Hand 1. North deals, none vul.

	xx xx J98 AKxxxx
xxx KJ10xxx Q642 --		AQJxxx A9 107 Qxx
	K10 Qxx AK53 J10xx

West	North	East	South
	Pass	1	Dbl
2	3	3	Pass
Pass	4	Pass	Pass
Pass

Both tables reached 4 -- with the above auction at my table and with the same auction except with West bidding 2 instead of 2 at the other.

Standard practice is that after an opening of one of a suit and a double, new suit bids at the 2-level are non-forcing (but new suit bids at the 1-level are; these are treated as though the double hadn't happened). This is in contrast with after an overcall, after which 1-level bids are the same but new suits at the 2-level show 10+ points (similar to what new suits at the 2-level mean when not in competition). (The logic of this is that double is a stronger action than an overcall and so you'll hold a good hand less often, and also with a good hand you can redouble after a double [this simply promises 10+ points].)

With this agreement, 2 feels right to me, though I wouldn't mind 2. Without discussion of this with your partner though, you're probably better off just bidding 2.

In this case, the 2 bid makes it easier for partner to compete to 3. Doing this without guaranteed support is risky at best (unless you think your partner was showing 10+ points with that 2 bid, in which case you should be fine).

West faces an interesting decision if East passes instead of competing:

West	North	East	South
	Pass	1	Dbl
2	3	Pass	Pass
?

My view is that it's probably right to compete to 3 given your club void, even though you don't have much in high-card strength. (Note that it's unfortunate you can't give partner the choice of 3 and 3, but so it goes.)

In any case, there isn't much to the play in 4... you lose one spade, two hearts, one diamond, and a club for down 2. This is -100 (50 points per trick when non-vul), which is better than the opponents making 3 (which is 140: it's 90 points in tricks plus 50 [duplicate scoring] for the partscore).

The real reason I've got this hand here, though, is that the play in 4 is amusing. Both 4 and 4 make (who knows how you get there), but the latter is just a bit more tenuous: swap the 5 and the 6 and it goes down. Try to figure out why before reading on, if you like.

Suppose the defense starts by cashing their AK, and plays a third round of diamonds. You're going to lose the K later on, and so you'll need to take the heart finesse (you should expect South to have heart length and probably the Q due to his takeout double), so you can't ever ruff a diamond in East.

Thus you win the Q. If you've been watching those diamond spots, you'll notice that the only two left are your 6 and South's 5! Draw trump and knock out the K to make.

If those two cards were swapped, you'd have no recourse: if you drew trump, you'd lose a diamond when you knock out the K. If you didn't, you'd be able to ruff the diamond in dummy, but would then lose a trump trick due to your inability to finesse for the Q.

Hand 2. None vul.

I held  AJ KQ9xxx x AKQx and opened 1. The auction came back to me:

Me	LHO	Partner	RHO
1	3	Pass	Pass
?

There are maybe five vaguely reasonable actions here: Pass, Double, 3NT, 4, and 4. (Choose what you'd do before reading my opinion, if you like.)

This is a huge hand and you're making 4 opposite as little as Jx from partner, so Pass is out of the question. 3NT doesn't sound right either (4 is most likely to be the correct contract).

The 4 bid seems too unilateral -- we don't fancy playing it opposite a singleton and a bad hand, and partner will never take us out of it. Still, it's not completely without merit.

A 4 bid seems perfect, but partner will likely leave you there with xx and xxx and a terrible hand (pard will assume you're 5-5), which you don't want. With a slightly better than terrible hand (say holding that A), partner should probably correct to 4 with these holdings to put you in game, so it's not all that bad. Partner should also, with Jx, correct to 4 even with 4 clubs (which we want), so this bid will do what we want a good percentage of the time -- a reasonable alternative.

Finally, there's the takeout double. This seems rather odd on this hand, but you're prepared for most anything partner can do: a Pass for penalty is great (our AJ should do well on defense), 3NT could be the right place if partner chooses it (though it's tempting to pull to 4 or 4), over 4 we correct to 4,and over 4 we've got our choice of raising to 5 or correcting to 4. These corrections show more general playing strength and more doubt about the final contract than an immediate 4 (which we want). The only terrible response would be 5, but partner should be prepared for us not having great support for both minors (we could very easily have a doubleton, and will sometimes, as now, be shorter), so pard should have some pretty good diamonds (hopefully 6+) for this bid.

In any case, when I held the hand, I doubled. Pard came back with 4 (!) and I, caught up in the moment, raised to 5 (I briefly considered 4, but the fact that partner had selected my AKQx suit instead of my singleton persuaded me to raise). 5 needs one of the three of A, K, and A to make, and fortunately pard had the A (and in addition the J10, so hearts makes five too).

In retrospect (and after discussion), I'm warming up to 4 over 4, but am not entirely convinced. Partner will be able to pull occasionally, but probably not often enough (I'd hate to see dummy come down with a singleton heart and the diamond Ace, going down most of the time with 5 cold). An immediate 4 bid may be the middle of the road between Double-4-4 and Double-4-5 and the winner after all.

Hand 3. North deals, E/W vul.

	AKJ8x Axx xx Qxx
Q9x KJxxx Ax Kxx		xxx Qxx xx Jxxxx
	10x xx KQJ10xxx Ax

West	North	East	South
	1	Pass	2
2	Pass	Pass	3
Pass	3	Dbl	Pass
Pass	3	Pass	4
Pass	Pass	Pass

North opened 1 and I, South, responded 2. In Standard American, this shows 10+ points and thus my hand was perfect. My partner and I were playing that "2 over 1" bids of this type were game-forcing, however, and we had 1NT (which partner would never pass and could be any hand with 6-12 points) and also our own (not as standard) toy of using a jump to 3 of a suit as invitational with 6+ cards in that suit (ie perfect for this hand). I forgot about this 3 bid and my distaste for being declarer in notrump as well as my 7 nice diamonds persuaded me to overstate my hand a bit. If you like, just pretend it's a Standard American auction.

West now came in with an atrocious 2 bid. When the opponents have shown the majority of the strength, you need a good suit to bid (your goal is to let your partner know what to lead and perhaps to suggest a sacrifice, perhaps also while jambing their auction, but this 2 bid really doesn't do that). Without that, you're risking a big penalty (especially vulnerable) as well as giving the opponents information on how to play the hand.

North passed this, hoping I could double with a decent hand and 3 hearts (doubling in the direct seat should show good trumps, almost always four, and a defensive hand, whereas doubling in the balancing seat should show 3 or more trump and a decent hand for defense). My hand had an absolute minimum of defense and so I bid 3. Partner wanted me to be declarer in 3NT if I had a heart stopper, and also was somewhat uncertain whether the A was enough of a stopper, and so he bid 3, asking me whether I had a stopper. East doubled, telling West it was fine to lead a heart if I (South) ended up as declarer. With nothing especially to say, I passed the buck back to partner (I'd bid 3 with Kx for example).

Partner now didn't want to play 3NT because presumably the opponents' hearts would set up after knocking out the A, and we'd probably have to lose a diamond or so to West if my diamonds weren't solid (ie AKQxxx). Thus he tried 3, showing five good spades (he had 3 of the top 5) as he probably would have bid 2 or 3 earlier with six of them. My 10x now looked pretty good and so I raised to four.

The play in 4 is interesting. East led a low heart which North allowed West to win so that he'd be able to trump the second round. West now has a problem. Given his Q9x, North undoubtedly has AKJxx and will be able to ruff a heart, draw trump with no losers, and then knock out the A to set up the diamonds with the A still in dummy, making five. (If he didn't have the A entry, West could just duck the first diamond and take the second, preventing North from ever reaching dummy again). Thus West needs to attack that A entry.

The way to do this is to lead the K. If partner has the Queen, this is fine. If declarer has it, leading low would allow declarer to win in hand, preserving the Ace entry in dummy. If declarer ducks the King, you'll just lead another to force out the Ace. This counter-intuitive play is called the Merrimac Coup or Deschapelles Coup.

As it turns out, on this hand, North now has no club losers, ruffing the third club as well as the third heart in dummy. Now North loses a spade (because he can't take the finesse), but he only loses this, the heart, and the diamond, to make four.

Perhaps this can be forseen as well and thus isn't such a good idea. West can basically work out the entire hand. Perhaps his best shot is to hope declarer started with AK8xx and partner with Jxx and thus to lead a spade.

Actually, further analysis yields that if this is the case, basically any lead now will defeat the contract, even the K, because after ruffing a club and a heart in dummy, North will have no way back to his hand to draw trump and E/W will score two trump tricks. Thus maybe the K is better as it saves a trick against the actual layout :) (they make four instead of five). Additionally, it's the only lead to beat the contract if declarer actually has the J instead of the Q and pard has the Q10 (well, any club will do in that case, but it's best to play the King).

If there hadn't been a 2 overcall, N/S would probably end up in 3NT by North, as there would be less worry about hearts. East wouldn't know to lead a heart, and would probably lead a club (though a heart, a possibility, would hit paydirt).

The club lead attacks dummy's club entry, but this only has the effect of holding declarer to three, as declarer can still get 1 diamond, 2 clubs, 1 heart, and 5 spades (with the finesse). To do this, declarer needs to hop up with the A or else West will switch to hearts, setting up heart tricks. Thereafter, declarer will make at most 8 tricks (if he decides to finesse in spades), but probably only 7 (by taking the safer line of setting up the diamonds given that the club entry still exists, for then the defense gets four heart tricks and a diamond in addition to the club King).

After hopping up with the A, declarer will need to finesse in spades and then get back to dummy with a diamond (West must duck else declarer has set up diamonds and has an entry to them) to lead a club, setting up the Queen.

Actually this isn't quite necessary on this layout: you can still make without leading clubs from dummy, and can indeed still make it if South gives East his small club in exchange for e.g. a diamond: declarer wins the club Ace, cashes a diamond (West can't win else dummy's diamonds set up) and finesses and runs spades, squeezing West. West will be down to  -- KJx A Kx when North cashes the last spade and clearly can't let go of the diamond Ace. If he lets go a club, North can duck a club to set up the Q. Thus he needs to toss a heart, but then North can endplay him in the end to lead away from his Kx, giving North his ninth trick. This "strip squeeze" seems obscure, but it's really your only shot if South started with the stiff A and an extra diamond.

Of course, unless your A were singleton, you probably shouldn't hop up with the A unless you strongly suspect West has the K. If you play low and West doesn't have it, you can knock out the A to make. If you hop up with the A and take the first (simpler) line above (the second requires even more), not only will you need West to have it, but you'll also need spades to be 3-3 with the Queen onside. Also, even if West does have the K, he may not switch to a heart but may continue with another club, attacking dummy's entry. Then you're in basically the same position as above.