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The Fabulous, Fantastic, Functional Four-Letter Word.

It is lovely when the perfect gadget which you keep at the bottom of your “bridge bag” suddenly appears…something you and partner discussed ages ago but rarely use. You have the utmost faith in your partner (why else play with them?) to remember too. So, now is the hour and you know you will get a good result whatever partner decides.

 

This was the hand and below the narrative with which we left you yesterday:

If you do not yet play Precision, we are going to give you a quick one hand lesson. You open 1, 16+ high card points, any shape. OK so far? East makes the almost compulsory not vulnerable action over it, this time a jump to 2, weak, very weak or totally pusillanimous!

Your partner now bids 3, big call, certainly 8+ hcp and plenty of spades.

Now you are versed in Precision, what bid do you make?

Actually, pretend the auction has gone:

West              North                         East                South

                        2 (Game force)     2                   2

Pass                ?

and you have pretty much the same auction:

and your bid is?

It is true you could initiate a cue-bidding auction and all being well, partner will either show or not show as the case may be, a control (ace, king, void or singleton) in hearts. However, there is the perfect bid for your hand in either Precision or natural bidding. That is 5, 5 of your trump suit which is not a request for good trumps to bid 6 (you can use a version of Blackwood for that) or a general slam try (there are better ways than just putting in that question). It says: “if you have a control in their suit, partner, please bid the slam." There are indeed ways to show total control (e.g. A singleton) but let’s leave it at that for now.

You traditionally have all other suits well protected but cannot bid a slam unless partner has a control in their suit. (Note, this only applied when there has been interference bidding…and only applies when you have agreed a major).

So, looking at his fabulous hand, Anthony Ker thought “now was the hour”. He realised there was a danger here in that if his partner, Alan Grant, held three hearts without the A or K, 5 would be defeated by three top hearts or AK and a ruff. The slam would also go down to a ruff if partner's holding was Kxx. However, 3 was a mighty big bid. It was worth the risk.

Alan looked at his hand, initially surprised at the bid ….but then a horrible realisation occurred. He had committed the on-line bridge player’s nightmare. In some friendly on-line matches, he could get restitution for what he had done, though that may only be possible with the absolutely friendliest of opposition since Anthony had made a bid.

He had misclicked! It’s time to see all four hands:

 

Now, BBO tournaments run by Patrick Carter are indeed really friendly. However, in order to avoid lengthy discussions at one table which would hold up the whole movement, you are not able to ask for an UNDO. What’s done is done and cannot be UNDONE.

So, Alan did not think in any way that his hand had been improved by the jump to 5. His heart holding was not the best and the trump suit he allegedly had shown had vanished, if it was ever there. He passed.

West led J with their partner’s suit being far from pusillanimous! “How dare you even suggest that!” I can hear East saying. So, the defence took the first three tricks with West exiting a minor. Not even a player of Alan’s ability could find a way to his hand to take the spade finesse and he lost two more spade tricks to be three down!

                            
                                                               Alan and Anthony are!

 

“I will put that gadget back in the bottom of my bag for another 50 years” thought Anthony with a wry smile.

In case you are wondering, the four-letter word was not “Alan” but that wondrous on-line facility called “UNDO”. We kind of have it in real life too, sometimes, when we make an unintentional bid which has nothing whatsoever to do with our hand, inadvertency. That has more than four letters, though!

Also, Alan was heading for the much better contract of 3, the perfect spot on this deal. It is just his fingers were not! From a top to a bottom thanks to one (mis) click. There have been many such happenings in the last couple of weeks though few as spectacular as this one. Alan and Anthony went on to score well, as they normally do, with just the odd hiccup along the way.

“Oh, Patrick, Director, Almighty One

I’ve committed the most terrible blue.

Please, please let me reverse what I have done

And let me use “UNDO”.

Some of us have been very remiss in not turning the ban on the “Undo” button to our advantage. It is only now, some 5 days after the event, that I have remembered to tell partner that the three contracts I doubled and which made were all “misclicks”!

Back to defence for Easter Monday:

 

Your partner leads 6 (playing 4^th best leads) with trick 1 going to J, your ace and declarer’s 3. You return 10 to declarer’s 7, partner’s 2 and dummy’s K.

Declarer plays A 238 and then J K47 (you play reverse count, if that helps.) What next?

Enjoy the Easter eggs you queued for, for so long at the supermarket, if you found any!

Richard Solomon

and thanks to my "bean spiller", Grant Jarvis.

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