WALKING ON THE EDGE
Deal no. 1:
Even if I play with my regular partner, even if we agree upon several conventions, most of the time we bid naturally and we have to assume that our way of thinking and reasoning is very similar. Even then there are situations when we aren't 100% sure as to our partner's intentions. It gets much worse when we play with someone else. Then it's like a guessing game: will he understand my intentions correctly? did I understand his?
The following hand occured only a couple of days ago, had happy ending but was dangerously close to disaster, in which case without any doubt I would have been the guilty party. Why? Because I expect too much even from an occasional partner... In bridge it's a sin and I've been living in this sin for ages. But you know what? I enjoy walking on the edge.
QJx Axxxx West East
KQ10xxxx N AJx ------------------------
- W E Qxxx 1H 1S
Axx S x 3H (1) 4C (2)
4S (3) 5H (4)
? (5)
(1) I can't approve of this bid (13-15 points limit bid with 6 good hearts), one spade honor in East's hand practically guarantees a game! Why not say something like 2C if you play forcing new suit? But this 3H bid was lucky, since it enabled me tu cue-bid clubs...
(2) I saw a chance of a slam even if 3H was a regular 6322 or 6331 limit bid with some 15 points, so I decided to keep the bidding alive.
(3) West had to understand 4C as 54 in spades and clubs, and bid the final contract, 4S.
(4) 5H changed everything! It meant that East had a strong hand with a good heart fit (West knew it couldn't be less than Axx), 4C should have meant the club Ace but it didn't, so it must have been a second round control and another Ace, and it had to be in spades, with the Ace of diamonds East would have cue-bid 4D instead of 4C!
(5) West should realize now that East has either Axxxx,Axx,xxxx,x or Axxxx,Axx,xxx,Kx or better, maybe even AKxxx,Axx,xxxx,x, which makes six certain, and seven a close second. You still have many bids left below 6H, but which one will you chose? Let's see: 5S promises the spade King and is looking for a minor cue-bid, so it's out. 6C is clearly looking for diamond values, so it's out too. 5NT says we might be short of a heart honor (Queen or King). The only bid left is 6D and it's a real beauty because it says it all: West doesn't have the spade King, doesn't miss anything in trumps, and doesn't look for anything in the minors! But will you bid it? Will you take the chance that your partner misunderstands you and you end up in a hopeless and very costly grand slam when six is certain to be a good score? I for one would...
My West wasn't that deep. He didn't understand the 5H bid, didn't stop to think the bidding over which he certainly should have done, and wanted to pass, but at the last possible moment changed his mind and bid 6H. What can I say? We were lucky he was West and I was East, and not the other way around!
Deal no. 2:
IMP's, you are West and your hand looks as follows: Ax, Kxxx, Jxxx, QJx . The bidding is simple and natural, you know that they open five card major, 3H is a long suit trial bid.
S W N E
----------------------------
1S p 2S p
3H p 4S p
p p
You decide to postpone the crucial decision which suit to open first, lead the Ace of spades and take a look at the dummy. And that's what you see:
Q10xxx
Qx
xxx
Axx
Ax
Kxxx N
Jxxx W E
QJx S
You briefly wondered how a sane person could have answered positively 4S after the heart trial bid and put you in a difficult spot like this, then you concentrated on your own situation. You saw you could postpone dealing with the heart problem and played the Queen of clubs. The dummy took the Ace and your partner obediently showed you an even number of clubs. The declarer played a spade from the dummy, took with the Jack in his hand and played a small heart. Now you finally had to decide. There were several possible South hands and you had to make your choice now. There were of course many South's hands that you simply couldn't beat. But there were few that you could. Let's see two such examples:
(1)
Q10xxx
Qx
xxx
Axx
Ax
Kxxx N
Jxxx W E
QJx S
KJxxx
10xxx
AKx
x
In this case if you play the King they'll make 10 tricks. How? Very simple: all South has to do is to ruff two hearts in the dummy, the Ace and the Jack will drop and on his high ten of hearts he'll discard a diamond loser from the dummy. If you put a small heart they'll lose four tricks: one spade, two hearts and one diamond. Your partner correctly showed you an even number of clubs - he had six of them.
(2)
Q10xxx
Qx
xxx
Axx
Ax
Kxxx N
Jxxx W E
QJx S
KJxxx
Axxx
A
xxx
In this case you must put the King and immediately take two club tricks in order to defeat the contract. If you don't put the King they'll lose only one spade and two clubs. Once again, your partner correctly showed you an even number of clubs - he had four of them...
Would you like to be put in such a spot? I for one wouldn't, and I wasn't... In this deal I was South. I was the madman who didn't pass after 2S and tried to reach a game with the South's hand you can see in the first example. But I had some help - another madman faced me in this deal and bid 4S instead of 3S!
West, a good and solid player but not very experienced with my kind of stunts, after a long deliberation put the King. I made ten tricks and gained 10 IMPs.
Well Mr.North, you're my kind of guy. I love walking on the edge!
Deal no. 3:
You are playing with a guy you occasionally play with, but never really agreed upon bidding details. As South you have x, KJxxx, xxx, AKxx and after two passes you open a non-vulnerable 1H promising a five cards heart suit. Your RHO bids vulnerable 2D, your partner 3H and you have a decision to make.
Isn't it an obvious pass, you might ask?
Well, as you might have noticed by now, for me nothing is ever obvious. Let's think the situation over: we had agreed that a jump raise in a major suit without an intervention means a balanced hand with 9-11 high card points and a four card fit. But after an intervention, non-vulnerable against vulnerable and with a partner you have no agreements with? It could mean virtually anything, from 5 points with a diamond singleton or void to 4423 with 10 points including Kx in diamonds! But let's think both extremes over being slightly optimistic of course:
(1) Jxxxx, Qxxx, x, Qxx
or xxxx, Axxx, x, Qxxx
or xxx, AQxx, x, xxxxx
or xxx, Axxxx, x, Qxxx
or Jxx, Qxxxx, x, Qxxx
or almost anything with a diamond void - do I really need to add a single word?
(2) Axxx, Qxxx, Kx, Qxx
or Axxx, AQxx, xx, xxx
or Q/Jxx, Axxx, Kx, Qxxx
or even Kxxx, Axxx, xx, Qxx...
I bet you guessed by now what my bid was! Let's see the deal in full:
Axxxx
Qxxx
Kx N E S W
xx ------------------------------
p p 1H 2D
N 3H p 4H p
W E p p
S
x
KJxxx
xxx
AKxx
I know you'd be proud of yourself now, but would you still like it so much after the obvious diamond Ace lead, and a second diamond happily ruffed by East? Well, you should never give up! Try a spade 4-3 split with trumps 2-1 at this stage and assuming they didn't - or couldn't as the case was - immediately play two rounds of hearts you still will make 10 tricks, as I eventually did. But would you believe that not only were we one of the only two pairs that reached 4H, but one of the very few that made 10 tricks? I for one wouldn't.
Deal no. 4:
You are the dealer and fate dealt you the following: AKQxxxxx, Ax, xx, x. Do you like it? Let's assume you do (I for one don't, but I'm aware only too well that mine is a minority opinion). But what will you open and more importantly, how will you plan the bidding? Should I add that those who don't plan their bidding in advance, even though they win here and there, would do better playing some other game, like bingo for one?
Back to reality: I did what I have been doing for countless years with this kind of hands, exteremely freaky in distribution and relatively weak in high card points: I PASSED. The chance that the hand will be passed out is virtually nonexistent, well, at least it's never happened to me. And during the first round I'm definitely going to get a clear idea who is stronger then others here, and some idea about the other guys' distribution.
Curious what's happened here? Let's see:
AKQxxxxx
Ax
xx N E S W
x ------------------------------
p 2H 3D 3H
N 6S p 7S all pass
W E
S
Jx
x
AKxxxx
Axxx
2H was natural and weak, 3D was music in my ears, the 3H raise hinted that my partner might have a heart singleton, all in all, I couldn't have hoped for more info in one single round of bidding!!! So I jumped to 6S and quite naturally, my partner who had seen me not open with freak hands before, added one more.
Would you do as well here playing your favorite system full of your favourite conventions with your favourite partner? Would your opponents have helped you after your initial game forcing opening? Maybe. And maybe not. 95% of the field I played in didn't.
Deal no. 5:
I was South and after three passes I was supposed to pass with the following hand: QJ9xx, AQxxx, x, xx. I had a gut feeling I shouldn't so I opened 1
. Mind you, in my book once I open a bidding I promise I had a real opening and I bid accordingly no matter what the consequences. Why? Let's call it - partnership. Let's call it - trust. How can you have your partner trust you in future if in one single bidding you promise two different hands? I for one wouldn't.
| West | | | North | | | East | | | South |
|---|
pass
3
5
pass
| | |
pass
3
x
| | |
pass
4
pass
| | |
1
4
pass
|
As you see the bidding was quite lively, I stuck to my principles and bid 4 but on the other hand, I was quite happy they didn't let me play it. But I was dead wrong!
|
K x x
 J 9 x x
J x
 A Q x x |
|
A
10 x x
K J 10 9 x x x
K x |
|
10 x x x
K
A Q x
J 10 9 x x |
|
Q J 9 x x
A Q x x x
x
x x |
|
As you can see they are only one down, well, they almost make it, on the other hand we not only make 4 but quite easily take 11 tricks. So how come we had such a good score here? The answer is quite easy: on all the other tables West quite rightly opened 1, North passed, East bid 1, South had to pass, West 3 and on most tables the final contract was either 3 or 4. Which means of course that if I didn't open the bidding at all, we would have had nearly the same score... So should I have opened or not? Should I have walked on the edge again?
Deal no. 6:
You don't enjoy this tournament very much, your opponents reach good contracts, find decent leads, your decisions on the other hand are not always perfect, and on the top of it you just played and lost 3NT while 5 was makable and half of the field reached and made it. What is your mood? Will you try to take the lost points back as soon as possible risking another loss, or wait for your opponents to make a costly mistake or two?
I was South and the bidding was as follows:
|
A J 9 3
K 9 4 3
9 4
A K 4 |
| |
|
|
K 10 8 5 2
7 5 2
8 6 2
Q J |
|
|
| West | | | North | | | East | | | South |
|---|
pass
pass
3
pass
| | |
1
2
3
pass
| | |
1
pass
pass
pass
| | |
1
pass
4
|
|
Mind you, my partner could have opened 1NT here and I would have had nothing to write about. But he thought his hand was not ideally suited for a NT contract and I tend to agree with his judgement.
As it happened, his 1 was 'better minor' (we agreed on 5 cards majors), my 1 usually promises 5 spades. Then he underbid his hand a bit and bid 2. I seriously thought of saying 3 to the quite reasonable possibility that his clubs were natural (5-4 in the black suits) and then of course my hand was simply the best possible weak hand in the world, but I decided to act responsibly for once and passed. Then I got a second chance. I just couldn't resist it, which was completely irresponsible, since only few moments earlier I myself decided against playing a game here, and rightly so.
Take a look at the full distribution. I just had to take 10 tricks and obviously enough we were the only pair to reach this game. Needless to say, after the bidding A should have been on the other side and I should have lost 1 or 2 down.
West/none
|
A J 9 3
K 9 4 3
9 4
A K 4 |
|
7 4
A 10 8
Q 5 3
10 9 7 5 2 |
|
Q 6
Q J 6
A K J 10 7
8 6 3 |
|
K 10 8 5 2
7 5 2
8 6 2
Q J |
|
