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Unfortunately, Board 23 was not played at every club, so I can’t say just how many NS pairs managed to bid to this very easy 7NT. I say very easy because that is exactly what it should be. Let’s take a look.

Board 23 from Wednesday 9/08/2022
Dealer South All Vul

	K8 K2 AK AKQ9732
Q932 J7 986542 T		J74 QT654 QJT J5
	AT65 A983 73 864

“Thou shalt not transfer” is one of my commandments. But there is an addition to that: “when it can be avoided if need be”. The unfortunate thing about this deal is that the NS hands were as they were. Had South had North’s hand and vice versa, the results would have been totally different for all EW pairs where West played the hand, be it in 3NT or 4S or a slam in either spades or No Trumps. But let’s take a look at the hands as they were dealt by a benign computer.

Board 8 from Tuesday 26/07/22
Dealer West Nil Vul

	9765 AT987 52 98
KQ 642 K43 KQT43		AJT32 K3 AQ76 A2
	84 QJ5 JT98 J765

You are South and dealer at match points. NS vul.
The bidding has been:

South	West	North	East
1	Pass	2	Pass
2	Pass	4	Pass
Pass	Pass

West starts with two top diamonds, the ace and king (East following with the 2 and 3 (standard signals). Then West shifts to the five of hearts. How would you continue from there, here is the layout of your hand and dummy.

Dummy (North)

K94

KQJT3

J4

K32

You (South)

QT853

A7

QT

AJ86

Any ideas to me please --- villyn@xtra.co.nz

To quote one of my regular correspondents: “Deep Finesse is a genius when all the hands can be seen but would be quite dumb at the table”. Here is a perfect example of that.

Board 14 from Friday 1/07/22.
Dealer East Nil Vul

	AKT54 9 AQJ6 Q74
Q8732 T2 T732 J6		J6 J753 K984 T82
	9 AKQ864 5 AK953

This deal, from a friendly social game, reminded me of similar ones that I have written about earlier, on the topic of unusual opening leads. For a long time now I have advocated adding into one's repertoire the opening lead of an ace against No Trump contracts to show specifically AQx as well as the more normal holdings of AKx or AKxx though with AKxx(x) and no outside entry the fourth highest is generally better. This deal was, unfortunately, not played at X-Clubs, so I have no indication that anyone else would have found the killing lead of the ace of hearts. Look at the full deal and see what would, and what could, happen in a fairly mundane 3NT by EW.

Board 1 Dealer North Nil Vul

	6542 KT87 864 J4
AK83 5432 KQ7 65		QJ7 J6 AJ532 KT8
	T9 AQ9 T9 AQ9732