Test your technique

This month’s hand comes from a Funbridge daily matchpoint tournament. Both the bidding and the play are instructive.

Dealer North. Both Vul.

West leads the ♦ J against your notrump slam. How would you plan to make twelve tricks?

The solution:

Let’s start with the bidding. After 1♠-2♣-2♠, how would you describe the South hand? You are too strong to just bid 3NT, but you do not want to commit to slam if partner has a minimum opening bid. There are many ways for you to set spades as trumps if you want to use RKCB: if you play 2/1, you can simply raise to Three Spades at your second turn, and if not then you can jump to Four Diamonds or Four Hearts, either of which would be a cue-bid agreeing spades. Having set spades, you could then Blackwood at your next turn. Using this immediate jump to 4NT as a quantitative bid though is the only way to describe this strength of hand with no spade fit.