NT OR NOT NT
Deal no. 1:
How many times you didn't know what game to play, or for this matter what part score? There are some logical reasons for choosing between suit and no trump and almost everyone has his own personal theory on this subject, me included of course, but it's often almost impossible to make a choice based on reasoning. Then I have to use my instincts:
Kx W N E S
Q ---------------------------
KQ109x p p 2S p
J109xx p 2NT p p
x AQxxxx p
A10xxx N Jxx
xx W E xxx
Axxxx S K
J109x
K98x
AJx
Qx
But was my pass based solely on instinct? Why 2NT and not 3D? Well, because you make 2NT quite easily and you lose 3D... How many times you've heard this answer or even used it yourself? Don't! If you think that you must guess whether your partner's points are in his 10 minor cards or not, you're wrong too. It's true that if his points are in minors I'd rather play 3D, but 2NT doesn't look so bad either. But if they aren't concentrated in minors, 2NT looks much better than 3D. So 2NT it is.
Deal no. 2:
The following hand looks so trivial that one can only wonder how come it gave us 12 IMPs and why some self-proclaimed good and even top bridge players don't always stop to think when it counts and do when it's way too late:
KJxx
xx
Jxxx N E S W
AQJ ------------------------------
1D p 1S p
N 2S p 3H p
W E 3NT p p p
S
AQxx
KQx
10xx
Kxx
My partner very optimistically counted 12 points and opened 1D. My 1S was natural, as well as his 2S raise. But then I stopped to think: what if his hand is weak and balanced? why should we play 4S while only 3NT is makable? I saw only one way to check it and bid 3H showing hearts values. His 3NT showed a balanced hand with a good club stopper.
As you can easily see the opponents have four top tricks and one can only dream of making 4S. But 3NT is cold since the heart Ace is on side.
Deal no. 3:
The next one isn't so obvious and maybe that's why I like it more. It occured only 10 minutes after the previous one and it just might have made it easier to bid. I'd name it - 'Patience Pays'.
Ax
KJxxx
Jxx N E S W
Axx ------------------------------
1H(1) 2D x(2) p
N 2H(3) p 3D(4) p
W E 3S(5) p 3NT(6) p
S p p
Kxxxx
Q10x
A10x
Qx
(1) 12+ points, 5+ hearts
(2) After the 2D warning, I decided on negative double to try to get more data
(3) 2H is pretty weak but doesn't say much otherwise
(4) The crucial one: asking partner to say more
(5) Brilliant bid! Balanced with a good spade control (with 4 spades he would have bid 2S instead of 2H), and definitely not leading toward 4H.
(6) Frankly, I was afraid of a diamond ruff after an obvious diamond lead. North was weak and virtually showed the Ace of spades, it was quite probable he didn't have the heart Ace. My club Queen combined with a probable club honor in North hand gave us almost sure two club stoppers. Well, all I could do was pray for a diamond something...
The reality was very close to the one I'd pictured in my mind. Everybody, I mean everybody, bid and lost 4H since the East hand was: xx, A, KQxxxx, KJxx and he led a diamond honour on all tables.
NS had to lose one heart, two diamonds and a club, and I had 9 cold tricks in no trump after any lead.
Deal no. 4:
The next one is a classic - and with a twist.
My hand was pretty boring: AJ432, J32, K4, QJ3 and the bidding developed as follows:
N E S W
------------------------------
1D 1H 1S p
2S p 3H p
3NT p p p
1D was a better minor, 1S promised five cards in spades, 2S was a weak raise with a fit. My long time experience says that I always pay for my mistakes so I never bid automatically. I knew the field would play 4S, because who wouldn't with 26-28 high card points and 8-9 card major suit! But on the other hand, I was warned that there just might be too many heart losers, and since our opponents' distribution wasn't exactly balanced, spades might be slightly undivided. So I bid 3H. It didn't cost me anything since it was well below 4S level, and I just might get a valuable piece of information and give us a better option. And so it happened. 3NT must have meant a good heart stopper in hearts, quite likely a three cards suit, and probably a balanced or nearly balanced hand.
Let's see the full distribution:
K65
K64
A1085
A105
Q10987 -
5 N AQ10987
64 W E QJ973
K9764 S 82
AJ432
J32
K4
QJ3
The club 8 lead wasn't helpful at all. My partner counted 3 club tricks, 2 diamonds, 2 sure spades and 1 heart. His best chance was in spades so after another club finesse he played the spade King and saw the distribution. At this point it was of little or no consequence whether he made 3NT or lost one down, the top was probably ours anyway. He definitely should have played a heart to the Jack, but he decided to go for broke, give a spade trick to West, hypnotize him not to return heart and then somehow end-play East. And so he did. Don't ask me how he hypnotized the West guy but he definitely did, West actually returned a club! Don't ask me how he hypnotized East to discard all his hearts but AQ, but it happened as well. Maybe they saw the futility of it all and switched their brains off, or maybe, just maybe, he really has supernatural powers. A scary thought since who in this world can guarantee that one day he won't turn his powers against me?
