Better Bridge in Barry County July 26 2012

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

	North ♠ QJ10986 ♥ AQJ4 ♦  J102 ♣  ----
West ♠ ---- ♥ K107532 ♦  K98743 ♣ 5		East ♠ 2 ♥ 86 ♦ AQ65 ♣ AJ9732
	South ♠ AK7543 ♥ 9 ♦ ---- ♣ KQ10864

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East East/West 5♥

North 3♣ 5♦ Pass	East 1♣ Dbl Dbl Pass	South 1♠ 4NT 5♠	West 2♥ Pass Pass

Captain M. North looked up from his monthly paperwork on the Barry County Bridge Barge. Coming up the gangplank, all out of breath, were Rosy and Vera, two of his experienced bridge players. He had not seen them for several weeks. He greeted them with a smile and a wave. “Vera and Rosy, have you been off on another trip up north again?”

Vera and Rosy both shook their heads. “Oh, Captain North,” began Rosy, “we haven’t been back to the Upper Peninsula since our last adventure. We have been out to the 160^th Barry County Fair.” Here they both had reached the tables and chairs all set for the weekly bridge and river cruise. Sitting down, they both looked at the Captain expectantly.

“Yes…” said the Captain, taking his cue from their patient wait. “What happened at the Fair this year?” He knew that he was in for a story of some kind. “Well, Captain North, we had the best time on the rides this year,” said Vera. “We rode the Ferris wheel, and we rode the Tilt-a-Girl.”

“You mean the Tilt-a-Whirl, don’t you?” asked the Captain, with his eyes wide open.

“Oh, Captain North, you know the ride that whirls around and around and pushes you into the corner?” Here Rosy and Vera burst into laughter. “We called it the Tilt-a-Girl to see if you could see how this hand of bridge pushed us into a corner.”

The Captain sighed and looked at the two bridge players. He gave them a smile. They always seemed to have an angle to explain a special hand. He knew it was better to sit back and just enjoy their sharing of the hand.

Vera began, “Captain North, you know that we have been reading the bridge column in the paper for the past several weeks even if we haven’t been here to play. We wanted to be winners at bridge, so we decided to try some of the offered techniques.” “Yes,” chimed in Rosy. “We wanted to concentrate, to compete, to make good bids, and to play the hand especially well.”

“And we think we did just that,” said Vera. “We were North and South, and our opponent East opened the bidding with 1♣.”

“I overcalled 1♠ with six good spades, a singleton heart, a void in diamonds, and six good clubs,” Rosy added, “What a nice looking hand.” The Captain nodded.

“West offered a heart suit, showing six hearts, bidding the higher suit first, of course,” said Vera. “And I as North let Rosy, my partner, know that I had a strong support for her spades with a cue bid of 3♣.”

“Now here is where listening to the bidding is so important,” said Rosy. “When East doubled the cue bid, it was a lead-directing double, and West as her partner should have been listening. In fact, after we tried the Blackwood convention, and another double by East, on the 5♦ bid, there were two lead-directing doubles for West to use.”

Here Vera chimed in again, “We stopped at 5♠, and it was a good place to stop, once we realized that slam was not a possibility. Rosy made a good choice in bidding, and stopping at the right contract.”

“In the play of the hand,” Rosy continued, “the lead was not a diamond or a club! No, Captain North, can you believe it? We might have been pushed into a corner with a diamond or a club lead, but I did not know that my partner had no clubs, nor did she know I had no diamonds.”

“Instead of a diamond or a club lead, West led her fourth best heart, suggesting that she had something of value in her hand. I figured it was the ♥K because I could see the Ace, the Queen, and the Jack in my partner’s hand. It was an easy finesse, and it worked.”

“From then on, it was easy work to take all 13 tricks and a good game bid, played, and won.”

“So you see, Captain North, we might have been pushed into a corner, but we had the right cards, the right concentration, the right bidding, and we won at bridge.”

Captain North stood up from his chair. “Congratulations, Vera and Rosy. You had a great ride at the fair, and you had a great ride at the bridge table.” He started to walk away, but then he turned and asked, “Is it true that East-West could have made 5♦ if they had continued bidding?”

“Of course,” answered Vera and Rosy in unison. “But we know that spades are a higher ranking suit than diamonds, and we know the saying, ‘When in doubt, bid one more!’ Captain North, you should get out more often. Go to the fair and ride the Tilt-a-Girl! You will have a wonderful time.” They both broke into laughter as the Captain walked back to his paperwork.

Gerald Stein

July 18, 2012

Number of words: 897