Hand of week 28 March 2026

27^th March Board 11

This board is one where all players are participants with decisions to make. S is dealer and with 4hcp passes.

W with a balanced hand and 13 hcp bids 1NT. Decision time for N holding with 17hcp.

S. J93

H

D. AK985

C. AKQ54

what to bid, you could bid 2D and if opps bids, bid 3C. Not really a good method, because you want to describe as quickly as possible. There are various conventions to defend against 1NT. Some of them are Pottage (Capeletti), Landy, Multi Landy and Brozel, to name a few. But none of them are fit for purpose in this case. The convention that is the Unusual 2NT, which shows both minors. Bid 2NT. E has the following hand

S. QT865.

H. QJT94

D. J3

C.  9

You know your partner is offering you at a minimum of 2 cards in the majors and considering Ns overcall probably more. Which suit to bid S or H, it should be H as you have 4 touching cards, whilst S has only 2 touching cards. Bid 3H.

Now it is S turn to make a decision, he/she has 4 cards in each minor plus 4 cards in H plus singleton S. Their highest card in both minors is 10, so his partner must be holding the honors. They should bid as between the 2 hands they are holding 18 cards in the minors. Also he can assume his partner has one or no cards in H but he has first round control with AH. S should bid D, so 4D. W may decide that as partner is offering 5 Hs, he can go to 4H, if they do, S still has option of bidding 5C. It is now N decision to either pass or rebid D but N is happy with C holding AKQxx. Despite only holding 4hcp S should bid on to game even if it ends up as a sacrifice. As it turns out there are 5 of each minor.

Hand below: