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Who’s the boss?

Well, some hands involve an exchange of information to reach the right contract, both the level and the suit denomination. Then, there are others where one partner takes control and when it comes to slam bidding, it is the player who asks for aces or key cards.

So, which of those situations do you think occurred here? Who is the boss? 

 

The bidding was natural with 2 being forcing for one round. Well, it looked like East had far greater ambitions than game. 5 showed one or four key cards and 5 asked for the trump queen with 5 denying possession of that card. Nevertheless, your partner raised to 6. Well, what are you thinking?

Australian Paul Dalley was sitting West with the above hand on the second day of the Bobby Richman Open Pairs. His sequence was slightly different in that he and his partner, Tony Nunn, were playing transfer responses to 1. However, the information available to Paul when Tony bid 6 was just the same as above.

He had told his partner he held a club suit and had three card heart support. It looked a routine auction with his partner checking for key cards and then for the Q, before raising the 5 reply ("I do not hold the Q") to 6. Paul was just about to sign off but just as his pen was about to hit the bidding pad, he pulled back.

If his partner was prepared to go to small slam missing the Q, then surely their partnership should hold all the key cards (i.e including K). It seemed there was an alternative to a heart contract. Why not clubs? Then, at worst, it might come down to the heart finesse but there were good chances of avoiding a heart loser. Indeed, if there was a certain heart loser with hearts as trumps, then that could well be avoided if hearts was a side-suit. After some thought, Paul bid 7.

 

 This was their sequence. 1 showed hearts. 1 showed 3 card support and 2 was game force artificial. After that the bidding was natural with key-card ask as above.

The lead was 10 after which trumps were drawn. Then a heart to the ace and the S discarding a heart. K and a heart ruff and the heart suit then provided a place to discard West’s small diamond. 7 made. Very well bid.

Only one other pair reached 7 in the top two sections of the Open Pairs.

Top Kiwi Scores (in top 10 Section A and B: top 5 others) non-Kiwi in italics

		Bobby Richman Pairs
		Open
A	9th	Liz  Fisher		Blair Fisher
	10th	Hugh McAlister		Di McAlister
B	7th	Michael Ware		Pete Hollands
	9th	June Lei		Jeter Liu
	10th	Pamela Nisbet		Jan Cormack
E	4th	Paula Gregory		Michael Johnstone
F	2nd	Jenny Millington		Barry Jones
K	1st	Debbie McLeod		Brian Cleaver
	3rd	Vivienne Cannell		Maureen Pratchett
		Intermediate
A	2nd	Pryor Rowland		Graham Cheater
	5th	Kevin Walker		Helen Walker
	10th	Susan Stephens		Carol Joseph
B	9th	Pamela Glyn		Julian Glyn
	10th	Stuart Grant		Pam Whitehead
E	2nd	Jennifer O'Leary		Bruce Anderson
		Intermediate
A	3rd=	Thorsten Stanley		Bob Ure
	7th	Jan Bennett		Derek Bartosh
B	4th	Alan Mace		Joy Williams
C	3rd	Tim Rigter		Rochelle Van Heuven
	5th	Maggie Robbie		Jenni Borren
D	4th	Sue Hunt		Sue Skarupsky
	5th	Rosaleen Koch		Barbara Fitzgerald
G	2nd	Anna Powell		Nichola Dallas
H	1st	Marion Coburn		Charmaine Hanbury-Webber
		Sunday Butler Swiss Pairs
		Open
	6th	Harry Shepherd		Greg Buzzard
		Monday Open Butler Swiss Pairs
	1st	Derek Evennett		Judy McLeod
	3rd	Harry Shepherd		Greg Buzzard
	4th	Debbie Marcroft		Steve Baron
	7th	Joan Waldvogel		Joan McCarthy
	10th	Murray Wood		Rachelle Pelkman
		0-500 Butler Swiss Pairs
	6th	Rhondda Sweetman		Wayne Gyde
	8th	Sue Cohen		Karen Smith

Apologies if any names have been missed.

Richard Solomon

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