FRIENDLY GAME OF BRIDGE
People say that in bridge pairs compete against pairs, but who says people
are always right? Wouldn't you like to have three partners instead of one?
I for one would. And I often do. Your opponents are basically very friendly
and are simply dying to give you a helping hand. All you have to do is be
patient and give them a chance. Here are just three examples out of many.
Deal no. 1:
You are North. Your hand: S-AK98xx , H-Q10x , D-Axx , C-x.
W N E S
1D 1S - 2S
x - 3D -
- 4S all pass
What can we lose? The opponents kindly informed you that they had 8 or 9
diamonds, so we can't lose more than one, a heart honor in your partner's
hand is extremely likely, so there aren't more than two heart losers, no
more than one in clubs, let's hope for none in spades, all in all, in the
worst case we have four losers, and why should we be too pessimistic!
Your partner's hand: S-Q10x , H-Kxx , D-x , C-J10xxxx , not the best hand
to say the least, the trump lead wasn't very friendly either and you could
ruff only one diamond in the dummy, but the heart Jack was on side and you
had to take 10 tricks.
Deal no. 2:
W N E S
1H 3C(1) x (2) - xx Axx
3D(3) - 3S(4) - QJxxx N x
4D(5) - 4H(6) - A W E xxx
5C(7) - - (8) - AQxxx S KJxxxx
Here we have, in my opinion, the perfect example how to utilize the bidding
of our opponents and at the same time avoid climbing too high, which often
is the case in deals like this.
(1) 5-5 in diamonds and spades
(2) club suit
(3) good club fit, cue-bid in diamonds
(4) cue-bid in spades
(5) cue-bid in diamonds, (both 1st and 2nd round controls)
(6) 2nd round cue-bid in hearts (1st round control in spades)
(7) nothing more to show
(8) enough is enough, we have a spade and a heart to give...
Deal no. 3:
Not very often you get a chance to bid a correct but almost unreachable contract and more often than not you simply need a little help from your friends, the opponents. But in the following hand the fact that helped us even more was that I finally, after countless disasters, convinced my partner to discount bad points while opening: all the field counted 22 points while he counted only 19! That's why he opened 1C instead of the common but not very smart 2NT.
AQx
Axx
QJ N E S W
AKQxx ------------------------------
1C 1D x (1) p
N 2D(2) p 3D(3) p
W E 4C(4) p 4D(5) p
S 4S(6) p p (7) p
KJxx
QJxx
xxx
Jx
We were vulnerable, my partner opened 1C promising at least three clubs, 1D was natural.
(1) negative. I play it quite strictly and if I'm week it usually promises 44 in the two unbid suits
(2) strong
(3) 44 in majors
(4) even stronger but no diamond stopper, no more than two diamonds, no major 4, 5+ clubs, in short - something like 3325 or better
(5) with two diamond losers I didn't see any other game but 4 in a major. I decided to let my partner chose his better major.
(6) and he chose 4S
(7) mind you, my 4D might have been a cue-bid on clubs!!! In such case I wouldn't have passed now, but bid either 5C or another cue-bid.
Need I add that it was the only game NS could make in this deal?
