Competitive bidding

Contract : 3
Lead: Three of Spades

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

The bidding: East opens and, after consultation of his partner's little paper, can announce 2.
Now South will ask for North's little paper (advice 14.4) and, checking that there are 25 points in the two hands bids higher at 3.

Before making them play the deal, ask East to reflect on his lead. Remind him that his partner bid a contract in Spades and that shows he has at least five Spades. So impose the lead of 3 of Spades (advice 14.5).

Then let them play the deal - which is difficult. At the end come back gently to the game plan and show that South had in fact two game plans available:

Point out that to trump the Spades South must come back into hand each time; that's difficult for him because he does not have many communications. If he gives the lead to his opponents, they will be able to play Trumps to stop him trumping in. So show that playing on the Clubs is the easiest. Ask which Club South should play first (advice 14.6).

Profit from this example to explain that East has the option of taking or "letting pass" the Jack of Clubs and show that if East takes the first Club, South will easily go into dummy to take three established tricks, whereas taking the second makes the task of the declarer more difficult (advice 14.7).

Once the deal has been explained, get it played again but this time by East in the contract of 2. Show that he loses, at the worst, two Trumps, two Clubs and a Diamond (if he doesn't find the Queen), and so show that with the same deal it is possible for one side to win a contract with one Trump suit and the other side to win a higher contract with a different Trump suit (advice 14.8).

At the end, draw the conclusion by explaining that although the number of H points is a fixed amount, the number of distribution points varies according to the splits: therefore it is perfectly possible that in a deal like this one they are 23 DH points in Est-West to play 2 and 25 DH points in North-South to play 3 (advice 14.9).