Bridge Blog 726-E: Wham bam thank you slam

Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein introduced a new set of cards for Tuesday’s game which he said were pre-shuffled, but later conceded that they might have been arranged by the guy he bought them from.

Could be. Two players pointed out that the North hands on Boards 1 and 17 were identical. And then there was Board 22, where almost everybody bid to a grand slam and a good many of them were doubled.

East, Nancy Kessler, opened a Heart. Marietta, sitting South, bid the unusual 2 No Trump, showing long suits in Diamonds and Clubs. West, John Kirsits, went to 4 Spades. I’m sitting with five low Hearts, A-K-x-x-x in Diamonds, A-x-x in Clubs and no Spades whatsoever. We’re not vulnerable, so I don’t hesitate to bid 5 Diamonds, figuring we can cross-ruff our way to 10 tricks at least.

Anyway, Nancy bids 5 Spades, Marietta bids 6 Diamonds, John doubles, Nancy bids 6 Hearts, I bid 7 Diamonds and Nancy bids 7 Hearts, which I double.

As it turns out, East-West have all the Spades and South and West are void in Hearts. West, with eight Spades and five Clubs, is void in Diamonds. Nancy trumps Marietta’s lead, the King of Clubs, then goes on to make a grand slam doubled vulnerable for 2470 match points.

We’re the only table to play it in Hearts. Almost everybody else makes the grand slam in Spades. But 2470 is not a top score. At one table, the grand slam is redoubled. Marietta, meanwhile, wishes we could have bid 8 Diamonds. At the table where East-West let North-South take the bid in Diamonds, they won all 13 tricks.