Hand of the Week

North is Dealer and should open 1S. If partner responds 1NT or 2S then we're going to Game.  If partner can respond at the 2-level then I'm rebidding 2NT, game-forcing, and we might be thinking slam. (I don't think it's good enough for a strong 2D or 2NT opening.)

East passes (at our table East bid 2D; 3D weak might be OK) and South can pass or raise to 2S.  If East doubles or overcalls then 2S is a good bid, but here I think I pass and raise next round.

West can pass and 1S would become the contract.  I think West should find a bid here in balancing seat, and double is the only possibility.  This will bring After 1S - P - P - Dbl North wants to do something.  Partner has less than 6 points, but you don't want to sell out, so I quite like Redouble ! 1NT or even 2NT is an option I suppose.

East will bid 2D, maybe even 3D.  South could now show the hearts, or maybe support spades.  If South doesn't bid then North might go back to 2NT, they have diamonds stopped.  Game still seems a long way off for North-South, just find a safe landing place.

Always played by North, in spades or NoTrumps.   1S - all pass happened a few times. 9 tricks is the limit in spades on good defence, losing a spade, two hearts and a diamond.   Ace of diamonds lead sets up the KQ but there's nothing to discard from dummy. A low diamond loses a trick, never lead away from an ace against a suit contract ! If declarer leads a spade then West needs to play one of their QJ to avoid a deep finesse. And in hearts, if declarer leads low from dummy then West must play low, not the ace, and they will get two heart tricks.

2NT or 3NT contracts fail on a low diamond lead. Leading the ace of diamonds is really bad here, you need it to cash the diamonds. So the Jack please, top of an internal sequence, losing to the King.  But now West can win the ace of hearts, or a spade, and put a diamond back through the Queen.

4H makes for North-South, though it's hard to get to that contract !   The key here is that you can set up a diamond for a spade discard, no spade loser now.