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A New Bridge Adventure.

When you start playing bridge, every board is a new adventure. Actually, the same is true when you have played for 50+ years. Sometimes the adventure has a happy ending and sometimes you just smile and move on. After all, it’s only a game! Well, that’s certainly true when you have only been playing for one year and you have not even reached your teenage years yet.

So, today and tomorrow, we will have a little look at “the adventures of Eason Lu”. That’s right, he started playing in late 2020 and then this past weekend, he got himself a good partner, Brad Johnston, and teammates in Kinga Hajmasi and Candice Smith and took on some mighty strong teams in the Wellington Regional Teams.

Eason and his team

That's Kinga, Eason, Candice and Brad

They finished in 7^th place (out of 24 teams), a pretty good effort. In a team of players from Dunedin and Auckland, Eason was the local lad, playing his bridge up at Karori. So, how are you feeling about this auction so far?

 

Well, you may or may not have moved over 4 but your partner has some high-card points, perhaps the odd spade or two and your own hand is not too bad. So, out comes simple Blackwood and partner produces simply the wrong answer. No aces! Oh well, what to do?

If you are feeling lucky, then the A might be your only loser while on other days, you will just content yourself with 5 and hope that is OK for 11 tricks. Decisions, decisions and you decide to sign off at the 5-level but, oops, you signed off a little too soon! Your partner might have been a little surprised when he found himself playing in his Blackwood response, 5!

Well, maybe not ideal but at least you have got a good partner and he will find a way.

 

Indeed, there was a way, just. North led Q. Brad won in dummy to play 6 to 9 T and North’s Q. North exited a trump round to Brad’s Q. He ruffed a heart in dummy and discarded a diamond on the A ("nice spade support, partner!") before playing a diamond to his king.

Brad guessed hearts correctly (he presumed South did not hold A as they might have played it at trick 2) by leading K and when East covered, ruffed with A.

Now a spade ruff and K losing just a trump trick as T8 were high.

Oh, I suppose you have already noticed that 5 was the last making contract with only 10 tricks possible in spades!

What? “Lucky” did I hear you say? Of course, that Brad had a decent trump suit!

One adventure on what should be a long and successful bridge career for Eason. Some may not turn out so fortunately but that’s all part of the adventure. Try this one:

Remember natural bidding?

That’s the ground rules for this problem. No Jacoby 2NT or any other artificiality allowed. What would your bid be in this sequence?

 

Seem easy? Maybe.

Richard Solomon

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