The games at duplicate are frequently exciting and high voltage, a thirteen bid such as this hand is not at all unusual. Unlike at regular spades, here you can often find partners who will use advanced spades techniques such as signaling and finessing - this makes the games much more interesting.

Of course if you are going to bid aggressively (as you have to at duplicate) you also have to play correctly. Here we see E/W using advanced techniques of signaling and double-finessing to make their shakey bid, and in fact take one more to get the set. What about N/S, they bid aggressively - did their play not match their bidding?

9432 AJ4 A43 864 J105 K82 KJ75 AK3 6 Q9653 1092 J1097 AKQ87 107 Q86 Q52 West North East South 4 3 1 5

The Play: 1. North leads 8. 9, Q, K, West wins. 2. West leads A, 6, J, 5, West wins. 3. West leads 3, 4, 10, 2, East wins. 4. East leads 10. 8, 7, A, North wins. 5. North leads A, 3, 7, 8, North wins. 6. North leads J, Q, 10, 2, East wins. 7. East leads 2, 6, J, 4, West wins. 8. West leads K, 4, 5, 7, South wins. 9-12. South leads four rounds of spades, won by N/S. 13. West wins the setting trick with the K. On this hand N/S where set, did they overbid, or did they simply misplay the hand?

North doesn't want to lead from a suit headed by an Ace, so she chooses the 8 as a "top of nothing" lead. West wins, and leads the A, noting that this time partner drops the J, which being the master club indicates the 10. This is a really good signal by East, and the lead of the 3 now picks up an extra trick for East won with the 10.

Now it is East's turn to make a "top of nothing lead", and he leads the 10. Here we see the strong value of the top of nothing lead, West correctly reads this as N/S having the AQ between them, and takes the double finesses against both the Ace & Queen by playing the 7.

Since the 10 pushed out the A, everyone at the table can now place the high cards in Diamonds. North therefore tries to avoid diamonds by playing the hearts, but East grabs the lead with Q, and immediately leads the 2 to complete the finesse against the Q leading to the set.

Well done East/West! Signaling proves its value! But hold on a moment, not so fast ... Only a 44% result for this? How is this possible? Perhaps E/W are really dunderheads after all.

Maybe the cards are so stacked against N/S that lots of other E/W also got the set, do you think so? (This would imply lots of others South's bid 5 with AKQxx of spades - can this be correct taking the bid to 13?).

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