Once a week during the winter in Florida, I teach a group of men. After they learned all of the basics, we concentrated on the bidding conventions that I thought they should know: weak two-bids, Stayman, transfers into the majors and negative doubles. And we covered leads and signals. Once they had those straight, they decided they would prefer to shuffle and deal so they would not know the themes of my prepared deals. And these guys really knew how to shuffle. There were four interesting deals, with which we will start the week.

South bid one heart with a hand that is worth a two-club opening in trick-taking potential, but is relatively low in point-count terms. (The guideline here is to open two clubs with a one-suiter, but to open in a suit with a two-suiter -- unless both opponents are yawning and looking out of the window, making it plain that they will not come into the auction!)

West might have doubled over one heart, but to double, then to bid two diamonds if partner advances with two clubs, traditionally shows a hand with 18 to 20 high-card points.

North raised to two hearts, of course. East passed because his heart king wasn't looking good. And South took the sure plus by jumping to four hearts.

How does one find six hearts if partner has the heart king instead of the diamond king?

Goodness knows! A four-diamond splinter bid shows a void in this position because a slam is so unlikely otherwise. But my group has not met this gadget yet.

Of course, six hearts is borderline, being on a finesse into the overcaller. Here, though, declarer had no trouble taking 12 tricks.

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