What a wild hand to start the game! North opens 1NT, experts in the East chair should know better than to come in on junk like this, and South bids 3NT confidently. West is expected to pass quietly at least 99 times out of 100, but this is that rare occasion where bidding seems a good bet! North doubles and South has no reason to pull: 430 might be a possibility but 500 is more likely. North leads a club and South's king drops West's queen. South switches to a spade, ruffed by West, who continues with a low heart. North wins and plays the T♣, dummy and South covering, and West ruffs again. A second heart is led and North plays low, allowing South to win the king. This is the type of situation that should turn the surface temperature of your chair up to 500 degrees. If you don't lead a trump at this point, West escapes for down only one!! West ruffs any black card in hand, ruffs his third heart in dummy, and ruffs another black card back to his hand, losing only a trump, a club, and two hearts. South should really lead the T♦ at trick two, based on the auction alone. 7-5-1-0 is about normal for intervening into a 1NT-3NT auction. Two good questions that will have been answered today: 1) how many mentees will be brave enough to bid 4♦? 2) How many mentors will sit there calmly when 4♦ comes out of partner's box, without grimacing or rolling their eyes? If North or South tries 4NT, eleven tricks are routine as long as declarer guesses the clubs right, playing a high honour first and then finessing East out of the other one. But who expects 460 when the possibility of 500 seems so good?
RESULT: 4DXw-2, 300NS, 50%

After East opens 1♦ and South overcalls 1♠, 2♥ is forcing but 3♥ is a better, more descriptive call, and the jump may keep North from muddling the auction further. East bids 3♠ to suggest notrump if West has a stopper, and West bids 4♥. The 7♦ lead seals West's fate, although to West it looks like the deal of the century. But when West wins the K♦ and leads another back, hoping to get rid of the club loser on the third round, the roof caves in and poor West has a trump, a ruff, two spades and a club to lose. Playing ace and another trump is no better when trumps turn up 3-1. North still gets to ruff a diamond and the defense gets the same tricks. Unlucky, but common, so no great loss in matchpoints.
RESULT: 4Hw-2, 100NS, 40%

What a deal! I am all set to open 1♣ in second seat when it hits me that I have no easy rebid if partner responds 1♠, which is the most likely response based on my distribution. 2♦ or 2♥ would be a reverse and promise about an ace more than a minimum opener. Do I have an opener if my A♥ or A♦ is a small heart or diamond? No, so not enough strength to reverse. I certainly cannot rebid 1NT with a spade void, and 2♣ as a rebid seems kind of weak with two other four-card suits. So I open 1♦ instead and rebid 2♣ over partner's expected 1♠ response. Surprise: partner raises clubs: now what? I decide on a 3♥ call, to suggest notrump if partner can bid it. Partner instead leaps to 5♦, which likely shows 5=1=3=4 or 4=2=3=4 distribution. (Read that sentence again after I tell you that distributions with equals signs indicate not general shapes but specific suits: 4=1=4=4 is specifically a singleton heart.) It doesn't often happen that opening the wrong minor to avoid a rebid problem leads to partner picking the wrong suit, but this is that case, and since 5♦ is unlikley to make I need to correct to 6♣. The opening lead is a heart and I set about crossruffing after crossing to dummy at trick two with a trump. I ruff a spade, cash a heart and ruff one, ruff a second spade, ruff my last heart (noting that North discards a diamond), then ruff a third spade with the K♣, dropping North's ace. North began with three hearts and three spades. I need clubs to break 2-2 to make this, so I lead my J♣ to dummy's queen, and clubs do break. North began with 3=3=5=2 and pitched a diamond on the fourth heart, which means North's last four cards are diamonds, South starting with only one...and I'm home! I cash the king of spades and lead a diamond from dummy: if South plays an honour I will win and lead a diamond through North toward the jack. South plays low and I put in the ten. North wins and is endplayed into giving me the last two tricks, and all the matchpoints!
RESULT: 6Cw=, 1370EW, 100%

Most players will be familiar with the Cassino count or Pearson points, which answers the question "when should I open in fourth seat as opposed to passing a hand out?" with the simple answer "count your points, add your spades; pass with 14 or less, otherwise make your normal opening." So I open 1♠ in fourth seat and partner bids 1NT, which I am happy to pass, since 1NT over 1♠ can be made on a hand with zero spades. (ALERT: When you play computer bridge, your computer partner usually goes for a snack and lets you declare, so I am placed in the North seat when the auction ends.) East leads a diamond and West takes the ace. A second diamond comes back and I duck again, uncertain whether this is right, since a switch to hearts will not be good for me. East wins the Q♦ and returns...the 9♠! This is a good development! I cover with the ten and capture West's Q♠ with dummy's king. Five tricks are assured, three spades, a heart and a diamond, and maybe a fourth spade will be available, so I try for a crucial seventh trick by attacking clubs, leading low from dummy towards my hand. My queen wins and I would like to lead the next spade from dummy and finesse the 7 in case East has led the 9 from 98x or 98xx. So I continue clubs and duck in dummy when I discover the bad break. East is in and continues diamonds, giving me an entry to dummy to take the finesse of the 7♠, which loses. West cashes a fourth diamond and for some reason is still afraid to break hearts, so a spade lead gives me seven winners, four spades, a heart, a club, and a diamond. Good score! Both East and West feared that the North hand had the hearts that turned out to be in their partner's hand. By the time West got in with the 8♠, North had shown the K♠ and the K♦ and had led a club towards dummy's queen, a play no declarer would make without the king or the ace in hand. So at that point North's hand was at its maximum and West should have switched to hearts. But by then it was too late, declarer had seven tricks!
RESULT: 1Nn=, 90NS, 56%

JACK chooses the 9♥ as the opening lead, a strange choice and I fall for it, switching to the A♣ and another after winning my A♥. This defense pretty much telegraphs that I have the K♠ and clubs to cash, so declarer takes the six diamonds and two black aces and exits stage right for a decent score. Many pairs are trying the spade finesse, a 50% play for nine tricks but one which may leave you with very few tricks if the finesse loses. On the normal lead of a small heart to the ace and a heart back, East gets three more tricks and then continues with a club. Finessing spades now leads to down four!
RESULT: 3Nn=, 100EW, 39%

Not much to the auction. Partner raises hearts and West has an opening strength hand, 4♥ is the obvious bid to make. The 6♣ is the opening lead and it is quickly seen that South has the king of clubs: the 6♣ cannot be fourth best from KT96, the correct lead from that holding is the ten. We have two spades and a diamond to lose, so losing to the K♣ at trick one puts us in danger, but maybe something good will happen.... Wrong! I should have cut my losses, won the ace and pulled trumps. The defenders switch to spades after winning the king of clubs and eventually get the four tricks I feared, plus a spade ruff. My bad.
RESULT: 4Hw-2, 200NS, 16%

I have some sympathy if you passed in the South chair, it is a minimum opener. If you did you should still get to 3NT without interference, probably via 1♣ - 1♦, 2♣ - 2♥, 2NT - 3NT. Most will open 1♦ as dealer, and my auction is different from the computers, who do not want to introduce the heart suit after 1♦ - 2♣. But when partner responds 2♣ it does not rule out the possibility of four hearts and five or more clubs, and after a two-over-one response a reverse to 2♥ is not a big deal. Partner will not be pressured into preferring diamonds at the three level after showing enough strength to make a two-over-one response. 3NT on a spade lead is easy: two spades, three hearts, a club and a diamond on top leave two tricks to be developed and the natural suit to attack is clubs, so I take over the North chair (computers allow their human partners to switch seats when they become declarer) and capture West's K♠ with the ace, leaving J♠ singleton and T7♠ in hand as a stopper. I cross to dummy in hearts and run the J♣. East wins and leads a heart around to the ten. Crossing again to dummy to take a second finesse could be dangerous if East has both club honours, so I simply play A♣ and another club. East wins, cashes the Q♠ and I have the rest for a routine result that should be matched at most tables.
RESULT: 3NTn+1, 630NS, 51%

Partner overcalls LHO's 1♠ opener with 2♦ and the question is whether to raise or pass with the West hand. If I pass and North competes with 2♠ I will bid on, and it seems unlikely to die at 2♦, so why not? 3♦, once partner leaves to let me switch seats and declare, is not easy. The K♠ wins the first trick and the 6♦ wins the second! (I leave it to the reader to work out the other cards that must have been played to trick two.) Hoping for spade ruffs in dummy, I lead a spade to trick three, won by North as South discards the 9♥. North continues with the A♦ and then the A♠, ruffed in dummy with the K♦. That's three spades to lose now that dummy is out of trumps, and a likely heart, and a diamond, already down one. I lead a small club toward the Q♣, hoping that North will duck, but South has it and I am down two for a poor score ... -100 beats only those few allowed to play and make 2♠.
RESULT: 3De-2, 100NS, 20%

Tip: when an opponent opens the bidding, 24 or even 23 combined will be enough for 3NT, since you can place most of the missing high cards. This makes raising 2NT to 3NT easy, but I don't play it very well. With 15 points missing and North having opened, the K♣ and A♦ almost certainly must be in the North hand, so I win the low heart lead in dummy and play ace and another club, and when North wins the king I have two spades, three hearts and four clubs. North's J♦ return is won by my K♦ in dummy and I am happy with ten tricks, only to discover that most of the computers made eleven. That is almost as baffling as the computer claiming that 3NT can be defeated by best defense.
RESULT: 3NTe+1, 630EW, 44%

The slam here is at least 75%; the only way it can be beaten is if South leads a heart and North has both the ace and the queen. Any other lead allows East to win six spades, four diamonds, and two clubs. The question is, how did we not get there? The 2♦ response followed by a raise promised some values, and a jump to 4♠ would show less than 3♠. But when East cuebids clubs, West has no first round control and must go back to 4♠, and East cannot make a move with two quick heart losers. One way out is for West to bid 5♠ instead of 4♠. Another way which may not fit some systems is for West to respond 2NT, not 2♦. This call shows 8 or more points and no decent five-card major, but has been discarded by many in favour of the '2♥ negative' structure, which makes an immediate 2NT response a positive with hearts. As you can see from the six-packs, the computers all responded 2NT which led to our bottom board on this one.
RESULT: 4Se+2, 680EW, 0%

As you see from the six-packs, the N-S computers are playing Bergen raises, and begin with a 1♠ opener from North and a 3♦ response from South showing a limit raise. I think this is not the best call, and bid 4♠ immediately. The defense is lethal, East beginning with the ace and king of hearts, West playing the nine of hearts at trick one and the nine of clubs at trick two. Even if I let East hold the third trick, this vital signal makes it impossible for East to go wrong at trick four. Down one I go, but we salvage some matchpoints when some of the E-W pairs venture into a sacrifice in clubs.
RESULT: 4Sn-1, 50EW, 29%

3♦, it seems, means 'It sounds like I shouldn't be passing 2NT but I've already shown 5-4 in my two suits, so instead of just bidding 3NT I thought I'd remind you that we might need a diamond stopper to consider that contract.' Exactly what I am supposed to do without one seems unclear. Luckily I have something in diamonds and can bid 3NT confidently. There's a little known bridge term called 'quack' which means 'queen or jack.' When the suit they lead finds dummy and declarer each with holdings headed by the QUACK, it is always right to DUCK, even from a hand with quack-doubleton. On this hand if you contribute the jack from dummy you will have some explaining to do to partner. So the king wins the first trick and a second diamond comes back, West allowing dummy's jack to win. The danger opponent is East, who may lead a diamond through your queen if allowed in (we do not at this point know that East is out of diamonds). If West gets in and leads diamonds your queen will win a trick. This makes the best way to tackle clubs apparent: finesse against East! East covers the 9♣ with the jack; we counter by winning in hand, leading the K♥ and overtaking with the ace in dummy to lead a second club, finessing the ten when East plays low for an easy eleven tricks when clubs break 3-3.
RESULT: 3NTs+2, 660NS, 68%

I disagree with the computers that the South hand is a 1♥ overcall of 1♦; it seems better to make a takeout double. Partner makes a good 2♠ call, showing 8 or more points, making this an easy game to bid: I have 13 points but this is worth at least 16 or 17 in support of spades. Plus, an opponent having opened the bidding makes cardplacing easier and so the normal target of 26 for a major suit game can be slightly discounted. East leads the ace of diamonds and it looks like I (once again the computer has gone for a silicon break and let me play the hand) have a bit of work to do to avoid a loser in each suit. The work is done for me at trick two, which is won by ... North's 5♣! A spade to the ace and a spade back towards dummy gives me the chance for a safety play when West plays low. If I win the king and East shows out, West has two trump winners. If I finesse and it loses, trumps are 3-2 and can be easily picked up. I lose the finesse to East and the ace of hearts is the only other loser.
RESULT: 4Sn=, 620NS, 82%

Something tells me that few will evaluate the West hand as the computers did and jump rebid 3♥, which JACK claims is supposed to show about 11 points. On this deal, everything goes right for Wests that do so, both the Q♣ and the Q♥ are onside and droppable in three rounds, partner has excellent trump support despite bidding two other suits, no defensive ruffs are possible. It could so easily be so much worse. 3♥ could get you into a world of trouble. Make partner's A♥ the A♦: now what is the best spot? Computers deciding on a rebid with the West hand will deal thousands of hands from the remaining 39 cards and discount those that do not match the bidding, then look at the ones that are left and see what bid covers them best. Maybe there is something to learn here, but my experience tells me that the computer's decision here is optimistic.
RESULT: 2Hw+1, 200EW, 0%

Actually, all of the computers opened the South hand 1NT, which is a scary proposition with 5-2 in the majors. Partner might transfer you to spades and drop you in 2♠ on a 5-2 fit. While this might be partner's only option, it will not be a good score if you've missed a 5-3 fit in hearts. Try not to open 1NT when you have 5-2 in the majors. On this hand, you'll have to rebid 2♥ or 1NT after a 1♠ response, but neither is very bad. Now that we have settled that and told 64 computers they were wrong, my main point here is: Only a computer would make a Bergen Raise with this hand! No declarer wants to see a decent hand with five-card support after stopping in 3♥. Lucky I had extras. I would respond 4♥ with the North hand, as they have been doing since Warren G. Harding was President. And while I'm in a grumpy mood, I should congratulate the wise guys in the computer tournament who put up the Q♦ at trick one, dropping the jack and setting the scene to make twelve tricks when East grabs the ace of spades at trick two hoping for a club entry and a diamond ruff. Thanks to you visionaries I am below average on this board. Most of the time your play would get the king from East and you'd be happy with 620. Grrr!
RESULT: 4Hs+1, 650NS, 48%

East's leap to 4♥ in competition doesn't show much when a negative double and a 2♠ cuebid were available, but it seems obvious to push on after South bids 4♠. The play is over quickly after North overtakes South's opening lead of the Q♠ and switches to a club. When South follows, West should be able to claim the rest, saving a bunch of time. Can you see the twelve tricks you have been handed on this start? A♣ pitching a diamond, A♥ Q♥ (just in case trumps are 2-0), two more high clubs pitching diamonds, and cross ruff the rest. A look at dummy should have convinced North that it was diamond tricks that could disappear, not club tricks. North's overtake and switch works if East has no diamonds, but fails when East has no clubs. Oops.
RESULT: 5He+1, 680EW, 98%

As noted earlier, points plus spades after three passes is known as Pierson Points or Cassino Count or the Rule of 15 (15 or more spades plus points is enough to open), depending on what side of the Atlantic you get your bridge information from. But American expert Larry Cohen has an interesting idea. He says forget about the points and spades: if your opponents are good players, pass it out: why fight good players for a score when almost certainly you will get something middlish for passing. But if your opponents are "Schlemiel and Schlemazel," open the bidding and let your advantage guide you. Interesting idea. Larry wants this immortalized as CRIFS (Cohen's Rule In Fourth Seat) since "My former bridge partner, Marty Bergen, has eleven conventions named after him and I want one.". I'm happy to take an average against the computers whenever I can get one...
RESULT: Passed Out, 0NS, 50%

Time to visit the snacks table after a round with a passout and a routine ten tricks. A Stayman auction gets North-South to 3NT, and West is on lead. West decides to lead a minor suit, since declarer and dummy have indicated four-card majors. His partner might have doubled 2♣ for a lead, so he settles on a diamond, like the majority of the rest of the field...and promptly hands South a ninth trick. A tenth comes at trick three, after East wins the A♦ and tries the Q♦ next, when South leads a heart and the queen wins. Most of the room should be making ten tricks without too much effort.
RESULT: 3NTs+1, 630NS, 55%

As we've seen, I'm OK with opening 1NT with 5-3 in the majors, but I dislike opening 1NT with 5-2 in the majors, because my desperate partners insist on our 5-2 fit when we have a 5-3 fit in the other major. 2NT openers seem to suffer from the same problem: if I open the West hand 2NT and East's transfer drops me in 3♥, holding five hearts and three spades, I'm going to wish I opened 1♠. So I open 1♠ and this time 4♠ is a disaster: nine top tricks and no chance at a tenth. I will lose to every computer that opens this hand 2NT and plays in 3NT unless I can make this. I win the club lead, cash a high spade in dummy, duck a heart, win the club return, cash the A♥, cross to dummy with a second trump, and ruff a heart in hand. Now I exit with a club to North, hoping that South has the extra trump and some sort of endplay is on. I've been careful to win the first two trump tricks in dummy, so that if North exits now with a diamond to South's king, I can win, pull the last trump, and lead a diamond towards the jack. But there is a flaw in this plan: North exits with the thirteenth club and dummy's 6♠ is not quite high enough. South overruffs with the 7♠ and I am down one for a bottom.
RESULT: 4Sw-1, 100NS, 0%

Hoping for partner to help me out with a cuebid, I bid the opponents suit, but partner has nothing to say and we end up in 4♥. North leads the A♦ and switches to a club around to my queen. Something seems fishy about this, so I win and play two rounds of trumps, then the A♠. North discards, spades are 5-0. It looks like the Q♥ is with North, but when I get to the last round of spades, South covers with the ten, I ruff, and LHO overruffs! A diamond forces me to ruff with my last trump and I have to give South a club at the end, as well as some respect for good defending.
RESULT: 4Hw=, 620EW, 36%

It seems a normal 1♠ overcall and I take the minority view of leaving partner's 1NT in, a few more of the computers converting to 2♠ and hoping partner doesn't have a singleton trump, which sometimes happens. The T♣ is the opening lead, and North wins and leads a small club back. I guess correctly to play the queen (if East started with KTx or KTxx we might have seen a 2♣ call), and take the losing spade finesse. Three clubs follow but I have seven tricks and chances at an eighth, but when the K♦ is also offside I settle for seven. The lucky pairs who played 2♠ and enjoyed the 3-3 split leave me with a poor score.
RESULT: 1NTe=, 90EW, 23%