Hand of the Week #196 ♥
N E S W 2♣* P 2♦* P 2♥ P 4♥ P P P West has 'only' 21 HCP but elects to open their hand 2♣* as it is unbalanced and a 1♥ opener feels feeble. West's hand here is part of the downside to playing Weak
Hand of the Week #195 (Solution) ♣
N E S W 1♥ P 2♦ P 3♥ P 4♥ P P P Analysing South's hand for tricks we might lose, we have: none in spades, none in hearts, 1 certain loser in diamonds and 2 losers in clubs. Therefore, on the face of it, our
Hand of the Week #195 ♣
N E S W 1♥ P 2♦ P 3♥ P 4♥ P P P With East-West silent throughout the auction, South opens 1♥ to which North replies 2♦. Next, South jump rebids to 3♥ representing 16+ HCP and 6+ hearts, so North raises this to game which
Hand of the Week #194 (Solution) ♠
N E S W 1♦ 1♥ P 2♦* X 2NT P 4♥ P P P Analysing the losers we have in hand, there are: no spades, 2, possibly even 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and no clubs. Unfortunately, there is nowhere for our diamond losers to go. We
Hand of the Week #194 ♠
N E S W 1♦ 1♥ P 2♦* X 2NT P 4♥ P P P East opens the bidding with 1♦, South overcalls 1♥, West passes and North bids 2♦* which is an Unassuming Cue Bid showing a fit for hearts and around 10+ HCP or so.
Hand of the Week #193 (Solution) ♦
N E S W 1NT P 3NT P P P Obviously dummy's long diamond suit is what we would like to 'establish' here for our length tricks. As it happens, the diamonds won't really need setting up as we have 9 diamonds between the two hands, and
Hand of the Week #193 ♦
N E S W 1NT P 3NT P P P A very quick auction sees North-South finish in a NT game. North starts with an opening of 1NT (12-14 balanced) and South immediately leaps to 3NT to end the auction. South 'only' has 10 HCP but their
Hand of the Week #192 (Solution) ♥
N E S W 1♣ 2♣* 2♦ 4♠ P P P With such a distributional hand on the table, it would make sense to play this hand on a dummy reversal, setting up the dummy hand instead of our own. Looking at dummy's losers we have: no
Hand of the Week #192 ♥
N E S W 1♣ 2♣* 2♦ 4♠ P P P West opens 1♣ and North bids 2♣* which this North-South pair are playing as a Michaels Cue Bid, so this bid shows at least 5-5 in both major suits. East bids 2♦ which is natural and
Hand of the Week #191 (Solution) ♣
N E S W 1NT 2♦ P 3♦ P P P Looking at possible losers we have: 2 in spades, 1 potentially in hearts, none in diamonds, and 1 in clubs. Therefore, on the face of it at least, our contract looks safe even if we lose