Bridge Blog 1178: I never learn

 

People were still talking on Friday, Jan. 30, at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bridge Club game about that hand with the 10 Spades that turned up two days earlier at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines, Ont., the one I write about in Blog 1177.

The challenge there was to bid the slam. The best route, which I didn't take,  seemed to be a 2 Club opening bid, indicating a very strong hand without designating a suit. So did that teach me anything? The test turned up on Board 23 in the final round on Friday, and I flunked it:

Spades: 8.

Hearts: 6.

Diamonds: A-K-Q-J-9-8-6-3-2.

Clubs: A-K.

We're vulnerable, I'm dealer, sitting South, and I bid first. Five Diamonds. It's a slam-dunk. I've got 11 tricks. Everybody passes. West leads the Ace of Hearts. Here's partner Selina Volpatti's dummy:

Spades: A-Q-7-5-2.

Hearts: K-J.

Diamonds: 10-4.

Clubs: 9-7-4-2.

When West leads a second card, I lay down my hand and claim all the rest of the tricks. I ask Muriel Trembley, who has the final sit-out and is kibbitzing, how she and her husband, Claude, who's directing, bid on this hand. She said she didn't remember.

ACBL's Live for Clubs has the answer, though. They played it at 6 NT, making an overtrick because Claude, sitting North, was the declarer. East, not West, would make the opening lead and the natural play would not be a Heart, but rather the top of her sequence in Clubs, the Queen. Claude shouldn't necessarily take all 13 tricks – that Ace of Hearts is out there – but I'll bet he did a squeeze with those nine Diamonds and, once they all were played, exited with South's singleton Spade. West, wanting to preserve his Ace of Hearts, had probably whittled the rest of his hand down to the King of Spades, which crashed down in front of Claude’s Ace-Queen.

The miniscule match point margin we might have gained by bidding a 6 Diamond or 6 NT slam here, however, wouldn't have given us much of a lift. We needed several better boards to reach the charmed circle of master point winners. Our 49.21% put us sixth among nine pairs in this Howell game. To cross the magic threshold at fourth place, we need at least 53.20%, which would require an extra three match points. To catch Claude and Muriel, we'd need a lot more. Perennially the best pair in the room at NOTL, they finished on top again with 65.35%.