Will wonders never cease

My husband Ray played with me on BBO today.  I can’t remember the last time he did that.  We did play Eddie’s home game in Las Vegas and maybe that is why Ray wanted to play.  Playing with Ray reminded me that although I have played with many fine bridge players, Ray is my favourite partner.  But he yells at me all the time and I yell back.  With all my other partners we don’t discuss things at the table, except Ray.  I don’t know why this is.  Anyway after the first few hands I was determined not to say anything and I was a little bit better.  But still… Does anyone have any suggestions for husband and wife peace at the table.

Here is an interesting hand that we "discussed".  You (Ray) hold S KJ7 H AKQ1073 D 76 C 105.  We are vulnerable and they are not.  Linda opens 1S in first and East bids 2D.  You bid 2H and West bids 4D.  Linda bids 4H and East bids 5D.  Here is the auction so far

West	Linda	East	Ray
	1S	2D	2H
4D	4H	5D	?

What is you call?  Ray decided to double.  I confess I would have passed his hand with the double fit.  What do you think?  Anyway, it is no big deal at imps, we got 500 into 650.  I held S A9643 H J82 D void C AQ832.  6H is a pretty good contract and it takes a club lead to beat it even though both finesses are offside. 

This took the prize today for the strangest auction. 

West	Linda	East	Ray
Pass	2H	pass	pass
3H?!

What does West have and what does this bid mean?  East-West were a partnership and West was a good player.  Actually he meant it as west coast bid 3NT with a heart stopper.  What would you do now on the East hand?  East held S AKJ76 H AQ983 D void C A65.  (Yes, he was laying in wait).  He dutifully bid 3NT.  Now guess what the West hand was?

If you guessed more or less sold diamonds your right (even though he passed in first chair) but the surprise was?

S 10983 H void D AKQ8742 C J9

So 4S was a great spot and when my partner lead a club 3NT didn’t make when the spade queen didn’t come down in 2 rounds to provide a dummy entry.

I teased him a bit on this hand.  I open 1NT vulnerable (12-14) and Ray held S4 H AJ10642 D 1073 C 764

Ray bid 2H and I bid 3H saying I had a great hand for hearts which should include a maximum, ruffing value and four trumps.  The wimp didn’t bid 4H.  When dummy came down it sure looked good.  I held S A852 H Q987 D AK6 C 93.  What I didn’t tell him was I could see all four hands and the HK was offside and any extra chances like a spade diamond squeeze also didn’t operate so you can’t make it anyway.

Another try, an opening lead problem.  Ray held S J10 H QJ3 D 10732 C AQJ8.

Here is the auction

West	Linda	East	Ray
			pass
pass	pass	1S	pass
2C (drury)	pass	2D* (opening)	pass
3D	pass	3S	pass
4S	all pass

What do you lead?  Ray lead a trump.  He loves trump leads, so when he is on lead don’t bid any game that can’t stand a trump lead.  If you led the HQ you are a winner.

Here is the whole hand

	Linda
	S Q93
	H K106
	D 94
West	C 97652	East
S 854		S AK762
H A982		H 754
D KQ86		D AJ5
C K10	Ray	C 43
	S J10
	H QJ3
	D 10732
	C AQJ8

I probably wouldn’t have led a spade but I can’t really argue with it.  It certainly looks safe.

Here is Ray winning a bunch of imps.

He held S AK86 H AK643 D 8 C KJ10

All vulnerable in first chair I opened a 12-14 notrump.  He bid 2D forcing Stayman and I bid 2NT, no 4 card major or 5 card minor.  He bid 3H and I bid 4D, a cuebid in support of hearts.  Ray bid 6H and there we were.  I held S 107 H QJ7 D AKJ3 C Q742.  Not much trouble at all.