Thought and decisive action needed, not 'bish bash bosh!' or 'creeping bids'

An interesting hand from 19.7.24, demonstrating many principles which must be applied even in difficult situations: 

N
♠ A Q 9 8 3
♥ 9 4 2
♦ Q 7 5 3
♣ J 
¨
S 
♠ K
♥ A K 10 7 6
♦ A K 10 9 8 6
♣ 2
Dealer W

West opens 3C and this is passed around to South. South's best call is 4C, showing a powerful 2-suiter but South actually decided on 3D.
This came to North who had a difficult decision to make: bid 5D or 3S? North decided that his partner would not pass 3S and he had to try to find a possible major fit. He bid 3S.
East then came in with 4C, which was poor. If East wanted to compete and/or make life difficult for the opponents, he needed to raise C immediately, not wait.

South should then have bid 4H but decided to raise North's 3S to 4S.
At this point, West came in with 5C, which is another mistake -- the pre-emptor does not bid again unless he must bid because his partner has made a forcing bid.
North was in the spotlight again and decided to bid 5D to allow South the chance to play in 5D or 5S. South was happy to pass 5D and the auction ended there.

The full auction was:

N        E       S       W
                             3C
P         P      3D     P
3S       4C    4S     5C
5D       P      P       P

5D can make plus 1. After a C lead and a S continuation, South has to preserve 2xD entries to Dummy. After drawing trumps with AD and KD, South will enter Dummy with QD but he must do so by playing 10D from his own hand. SAQ are then cashed and a Spade ruffed with 9D, setting up the fifth Spade and still with a D entry to Dummy. Tricks made are 6xD, 4xS and 2xH.

As it happens, 6H might also make with careful play. West has singleton QH, which is seen when South removes the first H with AH. If South has been left with 2xentries to Dummy (AS (overtaking KS) and QD), he can enter Dummy twice to pick up H's for no losers.

A fairly extreme hand but one which can be navigated by thoughtful bidding and play. 

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Much Machinery Needed ...

From 9.7.24

South opens 1H. There are some who will say that North should not immediately force, but North disagreed and he bid 2S, showing 16+pts and 5+S. This often works out better than just bidding 1S.

South should now bid 3C, showing the 5/4 distribution and North rebids his S, showing that he has 6.

Now, South has a number of options, but only if N/S are playing a full suite of slam conventions. These are South's options:

(i) 4C. A good bid if the partnership has an agreement that this is an advance cue bid -- agreeing S by implication and showing 1st or 2nd round control of C. Subsequent cue-bids might get the partnership to a grand slam in a controlled manner.
(ii) 4D. This will surely be taken in the same sense as (i). The possibility that South might want to introduce a new minor at the 4-level as a natural bid, is non-existent. 4D might, however, be taken as denying C control, as the suit has been by-passed.
(iii) 4NT. Pretty crude but it might work out. Playing RKCB, with S agreed by implication, North responds with 5D (0 or 3 key cards). South sees all key cards are held and can ask about QS by bidding 5H. North will bid 5NT, showing QS and no K's other than KS. South will probably sign out in 6S.
(iv) 5NT -- the most sophisticated bid of all though it uses up bidding space. This is known as a Grand Slam Force; it commits the partnership to 6S and is looking for 7S. In this case, North is invited to bid 7S with good outside controls, which he certainly has (both minor Aces). North should commit to 7S.

Barring a 5-0 S break, 7NT will make. Even with a 5-0 break, if the H finesse works (it does), there are squeeze chances against one hand holding 5xS and 4xC. No pairs got to the grand slam, only 2 out of the 6 North/Souths got to a small slam.
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Them's the Breaks

One from from 25.6.24  ....

N
♠ A K 7 6 3
♥ 9 5 4
♦ 3
♣ A K Q 8 
¨
S 
♠ J 8 4
♥ 8 7
♦ A 10 4
♣ 9 6 5 3 2

N in 4S

Neither N nor S were impressed with S's raise of 1S to 2S, but N was happy when he saw Dummy after a D lead. A 3-2 S break makes this easy ... 4xS; 5xC and 1xD. N briefly considered a line of play to cope with some 4-1 breaks but didn't carry it out. This line of play may cost an overtrick and could go down unnecessarily if C's are 3-1: after taking the first trick with AD, enter hand with AC and lead a low S. If  E holds QS and takes the S, it's easy to take his return, draw the rest of his trumps and enjoy the long C's. If E refuses the S and the J wins, it's necessary to lead another S and, should W show out (as he will), duck the S to E, later removing the rest of his trumps. It turns out that E holds ♠ Q 10 5 2 and C's are 2-2, so this line brings home the contract.

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