31 by Foxymoron

 There are so many card games called 31 that they are too numerous to mention. One of the first appeared in a sermon by St Bernardino in 1440 and other more recent games have acquired the simple name 31.

St Bernardino

The goal of assembling a hand totalling 31 is a common feature of games such as Cribbage, Commerce and Trentuno, but getting a hand at bridge with 31 points is a much rarer occurrence, but it occurred on Tuesday.

Several Souths blasted 6NT here, and it is a reasonable contract, requiring clubs 3-3 or the spade finesse. A top was earned by Nigel Freake, who played the heart-spade squeeze on West and made all thirteen tricks. At my table I had a 2S overcall after my "strong" 2C and contented myself with 3NT, being unsure what 4NT would mean. My West stated that he was "squeezed" in the two-card ending, so I did not have to read it. Mike Bull was in 7D by North which is too pushy, but he should have reached the same two-card ending. He had the seven of hearts lead and should get down to the ending with the nine of hearts in North and AQ of spades in South. West cannot see the nine of hearts, and he might well play partner for it and discard his high hearts. If he does bare the king of spades smoothly then you pay off to that and take the spade finesse.

There has been some discussion at the club of the requirements for an opening strong 2C. If you agree to play this as strong, then your agreement must be:

5 D Rules for “Strong” opening bid 

5 D 1 To be considered a “Strong” opening bid, the minimum allowed by agreement is: 

(a) Opening bid of 1C or 1D: at least 13 HCP 

(b) Above 1D: at least 16 HCP, or 13 HCP concentrated in two suits containing 10+ cards.

This is much better than the previous rule which permitted you to open 2C with two aces and a king, by agreement. Note that the key phrase here is "by agreement". You are ALWAYS allowed to vary from your agreed system.

Law 40A3 A player may make any call or play without prior announcement provided that such call or play is not based on an undisclosed partnership understanding. An old gambit used to be opening 2C on xx xx QJTxxxx xx and passing the 2D response.