Here is the play problem from last week. West is declarer in 4S. At the time this deal was played, most Souths opened a weak 1NT and West came in with 2S. The Easts either made a forward move with 2NT or raised spades to three. In some cases, if West passed (somewhat conservative but with NS vulnerable, defending 1NT could have been profitable), North made a 'weakness' takeout of 2H, or, if NS were playing transfers which most new players don't do, North would transfer to 2H via a bid of 2D. Nothing should stop West then bidding spades, so let us look at some scenarios where West is in spades, be it in 2S or 4S, with two different opening lead possibilities: the JACK OF CLUBS, or the NINE OF HEARTS. How should declarer play in each case? Let's take a look at all the hands now, just to give you a clue:

This Wednesday (25/08/2016) produced a rather boring lot of hands. Board 15 was of some interest to me though. Let's take a look at it:
Board 15 Dealer S NS Vul

	76 9875432 J82 J
QJT52 J K7 A9852		A4 KT6 AT53 QT63
	K983 AQ Q964 K74

The topic this week is “Jump Overcalls”. Some terrible things have been perpetrated in the name of jump overcalls and even if you don't play jump overcalls at all, this deal provides evidence that it is important that you think about how far you bid and what might happen if you go too far.

Board 15 Dealer S NS Vul

	QJ8742 KT J63 A5
K J6542 AQT KT83		AT3 A3 K975 7642
	965 Q987 842 QJ9

This deal was reviewed in the latest Wednesday Review, from Wednesday 10/8/16
Board 15 Dealer S NS Vul

	Q64 6542 76 J632
JT5 JT98 K98 AK8		A932 AKQ3 T5 T54
	K87 7 AQJ432 Q97

This deal came from a recent Thursday (Aug 4) but is worth discussion, since this was a “Swiss Pairs” event and a number of Wednesday and 'just past Wednesday' players were taking part.

It really does not matter what type of event you're playing in, the most important thing always is: make your contract. In what should have been an easy enough 4H contract, SEVEN out of eight Souths failed. Let us examine WHY they failed.