Hand of the week 1st March 2026

27^th February Board 16

 There were slim pickings this week and the hand I selected is not spectacular and should have an easy bid and make contract but most pairs got it so wrong and ended in a wrong contract going down.

W is dealer and their hand was:

S AQ2

H AQ974

D KJ

C AQ9

Let’s have a look at the hand, there are 20 hcp and its balanced with a shape of 3523, yes, it has a 5 card major.

We will look at two systems to see how the bidding should go, first is 1) Benjis and then 2)Acol.

#1.

W. 2C showing either 20-22 hcp  balanced or 8 playing tricks.

N. pass

E. 2D Relay

S. X Why, over any convention a double is asking partner to lead that suit.

W  2NT showing balanced hand and 20-22hcp balanced. Other any legitimate NT bid stayman and transfer apply. Now partner with 6 hcp and 4 card S suit has the option of bidding 3NT or stayman asking partner 4 card major. Partner responds 3H so E bids 3NT. Lets go back to W’s second bid it would be wrong bid 2H as your hand does not have 8 playing tricks, in fact you have only 3 top tricks. For those that don’t understand top tricks, it is “the number of tricks you can win without losing the lead”. You only have 3 aces and no Ks underneath them, so only 3 top tricks.

#2

W. 2NT  showing 20-22 balanced.

From here bidding should proceed as above. Stayman may not be an option, straight to 3NT. In this case S does not get to double 2D. Only one pair ended up in 3NT which is the correct contract.

HAND BELOW