Aggressive bidding is what makes duplicate fun, most hands are slightly overbid, and the hands played aggressively (there is very little of the annoying bagging game). However, there is a difference between slightly overbidding, and overbidding too much as this hand shows.

A875 AJ9 3 98653 K643 K2 72 AQ1084 Q10 8654 KJ8654 J J92 Q1073 AQ109 K2

First of all, look at the North hand. At regular spades, this is clearly a 3 bid, a 4 bid would be too high. At duplicate a 4 bid may also be appropriate - as two North players actually bid.

On table 1, East bid nil and made it (this was the wrong bid, the nil should have been easily set - all North had to do was overtake K with the A at trick 12 for the double set). However, in this case partner bid 5 with the West hand - and got set. This is clearly an overbid, for two reasons. The Kxxx is bid for 2, and Kx is bid for 1; these are both pushing the envelope a bit, therefore bidding the AQxxx for 2 is too much. Finally, when defending a nil, this should be a 4 bid anyway.

On table 2, East bid 2 and got set, taking the 0%. Here the clear principle of "with only 2 spades bid conservatively" was violated, and E/W dearly paid for overbidding. Although 2 tricks do look possible with the East hand, whenever you have only 2 spades, bid conservatively (if nothing else to protect partner). Thus a bid of 1 is clearly called for (as the other three East's properly bid).

On tables 3, 4 and 5, East correctly bid 1. However, look at table 5, there West only bid 3! For such cowardly underbidding at duplicate, the E/W took a deservedly low score of 26%.

One could argue that N/S at Table #2 underbid, however since they did set their opponents, they got a 75% score. This brings up a very interesting question. In normal spades at 4th hand we reduce our bid to avoid a 13 bid. Did N/S do this at Table 2? If so, is this the right strategy for duplicate, or should we be less afraid of 13 bids at duplicate?

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Finally when you do come join us, take to heart this lesson about duplicate: be aggressive and overbid a little, but don't overdo it and overbid so much you get set.

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