UNUSUAL CHOICE

Today’s deal from a Women’s World Championship some years ago. North-South were two American experts from California, JoAnna Stansby and Debbie Rosenberg.

Many players would open the South hand with two clubs, but it is almost always wrong to start that way with a two-suited hand. We think Rosenberg did a terrific job of describing her difficult hand. Rosenberg knew that Stansby’s three-heart bid was based on a five-card suit. Why introduce a weak suit at this point unless it was at least five cards long. Still, it was not necessarily right to play the hand in hearts. Confident that her bidding had put her partner in a good position to make the final decision, Rosenberg bid five no-trump, asking Stansby to is “pick a slam.”

Stansby had a very good picture of partner’s hand. South’s failure to rebid either four clubs or four diamonds meant that her shape was almost certainly 1-3-45. Stansby might have bid six hearts, but she reasoned that two rounds of spades by the defense would be likely to result in a trump loser even if partner had the ace, king and queen. Two rounds of spades might also ruin a six-diamond contract. After South ruffed, they would need an anti-percentage 3-3 split in diamonds. She placed the slam in clubs, thinking that would be best if partner held the jack and might be OK even with only the 10 if the jack fell in three rounds. The best slam was reached! It was easy to make.

Bob Jones welcomes readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to With Tannah Hirsch and Bob Jones Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001. E-mail tcaeditors@tribune.com.