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unusual events.

Yes, They Happened!

So, as promised, a change for today as we look at a few of the zanier things that have occurred at the bridge table in this country. They are all from about 20-30 years ago. No-one does anything as silly as what follows these days. Honestly, they do not.

Actually, they do but they never get reported! That is the most unsubtle hint of the day! Please note.

So, then to the strange situation we left you with yesterday. All of the following appeared in the “Yes It Happened” feature of New Zealand Bridge Magazine. As well as asking the bridge question below, we asked the connection between this article and the title of a well-known Spandau Ballet song. The answer, the title of the song, will appear at the end of each segment.

 

The contract was 1NT by South, the diamond suit being laid out as above.

How many tricks did declarer make in this suit with the first round of diamonds being played from the North (dummy) hand,     2? A special prize if you can give the order of diamonds played. No diamonds were discarded on any other suit.

“Kamikaze Count”      

West and East..well, West really were determined to give some form of count to each other.

North was on lead and led 2 to the 7, A and J.

The next round went 3 10 K Q.

With some sympathy, South was convinced they had a diamond loser…and therefore led…6 losing to 8.

We do not recommend this method of giving count being so successful long-term!

So, the answer was three tricks for South. I am sure that was what you expected all along!

Five Card Majors.

 

1 was 3+ clubs…and there was South in 2 wondering where their heart losers were going.  West led 5 with East inserting J. Declarer was looking at 3 heart losers though decided he might get to ruff one, if the defence did not switch to a trump. So, South ducked. They did not find the trump switch.. East continued with K which was taken by South’s ace. Wonderful.

Yet, not so fast because the A was ruffed by West! Three heart losers thus became 4 and the certain defeat of the contract. It transpired that East was 3613 shape, in that order..that’s right 3 clubs and 6 hearts!

“Why did you not open 1?” asked a rather bemused South?

“We play 5 card majors” came the reply.

What could South say to that!

A SAD ENDING

There was the East player who had great ambitions when they picked up this nice collection:

 AJT653

 –

 AKQJT86

 –

The bidding was going quite well for them even if their partner’s double had been a little disturbing:

West              North            East    South

                        1                2¹     4

X                      Pass

¹ Michaels Cue Bid, spades and a minor

East decided their hand was not that suitable for a penalty pass and tried once more to wake up their partner by raising the stakes to 5. West became a little confused by this auction and passed! Neither opponent helped East out with East becoming declarer in one of the suits he did not hold. A trump lead was to see this contract 8 down – 800!

 

Despite not getting any match-points for their result on this board, East-West scored rather well on this particular round. However, another player looked at East’s personal score-sheet and noted 3 800’s in the minus side of their score-sheet. “Not so good” commented the player to East. “That’s right” mused East “and one of them was not even doubled!”

Turning Plus into Minus

Many of you will remember the famous occasion at a past National Congress when Andy Braithwaite failed to double when on lead to 7NT with a solid looking AK. He did, naturally, secure an “Even Homer Nods” award, going to a strong player who rather “lapsed”. We will see Andy again in action before this article finishes. However, despite the similarity, this story is not about Andy….I think!

Our South held  AK954     J762   J4    102 as the bidding hurtled along:

                        West              North             East                South

                                                                        1NT                Pass

                        6NT                Pass                Pass                ?

South had no temporary misconnection as to who was on lead. They doubled…but recorded a minus score! The question was how….and we can say that it was not like the story we told last month (April 1^st, I believe) where West retreated to the 7-level leaving South, without AK on lead. (You may recall in that story our heroine found the right lead to turn +200 into +800.)

Here, In case you thought that North led a spade out of turn and that declarer forbade that lead, that is wrong, too.

Perhaps South dropped the 4 on the table by mistake and uttered a rude word with the lead therefore being accepted by East? Certainly not!

Remember, the bidding had not finished. This was in the days of written bidding and not everyone’s writing was as pristine as yours or mine is (any comments about this statement will be referred to my very litigious solicitor!). North had a momentary lapse, as someone at the table always seems to, and thought that West’s bid was 2NT and that the double had to be for take-out. So, they “took out” 6NT to 3! East-West gave up on slam, accepted the marginally insufficient bid and instead of recording -200, collected +1100.

Perhaps, Andy Braithwaite’s action was wise after all.

Just Another Bottom

Back, though, to Andy. You get a fair few “gifts” in the course of playing at the bridge table. Andy would have thought sitting West that he was about to be the recipient of one when he held:

 KT7

 T9753

 KQ8

 JT

Although he did not know it at the time, his partner held the K and Q.

The bidding went:

                        West              North            East                South

                                                                                                2

                        Pass                2NT                Pass                  3

                        Pass                7                   All Pass

2 was Tartan and could have been weak but the 3 bid confirmed it as strong but not game force. No beating around the bush from North and no double from Andy who seemingly does not double at the 7 level and probably thought there was no need to do so this time.

He may as well have doubled as these were the four hands:

 

The lay-out was so friendly, for South, that the heart finesse was not necessary. I have expressed some surprise in recent years about how “weak” some players can open a 2 Game Force but a strong 2 without an honour in its trump suit? Surely a world record, one which Andy was not delighted to be a party to. If that was a "strong two", one would hate to see what a weak two-suiter looked like. 

Just another bottom.

Our story tomorrow revolves around two hands, two opposites. As a prelude, what bid would you make, if any, on the following South hand:

 

1 promised 4+ clubs.

Richard Solomon

 

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