[nikos59]

Today I am playing with a charming lady from Paris as a partner,
opponents are a fellow Greek and a German guy, both experts.
The lady has been known to make an error, but is charming
regardless. We play some boards, they are tough, then the
Greek goes and comes a star player from Norway -but the system
has some problems and he gets disconnected and leaves,
then comes an American guy, very nice and all, and quite
generous as defender if you get what I mean.

After some 10 boards while we are some 30 imps in front,
the American guy announces that this board would be his last.

First to speak, NV ag V, I hold:
Q10642
A754
QJ4
5

Now, as you see, the 10 is wider than the other pips, so
the spade suit takes much more space than the hearts,
so I imagine I have six spades. I firmly believe that
an 6-4 in the majors has to be opened, so I open 2S.

Partner has a 15-point balanced hand with KJx in spades
but without aces. So she blasts 3NT which makes. (4S
also may make but there are 3 aces to lose plus p&p).

The American guy (who has his full name in his profile)
says bye all etc. and he criticizes my 2S bid. During all
the exchange I have not realized that I opened a five-carder:

A: Nikos, that is a terribel 2!s bid ;-))
N: why, too strong?
A: You might miss a game in !H
N: This is for textbooks; watch experts play and they never heed this advice
A: We always heed it
N: You, but not the champions; watch Vugraphs, world championships, whatever
A: especially we champions
N: i dont mean champions of your local club, rather champions like Rodwell
A: I am an international and can tell Rodwell would call that bid idiotic
N: are you playing under an assumed name?
A: you do not know everyone, Nikos

Mind you, I still haven't realized that I opened a 5-4 so A. was right that
Rodwell would call that bid idiotic. Still, the ACBL encyclopedia had
not his name, and a Google search did not reveal any prominent
bridge players with that name, so either he was not an international
after all or he was international in some other field. Or was he
Meckstroth in disguise?

After he has left and while I am dummy, I peruse the "movie" to see
how many opened 2S with the alleged 6-4 hand. Curious, no one
opened it! And then the penny drops, when I see at last that I only
held five spades......

nikos