That wish arose during
the Swiss team game at the Buffalo Fall Sectional Tournament on Sunday at the
sight of a hand that featured six Clubs – A-K-Q-J-x-x – four Diamonds headed by
the King, two worthless Spades and a singleton Heart. I could take six sure
tricks in Clubs or No Trump, barring a truly awful split, but how best to
exploit it?
Also I was dealer. It’s
an opening hand, so I should bid at least 1 Club. But that, I reckoned
uncertainly, is hardly descriptive. So I pre-empted with 3 Clubs. Judie
Bailey responded 3 Hearts. I passed.
Judge Judie gave me a
stern look and proceeded to make 4 Hearts. She had a seven-card Heart suit. Her
bid was forcing. I had to respond. Needless to say, it did us no good in our
team match – according to the hand records, it could make 4 Hearts, 4 No Trump
and 5 Clubs – and she took me to task for it.
Mea culpa, mucho mea culpa, I conceded
after consulting the internet, namely rpbridge.com, which was the first thing
that came up on Google. It set me straight.
The pre-empt in the
first seat is a no-no – 1 Club should have been the bid. A third-seat pre-empt
might have been OK, though.
Judie’s 3 Heart bid was absolutely forcing and I should have bid 4 Hearts if I had two or more Hearts. With my
singleton, I should have rebid my Clubs.
As our conversation
about this hand continued into Monday, Judie eventually allowed that, although
she was short on Diamonds, a No Trump bid on her part might have been
appropriate. That was what I hoped my 3 Club bid would suggest. At any rate,
now I’m hip to the rules. No ESP required.
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