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Archive of Previous Poor Bridge
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This week's dollop of dreadfulness comes from the lofty heights of the Portland Bowl finals weekend, from the Sunday in fact. We were on our way to winning against Oxford A, while Edinburgh tussled with Oxford B for third place. Midway through our third set the following hand came up:
| E-W Vul. Dlr N |
 A 9 7 5 4 |
|
 4 2 |
||
 Q J 10 7 4 |
||
 5 |
||
| Q 8 6 3 |
 |
J 10 |
| A 9 3 |
K Q J 10 5 |
|
| 6 |
5 3 2 |
|
| A K J 3 2 |
8 6 4 |
|
| K 2 |
||
| 8 7 6 |
||
| A K 9 8 |
||
| Q 10 9 7 |
At my table, I open the obvious weak NT in third and the auction proceeds as follows:
| West | North | East | South |
| Ian | Robin | Greg | James |
| - | Pass | Pass | 1NT |
| X | XX | Pass | 2 |
| X | 2 |
Pass | Pass |
| X | All Pass |
Ian's initial double was fairly pushy (given the match was essentially flat overall at this point so he wasn't looking to swing) and Robin has a decision to make with his reasonable hand. Deciding to treat it as just a five card diamond suit (4-4 being the other option) he redoubles and corrects my forced 2 to diamonds, Ian continuing to whack things with abandon until we subside in 2 and he completes his turkey prize attempt.
Clearly with my excellent diamonds and useful spade honour, Robin can make a lot of tricks, and he actually emerges with 10 for +380. There's some talk of whether 4 can make, but when we score up Dom and Tom have bid to it and gone off, answering that question and limiting the gain on the board to a mere 7 IMPs.
Now this isn't especially poor, although West could choose to keep his counsel initially, after the 2 bid or, indeed, after 2 has appeared. But I noticed in Edinburgh's report from the match that Danny casually dropped in that this board had been played in 3NT at his table, making, by North-South. My head exploded at this news, and I quickly emailed him to find out more. And it was poor.
I'll give you the auction in full, after the deal again (just for reference):
| E-W Vul. Dlr N |
A 9 7 5 4 |
|
| 4 2 |
||
| Q J 10 7 4 |
||
| 5 |
||
| Q 8 6 3 |
|
J 10 |
| A 9 3 |
K Q J 10 5 |
|
| 6 |
5 3 2 |
|
| A K J 3 2 |
8 6 4 |
|
| K 2 |
||
| 8 7 6 |
||
| A K 9 8 |
||
| Q 10 9 7 |
| West | North | East | South |
| Danny | Jake | ||
| - | Pass | Pass | 1NT |
| 2(1) | 2NT(2) | Pass | 3(3) |
| X(4) | 3(5) |
Pass | 3NT |
| All Pass | |||
| Notes: (1) Alerted as a single suited hand (may have been intended as natural). (2) Lebensohl. (3) Forced. (4) That single suit'll be clubs, then... (5) Intended as invitational in spades, taken as invitational with spades. | |||
It was all going so well until West got involved; still, whatever he meant his bid as, it seemed to have caused the appropriate confusion and helped North-South to reach a pretty terrible contract. Clearly not trusting their defensive skills, though, neither East nor West decided to double.
So West is now on lead. Double dummy, the defence can take the first, umm, eight (!) tricks, but in reality this seems a fairly unlikely outcome. At the table, West got off to a bad (but not yet fatal) start by invoking the fourth-highest mantra and producing the three of clubs. Declarer ran this to hand to (I quote) "general surprise", and with eight tricks to cash now seemed to be gaining IMPs against some E-W partscore.
Jake, never a man to underestimate the idiocy of his opposition, duly seized the opportunity, playing out five rounds of diamonds to pass the time. East is so desperate for a heart switch that he finds the excellent discards of both the Jack and the Ten of spades. West also pitches a small spade to signal for a club, so when Jake crosses to the K and sees East show out, he can take the spade hook to bring in five spade tricks to go with his five diamonds and a club. 3NT with two overtricks is the final result, and Edinburgh go on to claim their podium finish.