A Grand and Some Gadgets — by Greg Coles

This particular board happened along about half way through the night. I'd been pretty happy with our game up to this point when this interesting hand and sequence of events presented itself.

	A 7 6 A 9 7 5 4 J 3 2 Q J
Q J 10 8 4 3 2 — Q 5 4 6 3 2		5 J 10 2 10 8 7 6 10 9 8 7 5
N-S Vul	K 9 K Q 8 6 3 A K 9 A K 4

West 2 Pass Pass Pass

North Pass¹ 4 NT 5 7

East Pass Pass Pass All Pass

South 2 3 5 6

1. Alerted as showing game forcing values.

7 by South

I will explain some of the bids, but you should note that none of the bids except North's first pass are alertable until after the auction has ended. The rule in this regard is that no bids above 3NT are alertable from opener's second bid onward. You may find it unusual to alert a Pass but since it conveys special information to my partner that is what she needs to do. This treatment that we play when there is interference over our 2 opening is a handy little gadget that comes up on a surprisingly frequent basis. What we do is when there is any interference over our 2 opening we will pass to show a non-bust and we will double (or re-double if the interference was a double) to show a bust hand. After the "game forcing" pass the 2 opener is still able to convert to penalty by doubling at their next turn to bid. I won't go into all of the possible treatments at this time, but suffice to say that I find it to be a very useful partnership agreement that you should consider if you are in a regular partnership, but like any convention you need to ensure that you fully understand the possible sequences and follow-ups before adopting it. Now please go back and read the preceding sentence because I really cannot stress its importance enough.

After my game forcing pass of 2 I was surprised to say the least that my partner's next bid was 3. Looking at 5 hearts in my hand that was about the last thing I expected her to bid. With the known 10 card fit and my 12 HCP's I knew we were playing in at least a small slam so I launched into Roman Key Card Blackwood 1430. After getting the expected 5 response (showing 3 or 0 key cards) I bid 5. This asks for the trump queen. How this works is anytime after getting a 5 or 5 response to RKC Blackwood if the Blackwood bidder then bids the lowest non-trump suit they are asking about the trump queen. If the responder does not have the trump queen then they bid trump at the lowest level possible. If they have the trump queen they are to bid their lowest suit that they have a king in providing it is below the trump suit. If it is in a suit higher than the trump suit then they reply 5NT. For instance here, if South had the K but not the K or K then they would bid 5NT in response to the 5 ask. Again as above, if you are to play this convention it is vital that you understand all of the follow ups. Once my partner had showed the K I figured my QJ were worth an upgrade and jumped straight to 7.

There really isn't much to the play in 7 as you can see looking at the hands above. Declarer wins any opening lead and pulls trump then plays three rounds of clubs discarding a diamond from dummy on the third round. Declarer can then ruff their third diamond in dummy - making seven. An easy grand to play is always a fun grand to play and partner was quickly claiming.

There was a temptation to bid 7NT with my hand and as it turns out it is a shame that I didn't. While there are only 12 top tricks available in a no trump contract there is a squeeze for a 13th trick and with West being brave enough to make the 2 overcall it would have been an easy one to find. I am not going to go into an in-depth discussion on squeeze play at this time but for those who are interested I will go through how it would have played out on this particular hand.

On the inevitable spade lead it is vital that Declarer wins it in Dummy with the K. This is because the A must be preserved as an entry back to hand after the squeeze card has been played. After winning this trick Declarer plays five rounds of hearts, the two top diamonds and then three rounds of clubs (win the first club in the north hand and the last two in the south hand). Here is the layout (East's hand is not shown as it is immaterial) as South is about to lead to the 11th trick:

	A 7 — J —
Q J — Q —
	9 — 9 A

As Declarer leads the last club from Dummy West is squeezed. If they drop the Q then Declarer discards a spade and wins the last two tricks with the A and the J. If West discards a spade declarer discards the J and wins the last two tricks with the A7. This squeeze will always work provided that West started with the Q and East starts with either less than 3 spades or if East does have 3 spades, none higher than the 5.