The last time I played with Darryl he said that if I didn't know what a bid of his meant I should just bid something so he wouldn't be stuck there. That has become our mantra when I play with Julie, and it is a very useful strategy indeed. Anyway, yesterday Darryl opened a minor and the opponent bid a heart. I only had about 6 points but I did have a 4 card spade suit, so I bid a negative double. Darryl bid 3 hearts! The only thing I knew for sure was that I had to bid again--not only did I not know what this bid meant, I also saw that it was a cue bid and so couldn't really mean hearts. I thought perhaps Darryl wanted to put the play in my hand, although why he would want to do that was beyond me. I did have some diamonds, but after much deliberation (were you getting nervous, Darryl?) I bid 3 spades. Darryl went to 4 spades and I was the declarer.
As most of you probably know, and which I learned when dummy came down, Darryl's bid meant that he had game forcing points and wanted to know if I had a heart stopper so we could play it in no trump. He was denying 4 spades. But it all turned out okay; I made the contract.
If you are wondering which bid I eliminated after yesterday's game, it is the quantitative raise of 4 no trump in response to an opening 1 no trump bid. It was very exciting (for me, at any rate) when Darryl opened 1 no trump and I held 18 high card points. Wow! I didn't have a four card (or 5 card) major, so I jumped to 4 no trump. Darryl bid 6 no trump and made 7. I had thought about taking it to 7 but couldn't do it, not knowing if we had all of the aces. Afterwards I found out that players who bid 4 clubs to find out about aces did make it to 7 no trump. I talked about it with Darryl and next time I will ask about aces.
In about an hour I will be back at the club with Julie as my partner. I don't know if I'll have time to write about the results (I'm heading out of town for a long weekend at the Greektown Casino), but wish us luck :)
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