But Loved This One

	A Q 10
	8 6 3
	A J 10 3
	9 5 3
K J 7 4 2		9 6 5
K 7		J 9 4
Q 7 2		K 9 8 4
Q J 8		7 4 2
	8 3
	A Q 10 5 2
	8 6
	A K 10 6	Vul: E-W

West	North	East	South
		Pass	1
Pass	2	Pass	Pass
2	Dbl	All	pass

Down 2. Minus 500. This was one balancing bid I loved, since I was the beneficiary. It wasn't until I was typing up the hand that I realized I'd put my hand as the heart declarer in the South position though West wound up declarer. However, I won't be going through the play of the hand, and so decided to let it stand as is and remind the reader that West is declarer here.

My partner of that day was a very fine player and I have no idea why he gave me a meagre 2 heart raise on 11 hcp's, which is too strong for that bid in any system. But a meagre raise he did give me, and I of course saw no reason to explore for game. To the rescue came my LHO. Two spades. Because we had decided to let the bidding die. But we were underbid. He couldn't know that? No, of course he couldn't know that, but it remains one of the dangers I have pointed out to bidding on the basis of what your opponents decide to do.

I have also pointed to being vulnerable as one of the two foremost risk features in balancing, the other going to the three level with no expectation of more than half the deck. Here West stayed at the 2 level, of course, but didn't escape the scourge of going down doubled vulnerable when we were only going for a partial.

There is something else about West's hand that I have pointed to from time to time, and that is that you'll be far safer getting your bid in early. Surely he was strong enough to bid a spade over one heart. People have overcalled with less. Actually with skillful bidding and play, we could have set West two doubled at the one level, but whether we would have found the way to a penalty double of one spade is doubtful in the first place, and as for an 8th trick, well, we missed it against two spades.

So West would have been relatively safe overcalling one spade, and when his partner having heard the bid doesn't say anything, there wouldn't be much jusitification for going on, and if we settled for two hearts, the defense would have had a very good board.

I didn't even know my partner had had that many points until a week later. It was played on a Sunday, and a week later I decided to retrieve the hand, and there I found that our 500 score sat alone at the top. Most people our way were in game. A couple made 12 tricks for 480, I can only guess on two club leads from West, but in any event, the great majority were in game and we were headed for a very bad score.

I dunno. I tell you, this balancing business is vastly overrated. Get your risky bids in early and listen to what your partner says, and you'll be far safer than venturing into the bidding on the basis of what the opponents do.