Yikes!
Yikes!
|
 A Q J 10 8 6 4 |
|
 7 |
|
 J 9 5 3 |
|
 ------ |
| 7 5 2 |
|
K 9 3 |
| J 6 |
|
Q 10 3 |
| K 10 7 6 |
|
A 8 2 |
| 10 6 4 3 |
|
A Q 9 5 |
|
------ |
|
|
A K 9 8 5 2 |
|
|
Q |
|
|
K J 8 7 2 |
Vul: No one |
| North | East | South | West |
| 1 |
Dbl |
2 |
Pass |
| 2 |
Pass |
4 |
Pass |
| 4 |
Pass |
5 |
Pass |
| 5 |
Pass |
5 NT |
Pass |
| Dbl |
6 |
Pass |
Pass |
| Dbl |
Dbl |
All |
pass |
Unblievable! Incredible! A partner bids spades all by himself up to the four level, and South thinks he should keep in there plugging! I have no quarrel with North's bidding. One could critique it and say he doesn't have two "quick tricks," which some experts would say are necessary for a one-level opener. Which would imply that a pre-emptive opening in spades is called for. But North got three spade bids in without shaking his partner's hold on the hand and South had ample warning that there was a terrible misfit here.
South's first egregious bid was 4 clubs. A jump? A jump rebid in the face of a possible misfit, when 3 clubs would've been forcing? It simply makes no sense. And his second was to take his partner out of 4 spades. C'mon. That would hardly be the first time a dummy "laid down" a void in trump upon the opening lead. It's really not that rare, and when you reflect that in duplicate, others are getting the same misfit, it's not necessarily going to be a bad board.
North figures to pick up 8 winners in spades: 6 spades and two hearts. For a moment, I was figuring the could develop a diamond winner on the 4-3 split until I reflected that two heart winners would mean that he has only 4 diamonds. This declarer actually picked up 9 tricks in hearts when East, taking the opening diamond lead, failed to knock out the lone heart in dummy, allowing declarer a 9th winner on the club ruff. But what of it. South had pushed the pair up to the 6 level, so even with 9 tricks, he was down three when North coulda been down two on the 4 spade bid -- and perhaps not doubled at that! After all, it got past the opponent who later did all the doubling. Wouldn't that've been sweet? Down 100! It was there for the taking, or at worst minus 300 if South hadn't been so pig-headed.
Coming down with a void in a partner's suit is not so rare (as mentioned above), nor necessarily so terrible. I recall the player who raised his partner to slam on a void, and also the time I raised my partner's 3 heart pre-empt on a void. How so? Well, I was loaded for bear in the other three suits, and he's got the winners he advertises, I'll have four for him in the other suits -- and I did.
I have written elsewhere that given duplicate hands, you shouldn't look on a misfit as a disaster at all, but as an opportunity. Listen to your partner, and you may want to pass after a simple rebid from your partner. But after a partner has bid a suit three times, the last time at the four level, yes, by dinghy-danghy, it's time to pass and you just might find you have a right nice board, or perhaps slightly above average. But not a disaster when compared to the yo-yo's who keep on bidding. Oh, excuse me. I didn't know you were listening, Mr. Declarer.