There were a lot of interesting hands. I picked hand #14 for two reasons. In the first place it illustrates a common rebid problem for East about which I have never written. The play poses a problem for North-South, which could best be addressed by doing as little as the rules allowed. This is called a "passive defense".
Board #21
North dealer
North-South vulnerable
| | North
♠ J 10 2
♥ J 6 5 4
♦ 3
♣ A J 10 9 3
| | West
♠ K Q 9 6 3
♥ K 8 3 2
♦ K Q 8 7
♣ ——
| | East
♠ A 7 4
♥ Q
♦ J 9 6 4
♣ K Q 7 6 4
| | | South
♠ 8 5
♥ A 10 9 7
♦ A 10 5 2
♣ 8 5 2
| |
|
| | | | |
| South | West | North | East |
| | | 1♣ |
| P | 1♠ | P | 2♠ |
| P | 4♠ | P | P |
| P | | | |
The bidding: I sat South. Lori was West, and Rob was East. He started the bidding with 1♣. Only members of the "Old Fuddy Duddy" club would pass with this hand. It meets the Rule of 20 with one to spare. It has two quick tricks and only seven losers. The only problem is planning the second bid.
I had nothing to contribute. Lori, who also had an opening hand, bid her five-card spade suit. Rob rebid 2♠, a three-card raise that might have been considered outrageous twenty years ago, but that is now commonplace among virtually all good players.
After the hand Rob asked the table whether he made the right bid. Everyone agreed with his choice. What else could he do? He ABSOLUTELY CANNOT bid 2♦. That is a reverse—partner must bid at the three level in order to show a preference for his opening suit. In order to put that much pressure on responder, the opener should have at least seventeen points. 1NT is a better choice, but it does not describe the hand as well as the raise.
Lori went right to game. What if her fifth spade had been a club? She still would have had an opening hand. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a convention that would describe a game try when responder's major was raised by opener?
Eric Rodwell invented a method of handling the situation. The idea is to make a bid that allows responder to ask opener how many cards he had in the major and whether he was nearer the top or bottom in terms of high-card points. This convention is now commonly called "Spiral", but I learned it as "Q & Q". On the Internet several people call it the 3344 convention.
Here is how it would work on this hand: Lori's second bid would have been 2NT. This bid asks opener to further describe his/her hand (and should be alerted as such). Rob would show that he had a three-piece raise with minimum values with a response of 2♣. With the hand that she holds Lori would probably bid 4♠ anyway, but if her 3♠ had been the 3♣, she would sign off in 3♠.
The four responses by opener are: 3♣ for three pieces with a minimum; 3♦ for three pieces with a maximum; 3♥ and 3♠ show four-piece minimal and maximal hands respectively.
If the bidding had been in hearts rather than spades, most people still use 2NT to signal the start of the convention. Some people employ the "useful space principal" to designate 2♠ as the Spiral bid when the suit was hearts. In that treatment, a 2NT continuation would show 3-min, 3♣ would show 3-max, etc.
I have also read about using it after a 1♥-1♠-2♠ auction, but I have never played that.
With one regular partner I play a variation called "Reverse Spiral". It designates the four steps as 4-max, 4-min, 3-max, 3-min. This version works better if a slam is possible, but it is very important to start the convention with 2♠ when hearts is the suit.
As I mentioned, almost all good players raise responder's major with three pieces. Are there any occasions when one should NOT do it? A rule that I have followed even before I heard of Spiral was to raise with three only if the hand contained a singleton or void. Some people also require an honor in the suit, but I have had good results when raising with three spot cards. If anything, I would feel reluctant to raise with AKQ in partner's suit. I envision the trumps in the short suit being used for ruffing, not for drawing trump. Note: in a non-trivial number of cases, responder likes the news of the shortness more than she/he would appreciate an additional trump. This hand is a good example. If two of Rob's spot cards in clubs were instead low hearts, the play would be more dicey.
Important note: All of this refers to a single raise. A jump raise to 3♠ would show four pieces. I have never read anyone who disagrees with this.
The play: Ken (North) led his singleton. I considered returning the suit. Instead I played the ♥A and then led a trump. Lori let Ken win the trick with the 10. We were still in the ballgame at that point, but Ken lay down the ♣A, and Lori was able to take the remaining tricks. QED.
If I had led a trump at trick 2 and then another trump when I got in with the ♥A, I would have been the hero. Ken could have been the hero by leading another trump at trick 4.