BIDDING CONTEST
Deal no. 1:
Every couple of weeks a friend of mine, quite an accomplished player and a bridge addict, invites me and several others and we play five or six hours of bridge, all pairs against each other, Cavendish style. All guests consider themselves better than average tournament players and most of them indeed are, including one or two pairs currently participating in our national trials. The game is very solid, wild swings are relatively uncommon and a deal with a different score on each table, and I mean really different, is quite a rarity.
Such a deal occured during our last night session. I was West and my hand didn't look more unusual than many others: --, Q53, Q9742, AJ1062.
North (dealer) opened 1C promising at least three clubs and no five card major. My partner bid 1H (five hearts at least, pretty solid), South 1S (five spades). I assumed we couldn't lose 4H but with so much bidding space ahead I decided to bid as slowly as possible - who knows what my partner holds in his hand, maybe we have another fit and then only sky is the limit! So I doubled forcing my partner to describe his hand and suggesting both minors.
North passed, my partner bid strong and natural 3C, South passed and I looked at my hand again. Well, it became very pretty indeed! The strongest bid I could think of was 4C. North woke up and bid 4S, but at this stage of the bidding it was a music in my partner's ear, it simply assured him we had no spade losers!!! His 5D was a cue-bid and suggested he had no wasted values in their spades and wanted to play 6C at least. But it said much more than that: he promised me the club King! Why? If he didn't have the King and of course he didn't know yet that I had the Ace, how could he have bid more than 5C?
I decided to give him a chance to stop at 6C by bidding 5S, but he had one more Ace to show and bid 6H. Now I began counting his points: nothing in spades, 3 or 5 in clubs, 5, 7 or 8 in hearts, at least 4 in diamonds, but with the bare minimum he wouldn't have bid as he did, 14 or 15 with many tens and nines were much more likely! If the heart King was missing only North could have it, if the trump Queen was missing North simply had to have it (mind you, it was he who opened 1C), so I counted 13 tricks and bid 7C. Farfetched? Crazy? Think again! The only thing I allowed myself to be optimistic about was the Jack of hearts and few tens and nines, and that either North had only three clubs or my partner five of them... Anyway, it was Friday night, rain, thunders and lightnings outside and there is nothing like a nice little grand slam to warm you up in a stormy night.
The full deal wasn't exactly as I expected:
K92
J862
AK5
Q84
- A1063
Q53 N AK1094
Q9742 W E -
AJ1062 S K975
QJ8754
7
J10863
3
Our friendly opponent led a spade which my partner ruffed in the dummy, Jack of clubs held, another club to the 9, another spade ruffed in the dummy, a heart to the King and the third spade ruffed with the club Ace. Queen of hearts, heart to the 9, King of clubs and the hand was high.
The only thing in common between the other three tables were the first three bids, then their ways definitely parted:
Table no. 2:
N E S W
----------------------------
1C 1H 1S 4H
p p p
11 tricks, 650 for EW.
Table no. 3:
N E S W
----------------------------
1C 1H 1S 4H
4S x p p
p
Down two, 500 for EW.
Table no. 4:
N E S W
----------------------------
1C 1H 1S x
4S x p 5H
p 6H p p
p
One down (after a natural diamond lead), 100 for NS.
Come to think of it, there were two things missing. One was another table, a table with the sane contract of 6C. The other one - much higher stakes!
Deal no. 2:
Another night, but the cast was the same. The distribution was pretty wild and action varied from one table to another:
xx
Qxx
Axxxxx
xx
AKQxxxx J10x
Jx N xx
K10 W E x
Qx S KJ109xxx
x
AK10xxx
QJxx
Ax
As South I saw no problems in the bidding:
S W N E
----------------------------
1H 1S 2H 3C
3D 4S 5D 5S
6C p 6D 6S
x p p p
1H promised five or more hearts, 2H 6-9 points with three or more hearts. 3D was intended as a long suit trial bid even though I could have bid 4H direcly, but my reason for not doing so was quite basic - I wanted to know more, mainly whether we were attacking or defending in this deal! 5D clearly told me we were the attacking side, it had to mean long and good diamonds, maybe even AKxxxx. So I bid 6C letting my partner chose the suit. My double after 6S meant only that I had no first round spade control.
The result - 8 tricks, four down.
On the second table West bid correctly 4S after the 1H opening, North passed as did East, but South felt his hand was good enough for another bid and he said 5D. West passed and now North was faced with a dilemma. He decided to pass assuming his partner had 11 red cards with two black losers, something like x, AKJxxx, KQJxx, x. East saw no reason to say another word, five played, six made.
The third South player was from the old school and his hobby was counting high card points. He opened 1H, West bid 4S, pass, pass, and South with only 14 points which according to the old books was a minimal opening, saw no reason to bid again!!!
4S was played on the last table as well, but the bidding was different. South 1H, West 1S, East 2H, North pass, South 4H, West 4S, pass, pass, and South after having incorrectly bid 4H in the previous round didn't have a faintest idea what was going on here so he passed.
I tend to see a chance of a slam in every other hand and even if it isn't there, it motivates me to extract as much info from my partners as possible and by any means necessary. And one more thing, well connected though: I jump to a game only after having arrived to the conclusion that there was no chance of a slam in this particular hand. Try it, it works!
