Friday, September 14, 2012

Bridge Blog 571-A: Born under a bad sign

I suspected Thursday’s game with Alicia Kolipinski at the Airport Bridge Club was in trouble right from the first round against Rita Sierocynski and Linda Wynes. Not that we were getting bad cards – I was declarer on all three bids – but we failed miserably when it came to getting the most out of them.
The first one I played at 3 Diamonds, making an overtrick, but it gave us only two out of eight game points. It was good for 3 No Trump, too. The second one I played at 2 Diamonds, going down one, although I could have avoided that by drawing trumps sooner or by bidding 1 NT instead of rebidding my Diamonds. And then there was this one, a total bottom board.
Board 6. East-West is vulnerable. East is dealer.
East (me)
Spades: A-K-Q-8-7-6-5; Hearts: A-J-9
Diamonds: None; Clubs: K-7-3
South (Linda Wynes)
Spades: 9-4-2; Hearts: 8-3-2
Diamonds: Q-J-9-7-4; Clubs: J-8
West (Alicia Kolipinski)
Spades: None; Hearts: K-10-7
Diamonds: 10-8-5-3-2; Clubs: A-10-6-5-4
North (Rita Sieroczynski)
North: J-10-3; Hearts: Q-6-5-4
Diamonds: A-K-6; Clubs: Q-9-2
I opened a Spade and if I recall correctly, there were two passes to Rita, who doubled. I redoubled to show big confidence and Linda bid 2 Diamonds. Two more passes back to me and it was 2 Spades, pass, pass, pass. The play of the hand was no problem. I took 11 tricks. I should have been in game. Where did we go wrong?
Alicia contended that she had no bid to make, given her void in my big suit and her weak hard card holding. I had to agree. It was up to me to make a jump bid instead of redoubling.
At six tables, the bid was 4 Spades, making two, three and (just once) four overtricks. Two others stopped bidding at 3 Spades and both of them made three overtricks. Two Spades making five was a bottom board.

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