Slamming on BBO: IMP pairs

I find it rather amusing to play with the robots -- a quick way to knock off a few hands in the evening. Now there are several robot tournaments on BBO which are entertaining.  There is a "robot rebate" tourney that costs $1 to enter.  If you score 55% or higher your return is $1.50. There are also IMP pairs with robots.  This next hand is the first board of an IMP pair with robots tournament. 

As I was admiring this 5-loser beauty, my robot partner opened 1♦! Very promising, indeed. I bid 1♠ and pard rebid 2♦.  I needed to find a forcing bid while I elicited information.  I tried 2♥ and partner raised to 3♥. Doesn't sound like much of a spade fit.  I tried 4♣ and pard bid 4♥.  Wanting to go to slam with no idea of the correct strain, I gave up on science and jumped to 6NT.  At least my ♣K wouldn't be picked off on the opening lead. 

I got a club lead and was immediately glad that I didn't insist on spades.

Before I had time to count my tricks and figure out the best line of play, RHO, after winning the  ♣A, shifted to the ♥Q!  My goodness...now let me count my tricks.

Two hearts are discarded on the first two club tricks which makes everything else good!  12 tricks--COUNT 'EM: 1 spade, 3 hearts, 7 diamonds and 1 club.  In retrospect, during the bidding I reasoned that there had to be a slam--I just didn't know in what strain.  The expected club lead gave me the 12th trick.  6♦ is best and 6♥ has chances.  Lucky that the ♥Q was in the pocket.

The score of 11.75 IMPs turned out to be the highest score (one pair bid 6♦) and a good start to the IMP pair tourney.

Next I will present the sad tale of the slam that wasn't bid!  The robots bid and play better than they used to, but...they will probably never have great hand evaluation or imagination!

You can see the bidding and the pedestrian final bid by North.  Really...only 4♥...with a 4 loser hand?!

Thinking through possible bidding sequences, I telephoned one of my partners. My partners like to play 2-way new minor forcing.  Using that, North can bid 2♦ over 1NT, seeking information.  The bid is game forcing and may permit the necessary exploration. We discussed that.

Partner's first impulse was to bid 2♥, a strong jump shift!  We hammered out an auction that would get us to slam. This may be the best:  1♦ P 2♥ P; 2N P 3♥ P; 4♥ P 5♥ by partner.  5♥ would be the magic bid that would ask partner whether she had two quick losers in the unbid suit --in this case, clubs.  With two quick losers in clubs, I would simply pass 5♥.  With my holding I would get to slam. (Some pairs would bid 6♣, showing the club ace.)

Apparently very few pairs got to slam as my score was .68 IMP on the board.

Would you and your partner be able to bid these cards to slam?

See you at the (virtual) table!