handled with great care. To make slam bidding easier, the experts have added the ‘super accept’ to the standard repertoire of transfers. The problem with that is that the super accept can carry a weak hand too far, to the extent that a perfectly good (and weak) two-level contract becomes difficult as a three level one. The following deal may or may not have resulted in a slam if the players were playing the ‘super accept’ but I have a better suggestion for anyone interested, one which we have been using successfully for some time. Let’s look at the deal first.

Board 24 from Tuesday 18/02/2025
Dealer W Nil Vul

	T962 6 954 AJT52
K85 K843 A8 K983		A4 AJT9752 QJ7 6
	QJ73 Q KT632 Q74

I have always been an advocate for playing slams with a trump suit and not in No Trumps but there is clear evidence that, if bid properly, this one should be played in 6NT rather than 6S with a 5-3 spade fit, or clubs with a six card club suit headed by AKQ.

Board 10 from Tuesday 11/02/2025
Dealer E All Vul

	Q42 JT872 T6 T75
963 K AJ7 AKQ942		AKT75 AQ6 K983 8
	J8 9543 Q542 J63

This deal comes from Friday 30/01/25. The bidding by NS was pretty tame but was as described in YC19, with North overcalling 2C and passed back to West. This was the first problem I posed to my panel of club players, with many opting to continue bidding and only one or two leaving North in 2C. Considering NS can make 7C passing would have produced a reasonable outcome. This was the scenario at one table when West decided to bid 2H after North’s overcall and two passes: North bid 3C, East 3H, South 4C, pass, pass and East then kept competing and bid 4H. North, despite being a died in the wool conservative, having ventured a mere 2C overcall with his first bid, was now more confident and doubled 4H. The NS defensive play was far superior to their bidding and West was down five for 1100 and not a happy declarer. East is recovering in A&E from tomahawk blows to the head following a late night discussion with West.

Board 24 Dealer W Nil Vul

	AT87 AT7 A AQT93
KQJ63 Q643 Q3 K7		954 K982 T8652 8
	2 J5 KJ974 J6542