Remembrance Day and remembering old friends too

It is just about the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month and I am thinking about those who gave their lives for our freedom and security.  When I was in school we would always have an assembly and recited the poem In Flander’s Field.

I am too young to remember any war before Vietnam, a war that Canadians watched.  But John Kennedy was part of my youth and I do remember the hope he brought to the world.  I do hope that President Obama will provide the world with the same light.

Ask what you can do for your country

I can’t help but remember old friends at the same time.  I remember a wonderful lady named Irene Hodgson.  Irene brought me back into serious competitive bridge when she asked me to play in the Canadian trials in 2004.  (Boy was my hair short.)

Irene was the master of table action.  We filled out a minimal convention card and needed no system notes.  Irene and Mary Paul played a lot of bridge together over the years.  I was thinking about Irene after this hand yesterday from a team game I played with Mary. 

Sitting East, in second chair with nobody vulnerable I held:

—

QJ98762

4

KJ1083

North passed and I suppose the “normal” bid might be 4 and I would have done that in first chair.  But then I started to think that this hand would be powerful in clubs too and well I passed.  The auction continued:

Mary	North	Linda	South
	pass	pass	1
1	3*	?

Now I had a big headache.  I wanted to get hearts into play.  It seemed simplest to just bid 4 but the problem was that in this auction it seems to me that has to show a spade tolerance at least.  After all I didn’t open 4.  I could think of nothing better to do pass and hope it would work out.  My mother told me to open 4 on these hands.  South was not done and bid 3NT.  He must have about 19 HCP.  And this was passed back to me.  Now it was time for me to remember Irene and bid 4.  This was the kind of thing she did all the time and it always seemed to work for her.  (She had oodles of table presence).  I knew that Mary who had so much experience with Irene and others would have no trouble knowing what to do.  

South thought for a long time but his 19 HCP almost all in aces and kings was too much for him and he doubled.  I made only 5!  Here was the whole hand (rotated).

	Mary
	KQ1097
	A10
	986
	Q76
A632		J854
K3		54
AKJ10		Q7532
A92	Linda	54
	—
	QJ98762
	4
	KJ1083