By Joel Hoersch,
Editor, District 22 Forum
West Dealer: Both vul.
ª 9
© KJ3
¨ AKJ6
§ Q9765
ª KJ87643
© Q87642
¨ void
§ void
ª A
© 1095
¨ Q1098432
§ A2
Question: what do bridge players call a hand with 7-6-0-0 distribution?
Answer: “A VERY SERIOUS two-suiter!”
This month’s hand ... which looks as though it might have been artificially constructed for April Fools Day ... actually was dealt at the recent Las Vegas Regional - on Leap Year’s Day, no less! Naturally, it caused quite a stir as it circulated in the Friday afternoon matchpoint game, scattering joy and ecstasy, — or agony, consternation and havoc – in random packages.
I received a report on this hand from Ashok Sethi, a San Diego player who is not yet a Life Master. Ashok was sitting South, playing with his wife, Meena. At his table, West opened the bidding 1ª ... which would have been my choice also ... and Meena as North made a takeout double. Now things got competitive: East bid clubs, Ashok bid diamonds, West rebid spades, Meena supported diamonds, East supported spades, and Ashok jumped to 5¨.
Now West stubbornly bid 5ª, Meena doubled and Ashok paused for thought. After all, his long suit and aces suggested that he might have a play for a diamond slam, and he wasn’t positive that the opponents’ contract could be set. So he bid 6¨. (As you can see, he was right on both counts).
Now the bidding drifted to East, who doubled, and everyone passed. West did not lead a heart, which is the only lead that can beat the slam. (Partner wins the ace, gets out with a trump or a spade, and waits for his club trick sometime in the endgame.) So Ashok and Meena were beneficiaries of one of the joyful happenings.
Contrast that with the events at another table reported to me, where the action featured a professional player sitting East who holds over 33,000 masterpoints more than the number that Ashok holds! At that table, the student sitting West elected to pass as dealer, no doubt hoping to show both suits later. North opened 1¨, East overcalled 2§, and South took command with a Blackwood bid. Agony for West, who was shut out at the five-level!
The upshot was that East eventually had to choose a lead against a diamond slam, with no help from partner. He quickly rejected laying down the ©A, which was likely to set up a lot of tricks for the opponents, so the opening lead was the §J.
Agony for East! He ground his teeth, knowing that the opening lead must have given his opponent the contract, when the dummy played low.
Ecstasy! When West saw that his partner had a club void, and had played a red card!
Agony again, when West realized that – alas – the red card was a heart, not a trump!
Consternation, when he worked out that he and partner were cold for 6ª, with that suit never having been bid!
The last I heard about that escapade, the havoc still had not died down.
There is no hard-and-fast moral to hands like this, but – when both sides have 11-card fits in their trump suits – it often pays to bid one more for the road.