Better Bridge in Barry County October 30 2014

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  8 5     ♥  A 9 8 5  ♦  A 9 7 5  ♣  A 10 4
West ♠  10 9 6 4    ♥  10 7 3  ♦  Q 6 4  ♣  J 9 8		East ♠  2  ♥  Q J 6 2  ♦  K J 10 8 3    ♣  6 5 2
	South ♠  A K Q J 7 3  ♥  K 4  ♦  2    ♣  K Q 7 3

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

East Both 10♠

 

North   2NT 7♣!	East Pass Pass Pass	South 2♣ 3♣ Pass	West Pass Pass Pass

What happens in a bridge hand when one partner forgets or ignores the partnership agreements and goes off on his own? Usually disaster results, and today’s hand is a good example where South ignored his partnership agreements with North and ended up in a highly unusual contract. Let’s see what mistakes South made on today’s hand.

After a pass by East, South had the opportunity to bid his beautiful spade suit. With strong spades, eighteen high card points, and twenty total points counting the length points in the spade suit, what did South do wrong? South opened 2♣, a strong opening bid usually promising more points than South was holding. What was South’s reasoning on this bid? Most likely, he was concerned that a 1♠ bid would be passed out, and he would have to play in 1♠. By bidding 2♣, he could force his partner North to bid and hopefully reach a game in spades. Oh boy! Mistake number one.

After a pass by West, North responded to South’s opening bid with 2NT. This was a positive no trump bid, promising 8+ high card points. North bid properly, trusting his partner and his partner’s opening bid. South bid again, and not really thinking carefully, bid 3♣, thinking that he could use the Stayman Convention to inquire about a major suit. What was South thinking? He already had a major suit! In addition, this was not a Stayman Convention bid at all. It informed North that South had 5+ clubs, 19+ high card points, and up to 23 total points. Mistake number two. “Worser and Worser,” says Alice in Wonderland.

West passed, and now the trouble vaulted upward. North with 12 high card points placed the contract at 7♣. By now, South began to realize the foolishness of his bidding. How could he escape? What had he done? Again, by not thinking clearly, a flustered South sought an out as quickly as he could. He passed. Yikes! The contract was 7♣ in the South. South could have saved himself a lot of grief by bidding the spades at the seven level, but that bid was not even thought of by that time. South had a “brain malfunction.”Mistake number three.

With the 10♠ as the lead, South was nervous about playing this hand. And rightly so, as he had made three serious errors already. Could he salvage the hand? Seeing the three aces from his Partner North, South thanked his partner and prepared to play7♣ instead of 7♠. Making a plan was the only way to salvage his mistakes and escape with some of his dignity intact. With stoppers in all suits, his only hope was that the club suit would split 3-3 and that the spade suit would carry him home.

As it turned out, South must have lived a charmed life, as the clubs did in fact split 3-3, and South ended up taking all thirteen tricks. Was he lucky after so many mental errors on his part? Of course, he was. Did he receive a top score for all of his errors? He did not, as a number of sound bidders reached the 7♠ contract and scored the top scores on this hand.

What are the lessons learned from South’s attempts to push the bidding into a dangerous area? South gave away a wonderful opportunity to take and make a 7♠ Grand Slam. Instead, he settled luckily for a 7♣ Grand Slam that no else in that tournament even considered. Sometimes in bridge you are lucky, and it seemed that this time South, despite all of the errors that he had made, ended up in second place on this hand instead of reaching a complete disaster. Let’s hope that South learned from his mistakes and won’t repeat them in the future.

 

Gerald Stein

October 17, 2014

Number of Words: 773

Bridge Notes: How do I know so much about South’s poor bidding on today’s hand? Yes, you guessed it. I was the one who made all of today’s mistakes. GS.