Lessons, Lessons, Lessons!

	A K 10 7 4 2
	K 5
	A
	A Q 9 6
J 5 3		Q 9 6
J 7 4 2		10 9 6
J 10 6 5 4 3		9 2
------		J 10 8 5 3
	8
	A Q 8 3
	K Q 8 7
	K 7 4 2

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
Pass	1	Pass	1 NT
Pass	6 NT	All	pass

This hand had so many lessons that I decided to bump it ahead of the hand originally planned. Thirty-three hcp's. Twenty opposite an opening bid with minimum rebid showing a balanced hand. What is there to think about? One of my basic philosophies is, "Let's not miss the easy ones." Nobody's going to get 'em all right, and we'll all be a tad overbid on occasion and a tad underbid on others. We have to be tolerant when our partners don't take the action we would have taken, just as we hope they'll be tolerant of the times we're the culprit. But we should take care of the easy ones -- and simply do our best with the others. And yes, this was an easy one. No interference bidding. No 19 hcp's opposite 14 with an ambiguity (for some players evidently) with a leap to 4 no. This is it: 20 hcp's opposite an opening bid with a minimum rebid in no trump. I would look on any bid other than a leap to 6 no as at best a pointless delaying tactic and of course, at worst counterproductive -- as it was for a good many pairs.

Seven people were in 7 no without a ghost of a chance and all of the four I looked at had used Blackwood. Now, Blackwood won't tell you what you need to know on hands like this. Four aces and four kings add up to 8 tricks, not even enough for game! What you need to know is whether you have the next five tricks, and that Blackwood won't tell you. You might note that if you turn in the king of diamonds for the Q J of spades, grand slam is a laydown. That's with no change in point count and only a slight change in distribution. But Blackwood won't tell you about the queens and jacks. So you're simply better off trusting the point count.

On this hand (scroll down), I pointed out that with two shifts in the top cards, changing neither the point count nor the distribution, the hand makes grand slam on one change, can't make little slam on the other. Now, if you have a solid six-card suit, at least down to the jack, then Blackwood might tell you what you want to know, particularly if you've got a queen on a 3-card holding someplace.

Six people were in 6 clubs and the same number were in 7 clubs, getting an awfully bad break. But I have a lot more sympathy for those in 7 clubs than those in 6. Why? Well, six clubs has to be a bad board, even if you make, even, indeed, if you make with an overtrick. You've got the point count for 6 no and shouldn't be fiddling around with a minor in a matchpoint event, such as this was, unless, yes, you're going for a bonus higher (little slam over game, grand over little). Six no is a far safer place than 7 clubs, even without the benefit of hindsight -- you not only need a 3-2 split but the 3-3 spades you do have. But 7 clubs at least offers the possibility of a top board.

And we might do well to look at the scoring: 6 no brought 84%, 6 spades 66 and 3 no 63! So if you're not bidding 6 no, you hardly lose anything by playing a safe game bid!

Here I have discussed the many attractions of no trump slams over trump, the higher score in matchpoint events being only one of them. The club bidders had tied themselves to the club suit and couldn't escape, while as soon as the no trumpers saw the bad split in clubs, they could hold off from the suit a minute, duck a spade trick and eventually pick up their 12 tricks. Declarer would even make on an uneven spade break provided the same hand held the long cards in each black suit. That hand would be mercilessly squeezed on six red suit winners (after ducking a spade).