One Glorious Moment in Shanghai
I was feeling quite sick when we sat down against England. Pamela was feeding me cough drops and I had a big bottle of orange juice and another grapefruit juice at the table. We arrived just in the nick of time (which I usually hate). The English women were very nice and Pamela was friends with her screenmate so they chatted happily. Most of the action was East-West so it was going to be primarily Pamela and I against the East-West pair in the other room to see who came out on top. The action started on the very first board. North opened 2♠ and you have ♠ void ♥ A J 10 4 3 ♦ A 5 4 2 ♣ A K J 4. You double and the bidding continues 3♠ by South, 3NT by partner. I chose to bid 4♠ over this and partner bid 5♣. Do you bid on? I bid 6♣. The whole hand was:
♠ Q J 7 6 5 2 | ||
♥ Q 9 7 | ||
♦ Q J T 6 | ||
♣ void | ||
♠ A K T 8 | ♠ void | |
♥ 8 2 | ♥ A J T 4 3 | |
♦ K 9 8 | ♦ A 5 4 2 | |
♣ Q T 5 2 | ♣ A K J 4 | |
♠ 9 4 3 | ||
♥ K 6 5 | ||
♦ 7 3 | ||
♣ 9 8 7 6 3 |
Pamela was able to make the contract on a crossruff despite the 5-0 trump break. The match continued in much the same vein and we bid and made 3 slams altogether along with some other good scores. This is another favorite slam hand. Pamela held ♠ A K 3 ♥ 10 8 7 6 ♦ 9 ♣ 10 9 6 3 2. This was the start of the auction:
Me Pamela
1♦ 1♥
3♠ 4♥
5♣ ?
What is partner doing? Do you have the right hand to go on? Obviously I had a very big hand and Pamela deduced that I likely had a spade void. I had to have something like 0-4-5-4 or maybe 0-4-6-3. The double fit improved her hand despite the wasted spade honours and she bid 6♣ — choice of slams. I bid 6 ♥ to end the auction. Pamela made it despite a bad trump break on a well timed dummy reversal. Here is the whole hand.
♠ Q J 7 5 4 | ||
♥ 4 | ||
♦ J 10 7 2 | ||
♣ K 8 5 | ||
♠ A K 3 | ♠ void | |
♥ 10 8 7 6 | ♥ A K Q 5 | |
♦ 9 | ♦ A 6 5 4 3 | |
♣ 10 9 6 3 2 | ♣ A Q J 7 | |
♠ 10 9 8 6 2 | ||
♥ J 9 3 2 | ||
♦ K Q 8 | ||
♣ 4 |
.Our partners had a great card and we blitzed England to move up to a more respectable position. Later that evening our teammates had another great match to win 22 more VP and end a lovely day.