A psych backfires in the Spingold

Holding the South hand Vul against not, what is your bid? Nick Nickell found the magic psyche, a steal of ONE SPADE, shutting his opponents out of the spade fit. In fact the spade game made with a overtrick at the other table when Meckwell was +450.
Now, after Katz innocently raise to TWO SPADES, Nickell bid FOUR HEARTS.
The bidding tray stayed under the screen agonizingly long, and came back with FOUR SPADES! (Katz had taken FOUR HEARTS as a SPLINTER in support of SPADES, which it was in their partnership). Nickell corrected to FIVE HEARTS. More agony. No escaping with rebids in the modern bidding world. This was interpreted as Exclusion Blackwood (asking for key cards outside of hearts) and the bidding tray came back with SIX CLUBS. Now came SIX HEARTS doubled, and defended softly for -500. The loss being "only" 50 total points or 2 IMP. Instead of a possible double game swing or game swing.

spingold finals: Zia-Hamman bid and make a tough slam.

Zia,having ruffed the second diamond, makes the key play of finessing the first round of trump for an awesome result. The stakes are high (the spingold final against Zimmerman-Multon for Monaco.) In this set, Meckwell were sitting out, and Katz-Nickell were in the other room against the strong Helness-Helgemo. The Monaco pair made 4S +2 in the other room, so bidding the slam (the drive by HAMMAN ) and making it was a slam bonus pick up of 11 IMPs.

Jump rebid by Zia

I have always been fan of showing self-sufficient trump suits and about 17 HCP+ by a jump rebid. Witness how Zia and Hamman bid to this grand slam today in the Spingold semi final to win 11 IMP,
Zia S:xxx H:K D:AKQxxx C:Axx. Zia ONE DIAMOND, partner Hamman S:AKx H:AQx D:xx C:KJxxx
TWO CLUBS... ZIA THREE DIAAMONDS (my man!), Hamman (4D sets trump) Zia (4H cue)
Hamman (4NT) Roman Key Card Blackwood Zia (5D = 3 keys) Hamman (5H trump Q?) Zia (5NT) yes with a side king which is higher than the trump suit Hamman (7nt) = 13 tricos in NT a better proposition since if diamonds dont come in clubs might.
The lead by Versace is a small diamond away from the JTx and when all follow to a second D round Hamman claims his grand slam

A enterprising gambling bid finds a suitable dummy

When I held the hand you see under abhirar in the diagram, I had a weak two on my left and two passes to me. If I were playing leaping Michaels a convention where a jump to 4 in the minor shows exactly a good hand with 55 in the Other Major and 5 in the said minor, I would have trotted that out. But I wasnt. So I chose the unilateral gamble of FOUR HEARTS. The lead was a diamond, and I was able to play trumps up to my KQxxx twice, and manage to restrict my losers to three in spite of the AJTx xx break. I won 7.71 IMP for my courage. I had some company in the 60 table event.

Stayman Doubled and Redoubled.

My username on BBO is abhirar and I was returning after a long absence. On the first hand of a tournament, playing with a new partner, having just decided on 2/1 with gadgets (whatever that might imply), I held the 54 in majors invitational hand when partner opened a 1NT (15-17). Deciding to trot out Smolen, two clubs stayman with a prepared invitational rebid in case of two diamond response of my 4 card major, I bid TWO CLUBS. When LHO X'd this, partner lost no time redoubling and I sat it to play 2CLUBS XX at IMP. The rewards were rich as I learnt that 2Cxx +3 was 1160.

Early planning and endplay

Five Clubs was a bit of a audacious bid, but the proof of the pudding etc.. All along I was playing for the actual layout, when I played a heart up, LHO needed to just get in and out and sit back and wait for his/her diamond. When LHO played low, I played HQ winning, and played H to the Ace, last chance for LHO to unblock the HK under the Ace. When I cleared the third round of the suit, LHO was a sitting duck having to give me a ruff sluff or open up the diamonds. I was home.