I have an unusual agreement with my favorite partner. (He has an excellent web site; perhaps you've seen it.) When there is extreme distribution around the table, I get the very long suits, voids and occasional multi-void hands and he gets dealt his normal 4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2 piece of cheese. He calls it the "eye of the storm," but from my perspective, it is just business as usual.

In a recent sectional swiss, I held two hands with eight card suits, each of which presented several interesting bidding decisions.

In second seat, all vulnerable, I pick up  — xx Axx AQxxxxxx.

RHO passes as dealer and I face my first choice. I could pass and hope to sneak up on the opponents, perhaps gaining useful information in the process. Alternatively, I could open 5 to put maximum pressure on the bad guys. There are downsides to each of these actions. If partner has a strong hand, a constructive auction will be out of the question and 5 could be offering our side up for a number against air, especially considering the lack of texture in the club suit—and the two aces—useful both for defense and for slam purposes. All things considered, I think it is best to take the middle of the road position, so I open 1 to get the ball rolling.

LHO makes a takeout double and partner bids 1. RHO bids 2, and it's back to me. 3 seems pretty straightforward and consistant with my plan. Partner's bidding spades and RHO's not doubling him worries me a little, so I'm not as keen on this hand as I was a moment ago.

LHO bids 3 and partner skips to 5, which is passed back to LHO who bids 5. Partner doubles and RHO passes. The auction to this point is now

RHO	Me	LHO	Partner
Pass	1	Dbl	1
2	3	3	5
Pass	Pass	5	Dbl
Pass	?

Let's see. As a matter of partnership style, the double of 5, while for penalties, means that partner believes it is our hand. And I trust my partner wouldn't make that call if he thought they were making, so he must have some defense.

Partner doesn't have very many diamonds, probably exactly one if the opponents are to be believed. So what can his defense be? His RHO announced the red suits, and with nothing in diamonds he must have at least one fast trick in hearts, as he would be worried about QJxx's being the victim of a crossruff.

Come to think of it, partner's failure to redouble 1 is also making it look like he is short in diamonds. If he had a sixth spade, I think he would have made another try for 4 (bidding 4 over 3), so partner's shape is either 5-4-1-3 or 5-3-1-4. With either of these shapes he wouldn't redouble for fear that we could get blown out of our constructive auction by a diamond preempt.

I bid 6 with a fair bit of confidence. RHO doubles this on the way out, and LHO gives this some consideration before finally passing. The lead is the K and I buy  KQ108x AQ9x x 10xx.

I win the A, trump a diamond, and lead a club. RHO plays the Jack and I finesse the Queen. This holds, so I trump my last diamond and lead the K. RHO follows small. I'm pretty sure the heart finesse is working, and the show-up squeeze is marked as well (but RHO will never have the stiff king anyway) so I ruff, draw the last trump and take the heart finesse. This wins, too, so I make seven.

My partner and I are each pretty good at knowing the score for various doubled contracts, but this time we each reach to check at the same time and eventually enter 1740 in the plus column.

A couple of matches later, I hold another eight-bagger, this time in spades.

1st Seat, all Vul
 AKxxxxxx x AQxx —

The choices are 2, 1, and 4. With so little defense I believe 2 to be an error and 4, a preempt when holding the best hand at the table, is beneath contempt. I open 1, and hear LHO bid 2. Partner raises my eight shooter with 2! RHO bids 3, and I now have a real problem.

I have two goals on this hand. My first goal is to get to 6 when partner holds the K. The second goal is to play the hand. Since I will have to drive to the 5-level in order to solve the problem of the K, the second goal ought to take care of itself.

I bid 4. My plan is to bid 5 over partner's expected 4 signoff if I get the chance. Now partner will have an opportunity to bid 5 with the K and I'll bid to the appropriate level.

Over 4, LHO bids 4 and partner 4, RHO passes, and it's my call again. The auction up to this point is:

Me	LHO	Partner	RHO
1	2	2	3
4	4	4	Pass
?

4

4

6

 Qxxx Jx Kxx 10xxx

I claim 12 tricks, and this time we know the score (1660).

In each of these cases, I was able to bid slam because I trusted my partner's auction. I also confess that both times I had second thoughts when I was doubled...until dummy hit with exactly what I was expecting.