[32519]

At our local club the opponents opened a strong NT, and this auction followed -
(1NT)-P-(2♦)-P
(2♥)-All pass
2♦ was alerted as a transfer to hearts. When dummy hits the table, the guy had a 2344 distribution and 7 HCP. This guy had made a transfer into a 3-card ♥ suit! Here declarer got lucky playing in a 4-3 ♥ fit when she was able to trump a ♠ loser on table. The 2♥ contract made 8 tricks, where, as the cards were lying, declarer can only make 7 tricks in a 1NT contract.

This crazy anti-field transfer bid got our side a bottom board!

[FM75]

Was it really a transfer? Seems more like a beginner partnership mishap. Or opener was "the pro"?

[FM75]

FM75, on 2014-April-02, 21:00, said:

Was it really a transfer? Seems more like a beginner partnership mishap. Or opener was "the pro"?

[Cyberyeti]

Opps weren't confident as to which bids were forcing so raised spades on a 3 card suit and caught their partner with 4 rather than the hoped for 5. Thus they played 6♠ instead of the cold 6♦ with a trump suit of A532 opposite KJ9. 6♠ would have been bad enough (outscored by 6N), but I was on lead with unattractive prospects in all suits, so led a trump from 10xx and picked up partner's Qxx over the KJ9 for a complete bottom.

[billw55]

Once we blundered into 6NT when we belonged in 6♠. The only chance was a miracle lie in diamonds, needing a specific doubleton (T9 I think) from 6 outstanding cards to bring it home. I got the lucky break and scored up a top.

[mycroft]

Early in my bridge career, our LOL (literally and figuratively) opponents, playing standard, bid unopposed:

1♦-2♦;
3♦-4♦;
5♦-6♦;
p.

Cold, of course.

[Cyberyeti]

Another classic was the auction 2N(20-22)-6N from our opps. Dummy goes down with a flat 10 count and a "sorry partner, I miscounted my points". Sure enough 2 3-3 breaks and 3 finesses later we're not getting any matchpoints.

[gordontd]

Playing rubber bridge my opponents had the auction:

2♣ - 2♦
6♦

Dummy went down with a balanced 22 count with ♦Axxx and found her partner with ♦KQxxx and a couple of other cards.

[helene_t]

Playing with Shogi in the Azores Festival we had this auction:
1♥-1♠
2♦-3♣
3NT-4♥
4NT-something
6♥

Partner tabled an 11-count with 6-3 majors, so he bid FSF fishing for a better spade fit than the known heart fit. I took his slow arrival as showing slam interest so with my 2542 15-count I accepted. Everything broke and all three finises worked.

Next board (it was just two boards per round) was more normal. We bid 7NT with ATxxxxx opposite Kx of clubs. When my LHO played ♣J under then king I went for restricted choice which worked. My LHO got angry because I didn't follow the "9-never" rule. Not sure if he was suggesting that I was cheating.

[kenberg]

Taking the two hands together he might have concluded you had some special arrangement with the Gods of Distribution. Early in my bridge life I was playing against a young, aggressive, good player. He bid a slam along the lines of your first one. After a couple of successful finesses and a suit splitting evenl I asked "Do you need anything more?". "Yes". And he got it. Somehow our partners did not get to this cold slam.

But we won the seven board match anyway.

[barmar]

helene_t, on 2014-April-04, 06:27, said:

Next board (it was just two boards per round) was more normal. We bid 7NT with ATxxxxx opposite Kx of clubs. When my LHO played ♣J under then king I went for restricted choice which worked. My LHO got angry because I didn't follow the "9-never" rule. Not sure if he was suggesting that I was cheating.

Was it real anger or just sarcasm? I imagine if he'd held QJ and you dropped it, he might have gotten similarly annoyed and said "Didn't anyone teach you about restricted choice?" At least, that's how I've reacted in similar situations.

[kenrexford]

If you consider the "CHO" an opponent, I have a great one.

Playing with my wife, I opened 1♥ with some collection that included AKQxxx in hearts and a good hand, balanced otherwise outside. When my wife splintered 3♠, I drove top the heart slam.

My wife tabled KQJxxx in spades and a stiff heart.

Slam was cold in spades, except for the obvious lead made at every table. With my hand on Dummy, and with A-Q in one of the minors, that lead through Dummy forced a losing finesse. So, the field result was 6♠-1.

At our table, of course, the A-Q was protected, because I was declaring. Spades split with no stiffs, so no Spade-Ace-Spade-Ruff defense was available. Hearts split 3-3 (which was not sufficient to ditch losers quickly in the minor threat suit -- partner must have been 6-1-2-4 or 6-1-2-4, whichever is the death hand). 6♥ making scored well.

[ArtK78]

kenberg, on 2014-April-04, 07:50, said:

Taking the two hands together he might have concluded you had some special arrangement with the Gods of Distribution. Early in my bridge life I was playing against a young, aggressive, good player. He bid a slam along the lines of your first one. After a couple of successful finesses and a suit splitting evenl I asked "Do you need anything more?". "Yes". And he got it. Somehow our partners did not get to this cold slam.

But we won the seven board match anyway.

Reminds me of a hand played by Dave Treadwell in the round-robin phase of the GNT at the NABC in Chicago in 2006. We were playing against George Jacobs team, and we were killing them. This was the second set of 6 boards we had played against them. We were leading by 3 IMPs after the first 6 boards, and through the first 5 boards of the second set, we rated to be up about 20-25 IMPs. On the last board I picked up a strong hand with 3-3 in the red suits (I don't recall exactly what I had elsewhere). I know I have posted this story elsewhere, but very old posts tend to get lost, and unfortunatly my memory about the exact details is also sketchy. In any case, I opened, Dave bid diamonds, I reversed, he bid hearts, I supported diamonds. He cue bid and I cue bid, and Dave leaped to 7♦ without employing RKCB. The opening lead was made and I tabled the dummy, which had other good things that I had not had a chance to show yet. There were some audible gasps from the kibbitzers. The first thing Dave did was successfully finesse against the ♦K! And he did not claim! Then, after playing off his diamond and black suit winners, he ended in dummy, which held the Jxx of hearts. No hearts had been played to this point except for Dave, who had thrown a couple (he had bid the suit). Dave now led the ♥J and ran it, winning! His original heart holding was AK9xx, and he found Qxx onside and Tx offside!

Immediately after the board was played and our opps left the table, Rick Rowland, who was kibbitzing Dave, stood up and said "I am going to see how many IMPs you have to win by to get a blitz!"

We won the second 6 board segment by 3 IMPs, for a combined win by 6 IMPs for the 12 board match. Our teammates, who had had the round from hell, were worthless for the rest of the evening. We failed to qualify for the next day.

[billw55]

ArtK78, on 2014-April-04, 09:45, said:

We won the second 6 board segment by 3 IMPs, for a combined win by 6 IMPs for the 12 board match. Our teammates, who had had the round from hell, were worthless for the rest of the evening. We failed to qualify for the next day.

I really thought the end of this story would be that 7♦= was a push.

[olegru]

Couple of weeks ago.
I am playing with novice partner.
Opponents only vulnerable.
Righty open 1 ♠, I jumped to 2NT.
“You should alert this,” said LHO nicely.
“Why?” asked my partner. (He did not learn what is alert yet.)
“Because this is artificial bid. It promises two minors,” explained LHO.
“No it is not,” said partner. “It is natural bid with 19-21 points and ♠ stopper.” (He does not learn unusual NT yet, but he knows I will not use any convention bids without discussions.)
Lefty called director to report our unusual agreement and then … bid 3♥.
Even my novice partner knew what to do. We wasted trick or two on defense but 1100 was good enough for top.
By the way, if I am not mistaken, LHO was right about alert… but reverse way. Jump to 2NT that promise minors is not alertable, but natural jump with strong balanced hand is alertable in ACBL.

[Mbodell]

Cyberyeti, on 2014-April-03, 12:51, said:

Another classic was the auction 2N(20-22)-6N from our opps. Dummy goes down with a flat 10 count and a "sorry partner, I miscounted my points". Sure enough 2 3-3 breaks and 3 finesses later we're not getting any matchpoints.

This happened to me too except the auction was 1NT-2NT-6NT when the opening bidder forgot they'd opened and added their 15 hcp to partners "20-21" 2nt opener (actually a normal 9 point invite) and decided to bid 6nt.

[axman]

ArtK78, on 2014-April-04, 09:45, said:

Reminds me of a hand played by Dave Treadwell in the round-robin phase of the GNT at the NABC in Chicago in 2006. We were playing against George Jacobs team, and we were killing them. This was the second set of 6 boards we had played against them. We were leading by 3 IMPs after the first 6 boards, and through the first 5 boards of the second set, we rated to be up about 20-25 IMPs. On the last board I picked up a strong hand with 3-3 in the red suits (I don't recall exactly what I had elsewhere). I know I have posted this story elsewhere, but very old posts tend to get lost, and unfortunatly my memory about the exact details is also sketchy. In any case, I opened, Dave bid diamonds, I reversed, he bid hearts, I supported diamonds. He cue bid and I cue bid, and Dave leaped to 7♦ without employing RKCB. The opening lead was made and I tabled the dummy, which had other good things that I had not had a chance to show yet. There were some audible gasps from the kibbitzers. The first thing Dave did was successfully finesse against the ♦K! And he did not claim! Then, after playing off his diamond and black suit winners, he ended in dummy, which held the Jxx of hearts. No hearts had been played to this point except for Dave, who had thrown a couple (he had bid the suit). Dave now led the ♥J and ran it, winning! His original heart holding was AK9xx, and he found Qxx onside and Tx offside!

Immediately after the board was played and our opps left the table, Rick Rowland, who was kibbitzing Dave, stood up and said "I am going to see how many IMPs you have to win by to get a blitz!"

We won the second 6 board segment by 3 IMPs, for a combined win by 6 IMPs for the 12 board match. Our teammates, who had had the round from hell, were worthless for the rest of the evening. We failed to qualify for the next day.

Even though there must be others, one hand seems to stick out from the early days [the spots banished from memory- in order to escape the death penalty]. At unfavorable CHO closes out the auction in three rounds at 6C possessing no more information than I hold a minimum 1C opening and an opponent holds spades. For this collection of cards 12 tricks requires all three finesses, both 3-3 breaks, four pitches before touching trumps, and the difficult to find killing** double dummy lead- because the defense has two cashing aces and two cashing kings.

Sadly, declarer got them all- as there were still more than a dozen boards to grind out with this CHO

** as in defense killing

[blackshoe]

Uncontested Precision auction: 1♣-2♣-3♣-4♣-5♣-6♣-7♣.

Before the opening lead, RHO commented "I don't think I've ever seen an auction like that before."

When CHO put down the dummy, I thought "where's the hand you held during the auction?" Down four.

CHO was quite willing to agree whatever methods I suggested. Then she bid her hand the way she learned the game in college during the Goren era. She also had a blind spot with Stayman. She would open 1NT and it would inevitably go 1NT-2♣-3♣.

The big problem though, was the attitude of some of the other players at the club. It didn't take her long to decide to quit bridge. "It's a game. I don't have to put up with that crap, and I'm not going to."

[Siegmund]

It's far from the dumbest ever, but just yesterday at the club, RHO opened 4S in first seat and equal vulnerability.

We tried to penalize it. After dummy came down with void Qxx KQxxx KQxxx we still liked our chances after our three aces cashed. But the 4S opener had AKQTxxxxx(!) of spades... so no trump loser. I've seen it before, yet I still keep pretending that people will have a 7-trick hand when they open 4M at equal. Sigh.

[manudude03]

A travesty by my CHO:

w/w I open 1S and LHO doubles. Partner has a 4333 Yarborough and makes the "obvious" call, 4S! This is doubled and even though I have a more useful hand than I promised, I wasn't amused (holding QJxxx Axx KQxxx void). Still, after a club lead ruffed, I led a trump. I then proceeded to get quite a friendly defense and managed to make it, trumps were 2-2 and after cashing their other trump winner, cashed the ace of diamonds, and diamonds were 3-2.