Better Bridge in Barry County September 10 2015

Better Bridge in Barry County

By Gerald Stein

 

 

	North ♠  10 x x x       ♥   x x  ♦  A Q J x x  ♣  A x
West ♠  x x     ♥  6  ♦  10 x x x    ♣  x x x x x x		East ♠  Q x x  ♥  10 x x x ♦  x x ♣  x x x x
	South ♠  A K J x ♥  A K Q J x x    ♦  K x    ♣  8

 

 

Dealer: Vulnerable: Lead:

North Neither 6♥

 

North 1♦ 1♠ 5♥ Pass	East Pass Pass Pass Pass	South 1♥ 4NT 7♥	West Pass Pass Pass

One of the highlights of going to major bridge tournaments is the chance to play with other players. Many have traveled great distances to play bridge at a huge tournament. At the National American Contract Bridge League Summer Tournament held in downtown Chicago a few weeks ago, this hand came up in a team game. North, my favorite partner, opened with 1♦, promising at least 12 or 13 high card points and in our system agreement promised at least 4 diamonds. I had a blockbuster hand as the South player. Slam was in the realm of a real possibility. Just put the two hands together, and you will see what I mean. Which slam would it be and how high were, of course, the leading questions in my mind.

I bid my heart suit knowing that it would be a source of at least six tricks and with the two top spades two more tricks for eight tricks in my own hand. When my partner bid 1♠, bidding up the line, I knew that her hand was limited, but that she probably had five diamonds and four spades. What I did not know was this: did she have any aces?

My jump to 4NT was Standard Blackwood, asking for aces. The normal response is 5♣ for all or no aces; 5♦ for 1 ace; and 5♥ for two aces. When she bid 5♥, my heart gave a jump, and I knew we had all of the aces. I placed the contract at 7♥. Our opponents let out low whistles, and my partner prepared to place her cards on the table.

The lead was the 6♥, a singleton, and a good lead for me as the declarer. My partner placed her cards down, and I looked at the wonderful diamond suit and the A♣ and nodded my approval and thanked her for her hand. Playing small from the board, I saw East play the 10♥, and I pulled in the first heart trick with the J♥. Drawing three more rounds of trump finished off the East player.

I next played the K♦ from my hand and a small diamond from the board. I then led my remaining small diamond from my hand to the A♦, played the Q♦, the J♦, and dropped the 10♦ from the West hand. I still had the A♠, the K♠, and the A♣ plus two trumps left over for a 7♥ contract bid and made. We scored 1510 points for our team. When we compared scores, our opponents who played the exact same cards as we had just played only managed to get to 6♥. We picked up 500 points on just the one hand. What a thrilling experience for us at a National Tournament.

While bidding and playing a Grand Slam is a relatively rare occurrence, when it happens at a National Tournament where there are 10 days of competitive bridge from 9 AM in the morning until the last game starts at 11:00 PM each night, you remember that hand and that success. Of course, you also try to forget the hands where there were missteps along the way.

 At a National Tournament, you can play as much bridge as you can stand or in this case, sit. Over 12, 000 tables of bridge were played at the Hilton on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago during this tournament in early August, 2015.

We were part of a bridge bus trip that picked up bridge players in Grand Rapids, swung down to Kalamazoo to pick up others, and motored into the Windy City on a Monday morning. On Friday evening as we prepared to leave after four nights and five days of bridge, most of us recounted that we had played over 175 hands of bridge. Some of us wisely took a day off to enjoy the sights and the sites of downtown Chicago. All in all, this was a wonderful experience to ride in a coach where someone does the driving for you, drops you off at your hotel, and five days later, returns to take you back to your car. Traveling and bridge playing! Now that sounds like a winning hand.

 

Gerald Stein

Number of words: 811

September 3, 2015