Being at a big, super regional is always a treat. Last week, the Nebraska Regional was that treat, with cherries and whipped cream on top!
Steve Gaynor and Jean Boettcher added the nuts when they reached the ultimate - a grand slam.
Steve shares with us how they did it!
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Board 6. E deals, E/W vulnerable.
♠ 9
♥ K 8 6 2
♦ K 6 4 2
♣ K 9 7 5
♠ Q 7 3 2 ♠ A K J 10 8 6 5
♥ — ♥ J 9 7 3
♦ A 9 8 7 3 ♦ J
♣ A Q 10 6 ♣ 8
♠ 4
♥ A Q 10 5 4
♦ Q 10 5
♣ J 4 3 2
My sweet and lovely wife and bridge partner Jean and I played this hand on Tuesday afternoon in the second session of the Open Pairs at the Nebraska Regional in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Jean thought her 7-4-1-1 hand was too good for a preempt, so she decided to open 1S. South passed and I chose a splinter bid over Jacoby 2N. Our agreement is that the splinter is usually limited in strength and I thought she needed to know what I had more than I needed to know what she had.
Despite her minimum, she could see potential so she bid 1430 RKC.
Now remember that last week I wrote an article about a hand I played with the recently deceased Murray Appelbaum, a longtime Minnesota bridge star and great guy, where he answered a previously undiscussed 5N to my Blackwood bid showing two keys and a void. So with that fresh in our minds, I bid 5N here. This was all Jean needed to hear and she bid the spade grand.
South, Liane Turner, a longtime fine player got off to the accurate trump lead. Jean had no problem ruffing out the diamonds for a late heart pitch to make her bid.
7S = 2210 was worth 25 out of 25 matchpoints.
Thanks, Murray, I hope you had a chance to kibitz us from up there.
Steve Gaynor
(Cross posted at District14bridge.org)
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