They Got Slam

	9 4
	Q 8
	10 9 6 3
	Q 10 9 6 2
A 10 8 3 2		K J 6 5
A K		J 10 9 5 4 3 2
K J 7		------
A 7 3		K 8
	Q 7
	7 6
	A Q 8 5 4 2	Vul: Both
	J 5 4	Opening lead: A of hearts

South	West	North	East
2	Dbl	2	3
Pass	3 NT	4	4
Pass	Pass	5	Pass
Pass	Dbl	All	pass

Wow! This is a case of losing one's head in competition with a vengeance. North doesn't even have enough points to raise his partner with a normal one diamond opening. So with a weak two opening, he raises his partner two levels. He later raised it another level, but surely that was a sac bid, so that hardly counts as raising a partner as an indication of strength.

Lemme tidy up a few matters before going on to give the result. Yes, you could claim that with 4 hcp's and two doubletons, North could raise a one diamond opener. Vulnerable and with the possibility of a short diamond suit, I question that argument, but call it "just barely enough to bid" if you prefer. It's beside the point. And as for the 2 spade bid, I can only presume that it was a psych intended to throw the defence off its spade fit. There's no convention that I know of it could have indicated, and it wasn't alerted, so I can think of no other explanation.

But back to the hand that was. The opponents have grand slam in either major and yet were content to settle for 4 hearts, which we might presume would've given N-S a very fine score. But no, having lost his head in competition, North came in again with his 4 hcp's and spared the defense that ignominy. Down 6, was the result, for minus 1700! More than a little slam would have netted the opps.

C'mon, people. Don't lose your head just because of competition. Sometimes you've just gotta let the stronger opponents simply have their bid, put up the best defense you can and hope for the best. Sac bid or not, you still hafta to get a certain number of tricks when you stick your snout out with a bid.

I'm reminded of the young fellow who raised his partner's opening 4 heart bid without a ghost of trick to offer her. Down "one too many" was the result. When chided with raising the bidding without any help, he replied, "I don't hafta have any help." Oh? Is that right? That's a new view on (non-forcing) bidding in my view. It was clearly a case of bidding her hand for her, when she'd already done that.