Frighteningly good bidding at summer nationals

BRIDGE David Ezekiel

Created: Nov 06, 2010 11:00 AM

This Friday was the second session of the two session Bermuda National Pairs event and I will bring you the results next week .Leading at the halfway stage after the Monday session with a score of 58.89 percentare Elizabeth McKee and John Glynn, followed by Gertie Barker-Jane Smith and Marge Way-Lynanne Bolton in joint second with 56.11 percent, Steve Cosham-Rachael Gosling in 4th with 54.81 percent and the ever dangerous Roman Smolski-Vera Petty in fifth on 54.44 percent. This is still a wide open contest with a bunched leaderboard and anyone in the top ten is still in with a shout. More later.

I very rarely bring you bidding hands in this column, as people seldom play the same systems and often lose interest if the hand being covered uses a system other than their's. I'm making an exception this week as the bidding on this hand is pretty exceptional, and they are using 2 over 1 which is a popular system. The fascinating aspect of the hand for me, however, is that it demonstrates how the top players seek out every opportunity to gain against their counterparts who they know are also good enough to get to the normal contract.

The hand came up in the second semifinal session of the von Zedwitz Life Masters Pairs at the New Orleans Summer Nationals and was reported by Brent Manley. North was Debbie Rosenberg, who I remember playing a tough backgammon money game against in the 1980s in New York, and South was JoAnna Stansby, and the hand won them the George Retek Best Bid Hand of the Year at the recent Press Association awards ceremony.

Board 13. Game All. Dealer North.

♠K9852

♥A32

♦A5

♣543

♠J3 ♠Q

♥Q8 ♥J1097654

♦KQ97632 ♦104

♣J6 ♣987

♠A10764

♥K

♦J8

♣AKQ102

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1 Pass 2NT(1)

3♦ Pass(2) Pass 3♥(3)

Pass 3♠(4) Pass 4♣(5)

Pass 4♦(5) Pass 4NT(6)

Pass 5♦(7) Pass 6♣(8)

Pass 6♠(9) Pass 7NT(10)

Pass Pass Pass

(1) Game forcing Spade raise, trumps established

(2) Neutral, nothing to say

(3) Cue Bid

(4) Slowing it down

(5) Cue Bids

(6) Roman Key Card Blackwood

(7) Zero or three key cards

(8) Do you have third round Club Control?

(9) No

(10) Good!

The bidding is tremendous throughout …. notice the patient pass over 3♦ when Debbie had nothing to add instead of a leap to 4♠, the cue bids , and then the master bid of the auction , the 6♣ asking bid. Once North answered "no", JoAnna knew that she was opposite three clubs in the North hand and that 13 tricks were available if spades were 2-1 and clubs behaved.

This allowed JoAnna to now go for all the matchpoints with the 7NT bid, knowing that the rest of the field was either going to be in 6♠ or 7♠! Frighteningly good , is it not?

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Frighteningly good bidding at summer nationals