Do you go to the bridge club to compete, or just sit there and watch the opponents play the hand? This deal is a great one for those pairs who like to compete ... even when they don't have their normal requirement of high card points. With distributional hands there is a guideline for when you have a legitimate opening bid (the 'rule of 20'): But does that mean that you are not allowed to open the East hand? The “20” rule is a guideline, not a law that cannot be broken. Look at the East hand in the following deal:

Board 10 from Thursday 3/05/2018.
Dealer E All Vul

	7543 AQ7 T2 QT72
AJ T9863 K5 A643		T2 KJ542 AQ73 95
	KQ986 J9864 KJ8

Why am I writing up board 18, the reader may be asking.

(Poor bidding and poor defence leads to poor results) .. in case you were wondering.
Board 8 from Thursday 5/04/2018
Dealer W Nil Vul

	KQ876 873 JT854
5 9642 A62 AK962		93 AJT87 KJ54 Q3
	AJT42 KQ53 QT9 7

I just had to add this one to the previous article because it was another 4441 hand that was very badly handled by all those at the table: at least in most cases that was so. The deal also requires better declarer play and defence than was evident in our Thursday session, maybe those aspects were better at other clubs. Let's take a look at:
Board 5 from Thursday 22/03/2018
Dealer N NS Vul

	Q9 65 98543 KT92
A72 J7 72 AQJ865		KJT5 Q832 KQJT 4
	8643 AKT94 A6 73

Lest you should think that I am too fixated on slams, let me assure you that I am. They are fun to bid and fun to play. But the main reason that I am writing this deal up is this: One week ago I wrote another chapter for “13 Tricks”. It involved bidding of very strong distributional hands, and I did not imagine for one moment that a very similar deal would occur at the club the very next week. Having read that chapter, the reader would have had little trouble arriving at the available grand slam, but only one of the nine pairs at our club did bid to it. Let's have a look: