[Winstonm]

Scoring: IMP

S W N E
1♠2♦2♠4♦
P P P

---

How do you explain this disaster to your teammates? What action do you take?

Explanations:
A) South had a "senior" moment and forgot he had opened.
B) West is a junior and has never been doubled.
C) North is adamant that a negative double denies spade support.
D) Both North and South pulled the wrong cards from the bidding box.

Action:
A) Take it like a man. Fess up to your ignorance and apologize.
B) Blame it all on partner and huff off.
C) Lie. Try to find an alternative contract that loses 150.
D) Do not ever return to the other table to compare, join a monestary, and pray for forgiveness and that teammates never find you and if they do won't recognize you with the new beard, the robe, and the hood.

Winston

[pbleighton]

We've all done worse.

Peter

[mike777]

Winstonm, on Dec 9 2005, 08:39 PM, said:

<!-- FULLHAND begin --><table border=1> <tr> <td> <table> <tr> <td>Dealer:</td> <td> South </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Vul:</td> <td> E/W </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Scoring:</td> <td> IMP </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td> <table> <tr> <th> </th> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> KQ8 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> Q972 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td>  </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> 986532 </td> </tr> </table> </th> <th> </th> </tr> <tr> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> 62 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> 10543 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> AK9652 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> Q </td> </tr> </table> </th> <th> </th> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> 954 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> 6 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> J10843 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> AK107 </td> </tr> </table> </th> </tr> <tr> <th> </th> <th> <table> <tr> <th class='spades'>♠</th> <td> AJ1073 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='hearts'>♥</th> <td> AKJ8 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='diamonds'>♦</th> <td> Q7 </td> </tr> <tr> <th class='clubs'>♣</th> <td> J4 </td> </tr> </table> </th> <th> </th> </tr> </table> </td> <td> S    W    N     E
1♠2♦2♠4♦
P P P </td> </tr> </table><!-- FULLHAND end -->


How do you explain this disaster to your teammates?  What action do you take?

Explanations:
A) South had a "senior" moment and forgot he had opened.
West is a junior and has never been doubled.
C) North is adamant that a negative double denies spade support.
D) Both North and South pulled the wrong cards from the bidding box.

Action:
A) Take it like a man.  Fess up to your ignorance and apologize.
Blame it all on partner and huff off.
C) Lie.  Try to find an alternative contract that loses 150.
D) Do not ever return to the other table to compare, join a monestary, and pray for forgiveness and that teammates never find you and if they do won't recognize you with the new beard, the robe, and the hood.

Winston

Starting with neg x seems clear whatever 2s was suppose show.

Does North have some source for his adamant belief? Does he cite some book or great player?

Is South allowed any input into partnership biddding style?

Was north allowed another bid over 4D are is he barred?

[mikeh]

I agree 100% with Justin. North has a tough call over 2♦. I hate the idea of a negative double when he can expect ♦ to be raised. He is top of range for 2♠ and S is just short of 4♠, so they get a bad result. Show me the pair that never gets fixed and I will show you a pair that hasn't played much

BTW, it's always interesting to see this type of hand posted. It is usually possible to predict those of us who accept the fix.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

the only questionable call seems to be 2D by west
red versus green, but then: you dont win, if you play
100% book bridge.
West took the risk and got rewarded.

So I would say, accept the result, be grateful they did
not bid 5D.

Marlowe

[pbleighton]

"the only questionable call seems to be 2D by west"

I think there are three tough calls:

For West: Pass, 2D, and 3D are all OK.

North's first call could have been 2S, 3D, or double.

Second time around, North could have passed, or bid 4S with a diamond void. Personally, I seem to get these decisions wrong more than right.

None of these calls would have been wrong. North guessed wrong, and West guessed right.

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a "fix" (to second-guess two experts), but there is certainly no real blame attached.

Peter

[MickyB]

North is worth 3♦ on the first round, 2♠ isn't ridiculous though. The 2♦ overcall was insane.

[Gerben42]

North must have something stronger available than 2♠, for example 2NT invitational with fit. If he only has one "cuebid", blame the system.

[Double !]

None of the Above choices.

To a degree, how to react depends in part on your teammates. (Actually, I started to laugh when I read your 4 "explanations". Can definitely empathize with the senior moment component.

IMO, all effort should be to return to your teammates in a calm, good mood, perhaps even denying reality and laughing about this board. Return to your teammates arguing or upset and, I suspect, you run a high risk of demoralizing them. They'll see the tension and anticipate another problem the following round. This could then impact on how they play.

By the way, you don't even know what the result at the other table was. Partnership and team harmony is first concern. Ain' no use gettin' upset 'bout something you can't do nothin about.

I like the idea of telling your teammates that you were fixed. Hopefully, they won't ask who did the fixing.

DHL

[beatrix45]

Jlall, on Dec 10 2005, 01:37 PM, said:

I strongly disagree that north should do something stronger than 2S. Yes he has a void, but voids aren't that great with only THREE trumps. They are much more valuable with 4 trumps. Often with 3 trumps pard will lose trump control having to cross back to his hand with ruffing, or the opponents can play too many trumps (even if they dont lead one partner needs a lot of fast entries to his hand outside of trumps). Not only that, our trumps are KQx. Pard may not be thrilled about scoring his ruffs when he holds A9xxx of spades himself.

North does have a 6 card suit, but it's headed to the 9. Setting them up will be very unlikely. This hand is not going to play well. You need a source of tricks somewhere. The only reason the actual hand does play well is because partner has a side heart suit and only needs one ruff in diamonds. Partner also happens to have 15 points with 5422 distribution, and had RHO not bid FOUR diamonds he would have been able to make a game try which north would gladly accept (in hearts he has a much stronger playing hand). Usually if partner does not make a game try you won't miss game unless he has a perfecta (take away his DQ and CJ here, and game still makes).

Perfect analysis IMO.

I would have bid 4♠ with the south hand based on a wholly different type of analysis. From the bidding, it sounds like pard has a stiff diamond. Combined with my doubleton club, the sum of our short suits would be three. I have 13 or 14 working high card points. Partner's raise advertises another six. Applying Mike and Anders' favorite formula: 13-3=10 (maybe 9 if pard's raise was very weak). 4♠ figures to make or go down one.

Even if our limit is nine tricks in spades, 4♠ down one could be right if there were 19 tricks in the hand. Depending on how you play a competitive raise to 3♠, the odds of there being 19 trumps vary, but I can almost count 18 for certain. Either a void or two suit fit might or a fourth trump in pard's hand offer the prospect of one more. Can 4♠ lose? Of course, but what are the odds?

A pass (or double) of 4♦ leaves a huge burden on the weak hand. Who has better information here, me or pard? IMO playing to avoid criticism in the post mortem is losing bridge. Who are such critics, anyway?

[Fluffy]

2♦ is the worst bid of all, rest are ok.

[Blofeld]

I'm not sure whether I'd do anything more than 2♠ or not with the North hand. Certainly double doesn't feel right.

I don't agree with the 2♦ bid, but I don't think it's awful, either. The hand has some shape and the suit has some values.

[luke warm]

another good hand for limited canape openings.. had it started 1h (2d), wouldn't north bid 4h now? i probably would

[PMetsch]

I don't like the 4♦ bid. If partner has a singleton ♠, then 5♦ may be an excellent contract. I think he should have bid 4♣ if that is a fit jump.