2NT was Jacoby, showing a game-forcing Heart raise.  Using the standard responses to this convention, South’s 3♣ shows Club shortness.  This improves the North hand enormously, as there is no high-card wastage opposite that shortness, meaning that all of the North high-cards are working.  North’s hand may have only 14 HCP but slam looks most likely.  However, suppose that South had shown Diamond shortness … now there is serious wastage of high cards and the North hand is not nearly as good.

The standard Jacoby responses worked pretty well on this deal, but, if the truth be told, those responses are not particularly effective, there is a better way!  Please follow the link.

After North opens 1♠, East might try a jump cue-bid.  What does this mean?  Here is the most common interpretation:

-         If (as here) the jump cue-bid is a major then it says “Bid 3NT if you have their suit stopped.  The bid is usually based on a long running minor suit.

-         If the jump cue-bid is a minor then it is natural and preemptive, based of course on length in Opener’s suit.

Having said that, the actual East hand might be considered somewhat slammish for a 3♠ jump cue-bid, in which case doubling 1♠ and bidding Diamonds later is quite reasonable.

Three choices here:

-         Pass? No, not when holding a big fit with Partner, and an Ace, and a singleton.  Altogether too feeble!

-         1♥? It’s not much of a suit, but Hearts may well be the place to play.

-         3♦? Assuming that you are playing Inverted Minors, 3♦ would be preemptive and supposedly denies a 4-card major.  But it’s not much of a 4-card major and it seems reasonable here (at least to us) to jam the auction with a Diamond preempt.

You can take your pick between 1♥ and 3♦, either might work.  We rather like 3♦ but that might be because we have seen the whole hand.

West’s 3♦ was preemptive (with at least 5 Diamonds and supposedly with no 4-card major).  What next?  Do you bid 3NT?  We don’t think so.  Even if the Diamonds come in for five tricks and even if West has a Club stopper (say Jxx), that is still unlikely to be more than eight tricks.  Sure, 3NT will make opposite some 3♦ preempts, but not very often, we suspect.

South has an in-between sort of hand.  The Law of Total Tricks tells us that this hand should compete up to the 3-level, based on the 9-card Heart fit.  But South is too good to bid 3♥ immediately (that would be preemptive) and not good enough to cue-bid 2♠ (that would be game-invitational).  So, playing standard methods, the solution is to bid 2♥ here, and to be prepared to compete later to the 3-level if necessary.

However, there is a useful gadget for this hand, namely “Constructive Raises in Competition”.  Playing that gadget, over East’s 1♠, South bids 3♣ or 3♦ to show a four-card raise and a half-decent hand, in other words, something in between a preempt and a game invitation.  One common treatment is that bidding 3♣ is a constructive raise with a singleton, and that 3♦ is a constructive raise without a singleton.

On the actual deal E-W will get to 4♥ with or without this gadget.  But if they happen to have that constructive raise available it makes it more difficult for West to support Spades and for E-W to find their good 4♠ save.

The question is “Should East be making a slam try with this hand?”  Perhaps he should, considering that West might hold something like: ♠ Ax, ♥ AQx, ♦ Axx, ♣ AQxxx.  With that perfecto there are no fewer than 13 tricks in No Trump or Hearts, and it must be possible to come up with a number of semi-perfectos where 12 tricks are possible.  So, maybe East should try: 2NT 3♦, 3♥ 4♥.  Assuming that E-W are playing Texas, going to game the slow way (via a Jacoby Transfer) is played by most as a mild slam try.

After North gets Clubs into the auction, East shows extra values with his Double.  What is your call with that South hand?  Sure, it’s only one HCP, and yes, N-S are vulnerable, but even so, with that magnificent distribution, South should be bidding a large number of Clubs here.  How many?  We’d say that 5♣ is about right.  On a good day it might make and if it doesn’t then it will probably be a good sacrifice against a N-S game.  And, of course, by bidding the limit of the hand directly, we apply maximum pressure on the opponents, making them guess at the five-level.

What’s your bid as East?  It’s conceivable that West has the ♥AQ and ♣A, in which case East can count 11 tricks.  Where would the 12^th trick be found?  Perhaps West will have a doubleton Diamond, in which case Declarer (West) can hope to ruff the ♦Q out, failing which he can hope for the doubleton ♣Q, and if that fails then there is always the Spade finesse.  So we would say that 6♥ is (just about) worthwhile if West has the perfect hand.  East could try 4NT (Roman Key Card) but that might get E-W dangerously high if West has an unsuitable hand, such as: ♠ xx, ♥ AJTxxx, ♦ xxx. ♣ xx.  One solution is to use 4♣ here as Roman Key Card, which on the actual deal would allow East to try for slam and get out at the four-level.  Another wrinkle here is that some players like to modify the Roman Key Card responses, when made by a preemptor, to the following:

            1^st Step            No Key Cards

            2^nd Step           One KC, no trump Queen

            3^rd Step            One KC, with trump Queen

            4^th Step            Two KC, no trump Queen

            5^th Step            Two KC, with trump Queen

The logic of these revised responses is that it is not possible to have a preemptive hand with three or more Key Cards (assuming that 10 HCP is your max for a Weak Two).

Anyway, after all that science, it turns out that West has an unsuitable hand for slam but that 12 tricks can be made anyway, with the aid of a couple of finesses.

West has a pretty good hand and slam is a possibility if Partner has the right hand.  So, rather than just bidding game, West might decide to try a MinMax asking bid.  As is commonly played, a bid of 2NT here asks for more information, and the responses are as follows:

-         3♣: 3-card support, minimum.

-         3♦: 3-card support, maximum

-         3♥: 4-card support, minimum

-         3♠: 4-card support, maximum

You can embellish these responses by agreeing that 4♣ and 4♦ would be splinters and on the actual hand, West would love to hear a splinter bid.  But, alas, he doesn’t, he gets a response of 3♦.  Slam is still possible, and some E-W pairs might bid it anyway.  That turns out be unlucky when North has an obvious ♦Q lead and 6♠ is down one in a hurry.  The real trick on this hand is to play 6♠ from the East side but we have yet to figure out how that might be done.

What are your choices?

-         A Pusillanimous Pass?  Perish the thought!

-         A Club Raise?  No, it wouldn’t do to give up on Hearts completely.

-         A Boisterous 2♥? No, that would be an over-bid.  Much as we like the 6^th Heart, the singleton in the enemy suit and the Club fit, Partner will expect us to have more high-card values for this bid.

-         A Negative Double? That would be our second choice.

-         A Preemptive 3♥?  That’s the ticket!  Sure the suit could be better, but it’s a hand with lots of offense (thanks in part to the Club fit) and very little defense.  Such hands should be preempted, especially at this vulnerability.

After you bid 3♥, suppose that South bids 3♠ (just barely) and North raises.  Back to you (East).  Yes, at this vulnerability, we would try 5♣.  Of course, if this were to work out badly, we can look forward to the standard lecture from Partner, the one that goes “Once you have preempted you have told me your hand, you’re not supposed to bid again”.  But, as it happens,  5♣ doubled is a fine save against 4♠, down two tricks for -300.  So there will be no lecture, instead it’ll be “Nice bid, Partner!”

Let’s assume that East’s 1NT was a Forcing No Trump, and that you are faced with this rebid problem.  Do you make the “obvious” call of 2♦?  We don’t think so.  That splendid Heart suit passes for a six-bagger and 2♥ is surely more descriptive than introducing a 3-card Diamond suit.

Would you open the North hand?  It does pass the Rule of 20, but it’s a hand with flaws.  The doubleton ♥KQ is considerable wastage, look how much better the hand would be if it were: ♠ KQ85, ♥ 42, ♦ AQ983, ♣ 65.  Now that does look like an opening bid!  It’s a basic fact that it’s generally better to have the high cards in the long suits, and our own choice would be to pass the actual North hand.

If North passes, N-S will go plus, defending a Heart part-score.  But, if North does open the bidding with that motley assortment then N-S will get a minus score, going down in 3♠ or 4♠.

Would you use Michaels with the North hand?  Some partnerships have the agreement that Michaels should be used with good hands or bad hands, but not with middling hands (let’s say that covers the 11-15 range, or thereabouts).  Given that agreement, North would be strong enough for a “good” Michaels, her plan being to bid again later.  On the actual deal, the auction would continue:

            North   East     South   West

                        Pass    Pass    1♠

            2♠        3♠        Pass    Pass

            ??

Now, North should double, announcing the “good Michaels” and inviting Partner’s opinion.

North’s 2♠ was Michaels, showing Hearts and a minor.  East will want to raise Spades here and it will be a choice between a cue-bid of 3♥ (showing game-invitational values) or a competitive 3♠ (showing less than a game-invitation).  With 10 HCP it is fairly close, but let’s not overlook that square shape (take a point off for that) and the appalling absence of Tens and Nines.  All in all, it’s not enough for a game-invitation, we’d bid 3♠.

How about doubling 2♠, is that an option?  It is for some people, those who like to play that the Double here shows a hand that would have raised to 2♠ in the absence of a Michaels bid.  But it’s more common for this bid to be used as showing general values.

Do you open the West hand?  We wouldn’t.  If you like the Rule of 20, you will know that square 12-counts don’t pass the test … and if you don’t like that Rule then hopefully you have got into the habit of deducting a point from those square hands.  So, let’s suppose that you pass as West and then hear East open 1♦.  What now?  Do you bid your 4-card Spade suit or trot out 2NT?  We suggest the latter, all those Queens look rather No Trumpish to us.

It would be criminal not to bid here, in third seat, non-vulnerable.  The only question is whether to open 1♠ or 2♠.  The problem with opening 2♠ is that the hand has a fair amount of defense, and not a lot of offense (no singleton to start with).  Also, if we open 2♠, then North might take it upon herself to sacrifice, a course of action which could be too expense or may be a phantom save.  No, a light 1♠ is the way to go here, we think.

Here are West’s options:

-         Pass: Not unreasonable (but on the actual deal the defense takes the first seven tricks against 1NT).

-         2♣ planning to use Garbage Stayman: This will work out badly if East is 2-2 in the majors, but on the actual deal it gets E-W to 2♥ on a 4-3 fit.  Declarer can make 9 tricks with careful play.

-         2♣ planning to pass 2♦: This finds the 5-4 fit and it turns out that there are no fewer than 11 tricks available (but only with very fine play by Declarer).

Any of these three choices could work on any given day.  Our own preference is to bid 2♣, though we are not sure whether we then prefer to pass 2♦ or use Garbage Stayman.  Probably depends on the day of the week.