PAYING THE PRICE
Almost every bridge magazine in the world features bidding contests and prides itself in having a couple of the best local or international pairs bidding and analyzing the hands in its next edition. Bidding contests have always been there - I remember collecting bridge magazines even as a teenager solely for the purpose of polishing my and my partner's bidding before important tournaments. And the scores... How proud we were then after having scored a perfect 10 (or 11 if reaching the correct contract was almost impossible)! How proud we were when our total was higher than the total of our paper opponents, even more so if they were The Blue Team members.
Having reached the best contract always gave me a great satisfaction. It gives me a thrill even now, after all these years. I love to be in the best contract more than make an impossible game or slam, more than defeat the unbeatable, almost as much as having found the only killing lead based on my kind of logic and deduction and having been the only one in the field who did. But there is one thing I enjoy even more: it's being the only one who reached the correct game or slam!
This story is about paying the price. There is a price tag on everything, and the price of playing a different contract can well be a perfect bottom. But does it mean that having reached it was wrong?
People wrote books about when to play a vulnerable game and nonvulnerable game, a vulnerable slam and nonvulnerable slam, explained why the borderline should be a 40 or 50% chance of making it, and I accept all their conclusions. But what about being the only one in the field to reach a game or a slam? Shouldn't it be more makable? My theory is that it should. But even if it's a 65% game or an 80% slam, there are always another 20% to deal with. And it hurts like hell.
Deal no. 1:
N E S W
K109xx Axxxx ---------------------
K109 N Qx p p p 1S
xxx W E xx p 4S p p
Ax S Kxxx
Why did my partner open the bidding? Well, everybody should open with this hand! His spades are much better than just Kxxxx, his hearts are better than Kxx, and after three passes he knew I had some points in my hand so there was no real danger of getting punished.Why did I (East) bid 4S? I knew he had at least 5 spades (we open a 5 card major), and I needed very little for a good game, even ten nice points with a balanced hand would do - what about Kxxxx, Kxx, xxx, Ax or Kxxxxx, Kxx, Axx, x or Kxxxx, Kxxx, x, Axx or xxxxx, AKx, Axx, xx ? And he should have more than ten points, shouldn't he? All I had to pray for was that if he had a mimimal opening my heart Queen wasn't wasted. So why did we get an absolute bottom? We were the only pair that reached this beautiful contract but trumps were 3-0...
Deal no. 2:
I (East) was the dealer and opened 1S with AJ10987, A742, -, J98 because I always do with a hand like this. South bid 2H, my partner's 3C was one round forcing, North passed and I bid a non-forcing 3S. I didn't immediately raise his clubs because 4S needs only ten tricks and besides, 4S just made is 620 and 5C just made only 600. Then my partner bid 4C (non-forcing) and these tiny wheels in my brain started to spin furiously: he must have at least seven good clubs without two spades and very likely without a heart stopper and can't be very strong in points (with a strong hand he could have bid 4D or 4H, with a weak hand and a dubleton spade 4S, with a weak hand with six clubs and a misfit he could have passed) so even if all he's got is AKQxxxx in clubs, without a trump lead we can make twelve tricks on a cross-ruff !!! And if his clubs were only KQ10xxxx which seemed to be the worst scenario, but he's got a spade and they don't find the heart lead, we have a chance of developing the spade suit. To make the long story short, I decided to be optimistic and jumped to 6C.
E S W N
xx AJ10987 ---------------------
x N A742 1S 2H 3C p
AKQx W E - 3S p 4C(?) p
AQ107xx S J98 6c p p p
You can well imagine how shocked I was during the play. My partner's 4C bid was a huge mistake: 4D would have indicated a hand like this, strong in points with six clubs and 3-4 very good diamonds (with 45 in minors he would have negatively doubled 2H) and believe me or not, I would have liked 4D much less than 4C even though it was much stronger! And knowing myself as well as I do, I'd have bid 5C or maybe 4H giving him another chance to show a spade dubleton.
Anyway, my partner looked quite happy with what he saw in the dummy but his mood quickly changed after he lost the club finesse. Mind you, it wasn't a 50% slam but more like 70 or 80% after South's 2H showed that he had most outstanding points. One down, absolute bottom.
Deal no. 3:
How many times did you reach a perfect grand slam with only 23 high points playing with an accidental partner? Not too often, I guess. It happened to me quite recently and we wouldn't probably have reached it without some help from our friendly opponents. I was East and the bidding was as follows:
E S W N
---------------------
Axxx x 1C 1D x p
KJxx N AQxxx 2D 3D 3H p
xxx W E - 4D p 4S p
Ax S KQ109xx 4NT p 5H p
5NT p 6D p
7H
The bidding was quite basic: the double was negative and promised both majors (at least 4-3) with 8 or more points, my 2D was strong and forcing, 3H showed four hearts, 4D - first round control in diamonds accepting hearts as trumps, 4S - cue-bid in spades, 4NT the simplest Blackwood asking for 3 aces (the Ace of diamonds doesn't count since I already told him I had a first round diamond control!), 5H meant two aces (obviously enough in spades and clubs), 5NT asked for top honors in hearts, 6D showed one top honor, and 7H was the obvious choice.
So why does this hand belong to this corner? Very simple: South doubled (Lightner double telling North to lead dummy's first suit), North obediently put a club on the table, South ruffed, one down. The field wasn't that strong and nobody else reached a grand slam, another absolute bottom.
Deal no. 4:
The next bid may be seen as a counterweight to the previous one. I was East and very proud of my bidding even after I saw my partner's hand, even after the lead. Well, I still think we did nothing wrong in this one. Except of the score...
W N E S
---------------------
KQxxx Ax 1S p 1NT p
AKQ10x N xx 3H p 4S p
K W E Axxxx 4NT p 5H p
AQ S xxxx 6S p p p
We open 5 cards majors, my 1NT meant 6-9 points usually without three spades, but after 3H I felt strong enough to bid 4S. I mean, could I have had better 8 points without three spades and without a singleton? Then I showed two aces and my partner correctly assessed the situation and bid 6S. Why 6S and not 6H? Well, had I three hearts I would have probably tried to discover whether he had four or five hearts by bidding 4 in a minor suit, so I probably had two hearts at most. Why not 6NT? Because he knew he had a club discard on my diamond Ace and a sure entry in spades to the dummy, so he could then afford to lose a trick in one of the majors.
After a diamond lead my partner drew the spade King, entered the dummy with the Ace, played the diamond Ace, discarded his club loser but... our unfriendly opponent ruffed it!!! . Even though we took our 12 tricks, it was an absolute bottom since everybody else played 6NT and took at least 12 tricks.
Just take a look at the full deal:
Jxx
xxx
x
KJ10xxx
KQxxx Ax
AKQ10x N xx
K W E Axxxx
AQ S xxxx
xxx
Jxx
QJxxxx
x
Deal no. 5:
What contract would you like to play with the following hands (dealer South)?
xx
Jx
AKxx
K98xx
N
W E
S
Axx
AK10x
xx
AJ10x
I know I'd like to reach 6C. Even after the worst possible spade lead, there is a good chance of trump split, and if one of the opponents holds Qxx in clubs there is always the chance of heart finesse which would enable us to discard the spade loser from dummy. There are few additional low percentage possibilities, all in all, however you count your chances, there are higher than 70%.
The only problem is that most South players will open 1NT and inevitably reach 3NT, and that's exactly what occured on all the tables but one: I opened 1C and not 1NT.
Let's take a look at the bidding:
S W N E
------------------------------
1C p 1D p
1H p 3C p
3S p 3NT p
4C p 4D p
4H p 5D p
6C all pass
3C means some 10 points with 54 or 45 in minors, 3S is strong and forces North to specify his distribution ( if I wanted to check a spade stopper for 3NT, I'd have bid 3H which in our system can't mean 5 hearts ), North's 3NT means 22 in majors, 4C forces North to show first round controls, 4D and 4H are cue-bids, 5D shows his King of diamonds and very good clubs, with four or five small clubs he wouldn't have shown the diamond King.
Simple, isn't it? So why our score was very close to bottom? Because West had five spades, Qxx in clubs and Qxx in hearts... After a spade lead, most playes were accomplished enough to take the third spade, assume that the lead was from 4 or 5 spades and finesse clubs in the right direction, so that even if East takes the Queen, he has no entry to his partner two high spades. And if spades are divided 44 the defenders can take only four tricks anyway.
Deal no. 6:
Another one, but this time our opponents were on the receiving end (league, recent):
Kx
AKxxx
Kx S W N E
Kxxx ------------------------------
1C p 1H p
N 1NT p 2S(*) p
W E 3H p 4H
S
Axx
Qxx
Axx
Axxx
My 2S bid (North) was the lowest forcing bid I found at the moment, just wanted my partner to give me more info. His 3H meant 3 cards heart support and nothing more. I had no reason in the world to suspect that his 12-14 high card points were the only 14 points in the universe that made 6C the best contract in this deal. So after a short consideration I bid 4H.
And that's what occured in the closed room:
Kx
AKxxx
Kx S W N E
Kxxx ------------------------------
1C p 1H p
N 1NT p 2S p
W E 4H(*) p 4NT p
S 5C p 6C
Axx
Qxx
Axx
Axxx
Their key bid was 4H, saying something like this: "Partner, I've got the best 14 points in the world, heart fit included". North realized that "the best values in the world" must have meant Aces and a heart honor, so after making sure South had all 3 missing aces, he bid 6C. Quite brilliant, wouldn't you say?
And the result? 6C one down, 4H plus 1, since East held QJ10x in clubs.
Deal no. 7:
I love these deals where you know at the first sight which contract you'd like to reach, and then you do reach it without any problems. Such deals make you smile. They give you a nice warm feeling in your gut. The more such deals there are, the more reasons you have to like yourself and your game. They make you happy. You love this game. You love yourself. You are the best.
And then it comes...
A643
KQJ9
A2
A83
N
W E
S
-
10852
KQ10986
K54
It's obvious that you'd like to reach and play this cool 6H contract, it looks quite reachable and easy to make. The end . No story. Well, not quite. It simply didn't develop as smoothly as planned. Just take a look at the bidding:
N E S W
------------------------------
1C 4S 4NT(1) p
5S(2) p 6D(3) p
6H(4) p p p
(1) I can play in all suits, even in clubs if it's your longest suit
(2) partner shows me a very strong hand
(3) my best suit
(4) good choice!
Are you still as satisfied as before? You can as well wipe this smug content smile off your face. The spade King from East ruffed in dummy, heart taken by West with the Ace, diamond ruffed by East, one down. Here is the full distribution:
A643
KQJ9
A2
A83
J2 KQ109875
A73 N 64
J7543 W E -
762 S QJ109
-
10852
KQ10986
K54
