An Amazing Hand From An Amazing Bridge Club
Cynthia Wendell is a fine bridge player who lives in our community in Sarasota. Cynthia frequents the In Between Club, Sarasota’s top bridge club. She brought me a most unusual deal that she played at the club.
The In-Between Club is run by Michelle Golden and on Leap Day (February 29th) they happen to have 72 tables in play. This is not unusual.
Cynthia was playing East in a duplicate with nobody vulnerable when this hand came up. Partner was dealer and Cynthia picked up this little beauty.
| East ♠ A ♥ AK10987543 ♦ K3 ♣ 3 |
Her partner opened 1♣ and at her table North passed. How would you handle this hand? Cynthia started quietly with 1♥ . South passed and partner bid 3♣ . What now? Partner’s 3♣ does show a good hand but does partner have the right cards for a grand slam in hearts. It certainly is possible. You need to know two things. Does partner have a heart or two and what about the minor aces?
I suppose that playing regular Blackwood you might just bid 4NT over 3♣ and bid the grand in notrump if partner has both minor aces taking a chance partner does not have a heart void.
But what do you do playing keycard? I would assume most people would play 3♥ is forcing over 3♣ . On this hand partner would have bid 4♥ over 3♥ and now you can try keycard. If partner shows one ace you could take a small chance and bid 6NT instead of 6♥ assuming partner is not off the ♣ AK and can provide two quick tricks. If 3♥ isn’t forcing you might just jump to 6♥ and hope for the best. That is just what Cynthia did. Most of the time bidding a slam at duplicate is a good result. At the In Between on Leap Day, in Cynthia’s section, it was worth 8.5 out of 12 or 11.5 out of 12 depending on the opening lead. Five pairs played in game and two went down when I presume they played 6NT from the wrong side.
The whole hand was
| Dealer: Vul: |
North ♠ K108763 ♥ – ♦ Q8642 ♣ Q5 |
|
| West ♠ QJ5 ♥ QJ ♦ J ♣ AK109764 |
 |
East ♠ A ♥ AK10987543 ♦ K3 ♣ 3 |
| South ♠ 942 ♥ 62 ♦ A10975 ♣ J82 |
“Strangely” nobody played 6NT from the East hand.
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Bridge-related
My partner, Ellyn Batko, bid regular Blackwood over 1C and then bid 6H making 7. She pitched a diamond on a club and set up a spade for the other pitch.