Hand of the week - 26th April 2026

21^st April Board 11

Slim pickings this week, so I have selected a board which if you thought about it you would probably try for the small slam.

Dealer is S and passes. W holding 11hcp with 7 losers and playing 5 card majors has the following hand

S. QJ8762

H. 86

D. AT4

C. AT

Every day of the week you would open 1S.

N has 7 hcp and 6 Hs QJ5432 may think about bidding 2H but his partner already passed. The only reason to bid would be to act as a disruptor.

E has 16hcp and a 5 loser hand with 3 card support in S. Assuming partner has 7  losers plus Es 5 is 12, 12 from 18 is 6, so a slam is possible. His/her hand is

S. KT9

H. A

D. KQJ2

C. QJ652

Even if N bid 2H it is not a concern due to your singleton AH. Bid 4C (CRO) and the response is 4NT,  2 aces of same rank as you are holding AH they must be both minor Aces.

You are missing AS but you are holding of KS, so not an issue. Bid 5C king asking. You receive a 5D response which is 0 or 3 Kings, it can’t be 3 as you have two kings. So no kings.

Time to evaluate your hand. What do you know you have 5 or 6 Ss, 3 aces, 2 kings, a solid D suit of AKQJ, AQJ652X of Cs. You are missing 1 ace and 2 kings. You don’t have to worry about the KH due to your singleton A, you will lose AS, so only card that is a concern is KC.

Bid 6S, no guts no glory.

Your partner is pleased to see your hand when it is laid down as dummy. Except for the A there are no gaps in Ss as they run from K through to 6 with a spare 2.

A common lead was a H which is won in Dummy with A. Time to come to your hand with 9S and overtake with Q. N has a decision to make play AS now or hold off. If they do play A immediately what do they play next, the only possible winner would be KC, if they were following the bidding they would know W has AC. Irrespective of what is lead eventually you will end in Dummy, after ruffing your H in Dummy and drawing all Ss, you will play 2C towards your AT, if K is not played then finesse with T play AC back to Dummy through D and play QC it will now probably get covered so ruff in hand and back to through Ds and play your winning Cs. Making.

Should KC be in the N hand you will go one down.