Gib Lied… Playing with Francine (and robots)

Francine and I have been working on system.  We plan on playing together for quite a long time so it is worth it to put some energy in up front.  We had a system which is about four years old.  We used some parts of it but we have reworked quite a lot.

The biggest change for me to get used to is raising partner’s major response with three.  There are some exceptions but that is the usual rule.  We are also going all West Coast style bypassing diamonds most of the time after opening 1♣ .   Marshall Miles who I had a few games with on BBO would be pleased with me.  All this takes some getting used to and it has ripples all through the system. ( Actually even remembering some of the parts of the system we played before take some work.)

It’s quite a lot of fun.  When you are used to a system most bids are pretty routine.  Every so often you have a hand that doesn’t fit and of course there are the competitive decisions to make.  But when you are learning something new a lot of bids need thought.   This is especially true as you get deeper in the auction.  If she didn’t ask me about how many spades I have when I raised that probably means she doesn’t care so that means ….  I find it interesting, challenging and well, fun.

Francine is a very thoughtful player.  This is true during bidding and true during card play.  It reminds me of playing with Colin.  Things mean something and you have to seek the inner meaning.  It is wonderful to play with somebody who is like that.  I have to play my best game, not my autobridge game which I often use with others.  Do you know what I mean?

Yesterday we decided we needed a break from bidding hands, not that we are done with that, of course.  We decided to play against the robots so we could talk.

There were a few routine boards but when I looked at the deals this morning I could see lots of interesting things.  Here is an example.

Linda ♠ Q6532 ♥ K103 ♦ 2 ♣ AJ82

Francine ♠ K108 ♥ A4 ♦ AKQJ7653 ♣ –

We are playing sound openings so there was no question of opening the north hand.  Francine opened 1D and I bid 1S.  Now Francine is definitely thinking about slam if my spades are even QJxx that is all she needs.  So in order to get a better picture she decided to reverse in hearts.  It isn’t easy to create a force opposite a passed partner.  I bid 2♠ which is forcing and shows five.  I had lots in reserve and I was awaiting developments.  Francine now bid 3♦.  I knew her diamonds were very good and she had more stuff on the side.  I had a couple of good cards for her but I had no idea my ♠ Q was one of them though.  I bid 3NT suggesting good cards in the black suits.  Although she had a club void this was very good news for Francine.  It mean I had spade fillers.  She bid 4♣ .  Now here is one of the thought points.  I am writing this without discussing this with her so I hope I am right.  Was this ace asking or was it a cuebid?  We play that 4 of a minor is ace asking when the minor has been agreed.  What do you think? Don’t look at her hand look at mine and the auction.

3♦ was the trump suit here so presumably 4♦ would be keycard.  Therefore 4♣ should be a cuebid.   I cuebid 4♥ and  Francine bid the good diamond slam.

My experience is that reverse auctions are one of the most likely to get mixed up.  But I thought we managed it pretty well.  There may be other ways of bidding this slam and if anyone has a favorite auction I would be happy to hear it.  But I think Francine handled her hand very well.  One thing I know from practicing together.  If we play in an event and there are a lot of making slams we will be in a lot of them.  We will even get to grands.

There were many interesting deals and I will have fun going through them all myself later.  But one thing that was particularly interesting… GIB lied.  I didn’t know the robots could do that.    Gib East was 1-6-3-3 with 13 points.  I opened 1S in third and Gib East overcalled 2H.  When Gib West responded 2NT showing 11-12 balanced with spades stopped Gib East bid 3♣ .  What was strange was that Gib described this bid as showing 5+♥ and 4+♣ .  The played there on the 4-3 which was not a happy spot.