[Free]

One of my dumbest things was failing to see a double in a relayauction. I'll try to reconstruct the hand I had:

AKQx
xxxx
x
Jxxx

The auction went (playing MOSCITO):
1♦ - pass - 1♥* - pass
1NT - pass - 2♣* - Dbl!
2♠ - pass - 2NT* - pass
3♦ - pass - 3♥* - pass
...
(*) are relays

NOW I see the double, 2 rounds further in the auction. I try to figure out what hand I showed my partner, and it's the following: 1-4-3-5! Partner is asking for AKQ points, and all of them are in ♠, my short suit. The auction continued:
3♠ - pass - 4♣* - pass
...

Now partner was asking me to show where my tophonours are! I can't make a sensible bid since ♠ is excluded from the scan. So I just bid the lowest steps and hope partner will notice that what I show is impossible:
4♦ - pass - 4♥* pass
4♠ - pass - ...

Now partner is thinking for like 5 minutes (he realized something was going on, but didn't know what) and bids 5♦, signoff. I pass and hope for the best. We were playing in a 5-1 fit, ♦ were 4-3 but the wrong hand had the 4 card suit (otherwise we still make!). -1 opposite a laydown vulnerable game hurt...

[mikeh]

Many, many years ago, playing in a small swiss event, I was declaring 3N with the opening lead of the ♦Q. Dummy held Kxx and I held Axx. I had another suit with only one stopper so there was little point in ducking the lead. But there were entry considerations as to where I should win the trick. I gave it only a little thought and called for the King.

Just then, the caddy arrived and leaned over my right shoulder to remove the played boards and deliver the new ones. She fumbled a bit with the boards while I gave the hand some more thought. I decided that I really should win the trick in my hand, so when she straightened up and left the table, I played my Ace.

This was not a success.

[zzmiy]

Once playing teams round-robin on the very last board of the last match I missed part's bid: LHO opened 1♠, and I, with the only desire to finish the game as soon as possible, saw the part's hand moving somewhere to "pass-side" of the bidding-box, RHO passed and I thinking "what a stupid contract we are going to play " also passed. To my surprise LHO passed again and only after that I noticed that my partner had actually doubled

[cade909]

One time......I put 5 suits down in the dummy. That wasn't a moment of brilliance.

[mikegill]

1) Recently - This is why I don't like playing bridge on low sleep. Playing matchpoints, I was defending 2NT. I had AQ98x KQxx AJ9 x. I had overcalled 1S over 1D, so partner led the spade T and dummy is Jxx xx KTxxx AKx. I played small and declarer won his K of spades, then played to the A of clubs to lead a diamond off dummy, winning the Q in hand. He then played K and another club, while I pitched hearts. He plays the 4th round of clubs, partner's J winning. For some reason it didn't even occur to me to pitch a heart so that partner could lead a diamond for me. So I pitched my J of diamonds, which makes it go down only 1. Partner duly played a spade and I cashed my spades. Now I knew declarer had the AJ of hearts and a good club left, so I could just cash my dA and take down 1. But no, I decided that maybe I was wrong and I played the K of hearts to avoid setting up the K of diamonds in dummy for declarer (which he clearly couldn't get to but nevermind that). So declarer wins the A and cashes his club and for some reason I decided he had a diamond left not a heart and pitched my Q of hearts! Making 2. I'm actually suprised I didn't find a way to let him make an overtrick on this hand. I actually find these temporary leaves from sanity that our brains occasionally take to be quite amusing.

2) A few years ago - I was playing matchpoints again, and LHO led a low heart, dummy has AQx and I have JT. For some completely arbitrary reason, I just decided that RHO had the K, and I didn't want a switch, so I played the Q from dummy. Of course RHO didn't have the K and my Q held, and I only got 2 heart tricks. The funny part was that I didn't even realize I'd done something unusual (and dumb) until it was pointed out after the hand.

[Echognome]

First hand I ever played duplicate, I had won the part-score battle and managed to mangle the play and go one off. With three tricks to go, I claimed and said "no score". Everyone looked at me. I said, "It's down one vulnerable, but I have 100 honors."

[Trumpace]

This hand is fresh in my memory...

Scoring: IMP

---

Bidding: (East starting)
1H - 2S - P - 4S - PPP

Lead was ♥ J.
10 tricks should be easy, 6 spades, 1 heart ruff, 1 diamond and 2 clubs.

But this is what happened:

East won the heart K and switched to a trump.

I won the A, drew trumps (!), and played a diamond to the K.
East won with the Diamond A, cashed the Heart A, and was (no surprise) confused by my play. Probably thought I had no hearts left, and returned a diamond.

By this time I had realized what I had done..., and the defence had given me an opportunity by not cashing the 3rd heart.

On the diamond return, a club was discarded (best I think), a diamond ruffed in hand (should probably have cashed one club honour first). On the run of the trumps, West who held the HT and 4 clubs was squeezed... handing me back the 10th trick!

I found this hand pretty amusing and instructive: Even though you know you have screwed up, never lose hope.

[Fluffy]

About 8-10 years ago
opponet was palying a thin 7NT

dummy had ♥AKJx

I had behind Q10xx

I discarded ♥2 first discard because I just wanted -1.

After chshing several more tricks finally declarer played a ♥ from hand, and while director was asking for next round she asked for the J, I heard the K and ducked, not even waiting to see wich card dumy took.

-1 was not a cold top since many people played in 6NT wich is down 1 when only 2 ♥ tricks avaible. 7NT was a cold zero instead.

[Al_U_Card]

mikeh, on Apr 25 2007, 10:06 AM, said:

Many, many years ago, playing in a small swiss event, I was declaring 3N with the opening lead of the ♦Q. Dummy held Kxx and I held Axx. I had another suit with only one stopper so there was little point in ducking the lead. But there were entry considerations as to where I should win the trick. I gave it only a little thought and called for the King.

Just then, the caddy arrived and leaned over my right shoulder to remove the played boards and deliver the new ones. She fumbled a bit with the boards while I gave the hand some more thought. I decided that I really should win the trick in my hand, so when she straightened up and left the table, I played my Ace.

This was not a success.

A sort of "Rabbi's drool"?....lol

[Elianna]

Fluffy, on Apr 25 2007, 01:08 PM, said:

About 8-10 years ago
opponet was palying a thin 7NT

dummy had ♥AKJx

I had behind Q10xx

I discarded ♥2 first discard because I just wanted -1.

After chshing several more tricks finally declarer played a ♥ from hand, and while director was asking for next round she asked for the J, I heard the K and ducked, not even waiting to see wich card dumy took.

-1 was not a cold top since many people played in 6NT wich is down 1 when only 2 ♥ tricks avaible. 7NT was a cold zero instead.

I was on the other end of such an occurence. Playing QTxx (dummy) opposite xxx (or some such thing), I led towards dummy. for some reason, I was CONVINCED LHO had the AK, so without thinking, I played the Q. And without thinking, RHO played the J. (He was expecting me to make the right play of the T, and he just played too quickly.) He had AKJ, btw.

[paulhar]

cherdano, on Apr 25 2007, 12:23 AM, said:

About 15 months ago, I failed to break up a compound squeeze on opening lead. That's really the dumbest thing I have ever done in the last 5 years.

If this was the dumbest thing I had done in the last few years, it would mean that I played only 1 hand of bridge (not far from the truth)

It would be hard to imagine playing a 26-board session without making at least one blunder that would be obvious in retrospect.

[Apollo81]

awm, on Apr 25 2007, 02:34 AM, said:

Perhaps the dumbest thing I've done was during a midnight swiss teams (but I wasn't drunk). We had just had a disastrous result on the previous board, and we were running very short of time in the round (these things are played at 5 minutes per board). My opponents were happily chatting away about their great result on the last board, and not paying much attention to the fact that it was their turn to deal. Frustrated that we were about to have a board taken away, I purposely opened out of turn. Strangely, no one else at the table noticed this. The auction continued normally. Amusingly, at the other table one of my teammates almost did the same thing! In any case, I got my just desserts when we were actually ahead in the match, except for the terrible score I obtained on the very last board (which would've been taken away had I not intentionally opened out of turn).

Perhaps the funniest sequence I've seen from a partner on a single board -- my partner first miscounted his points and made the wrong opening bid. Then during the play, he revoked. Twice. Finally, when it came time to score up the board (he was sitting north), he wrote down the wrong score. Fortunately, this hand was the total of his serious mistakes for the session.

That sounds like Greg

[Apollo81]

My dumbest was in the Vanderbilt in Philly. I don't remember the auction exactly, but it was an auction like this. I don't think we were playing NMF by a PH.

p-1c
1s-1n
2d-3h
3s-4c
4d-6s-(x)

( a ) I forgot that partner was a PH
( b ) I then took 3s as a slam try (else why not a 3NT bid)

Whoops.

[Double !]

I have made a million and one really poor bids or plays in my life, some due to lack of skills, some to fatigue, many to insufficient attention. I could write a book. Anyone who's ever played with me or kibbed can attest to this. Yet I don't consider any of these to be the dumbest thing I ever did at the bridge table.

The dumbest thing I ever did at the bridge table (please understand that I rarely play live bridge anymore) involved doubting myself and not trusting my judgment. It occurred a number of years ago during the 4th session of 6-session NABC LM pairs in Toronto.
We were playing against a couple of international stars from Poland who were playing the Polish club system. (I knew nothing about Polish systems at the time.) They had a bidding sequence that started with 1C and ended up in a part score contract. I asked for an explanation of the bidding, received a good explanation although at first i was confused, and finally had to make the opening lead. I selected a lead which turned out to be the best start for the defense. However, I then permitted myself to feel intimidated (partly due to lack of familiarity with the opp's system) and I started to doubt myself, my initial lead decision, and I didn't follow up on the defense that I had initiated. Instead, I shifted gears because I thought that I had been wrong. We were headed for an above-average score on the board had I continued with the initial defense.

No matter what one's bridge skill level might be, there has to be a lesson somewhere in this story.

dhl

[kenberg]

Sometime back I had a very substantial dinner between sessions On the first board when we returned, my lho opened 1H and partner overcalled 1S. I alerted. They asked. I explained: We are playing Flannery, it shows five spades.

Since then I have quit playing Flannery so I don't have that problem anymore.

[1eyedjack]

Talking of dinners, another dumb one I did was in some knockout match we were the hosts, and had a mix up over who would supply what. All four members of our team ended up independently providing enough food for 8. Oppo were impressed.