[H_KARLUK]

What was all time favorite Bridge deal that you never forgot?

[Jlall]

Board 3

[Trinidad]

Back when I was an even worse player than I am now, I played a mixed event at a regional with my wife. We were, as usual, the youngest pair in the room. We were at unfavorable and the dealer on my right opened a Precision 2♣.

I was looking at:
♠ T98742
♥ Q8753
♦ 4
♣ 6

Being the rabbit that I was, I decided to bid a Michaels 3♣.

The auction went on: 4♣ by the woman on my left and 4♠ from my wife. Pass on my right and pass by me. 5♣ on my left. 5♠ by my wife. At this point the man on my right says with a smile: "Ladies are aggressive bidders nowadays." and he passes. So do I. A double on my left and all pass.

My RHO leads and I put down the dummy. My RHO starts laughing. It's a friendly laugh and I certainly didn't find it intimidating or anything like that. After a few seconds, he abruptly stops laughing and apologizes as sincerely as one can possibly apologize. I say something like: "Well, maybe this isn't the right hand for Michaels." and the man manages to suppress a new laugh and says: "We'll see.".

This was the full deal and auction (I was West):

Scoring: MP

---

West  North  East  South
  -    -    -    2♣
  3♣  4♣  4♠  Pass
Pass  5♣  5♠  Pass
Pass  Dbl  Pass  Pass  
Pass

My wife quickly claims an easy 11 tricks. Now the man on my right really starts to laugh. This must have been one of the funniest "fixed by bunnies" in his bridge career. Since this is the last board of the session, the man on my right introduces himself and we get into an animated discussion about chess, world politics and what all.

When we come back from lunch, we go to the novice lecture. Who is standing there giving the lecture? My RHO from this deal. During the lecture, he pulls my leg about this deal and afterwards I go up to him and ask him whether my 3♣ bid was really that bad. His honest reply: "I was never going to say this to you, but since you specifically asked: This was the worst bid I have seen in ages." I look disappointed and he continues: "But you are clearly not afraid of sticking your neck out and that may get you somewhere in bridge. And it certainly worked today."

Then he says: "So you play chess. Did you ever play blind chess?"
- "Well, yes, err, but it's been a while since I played."
"You play white."
- "Well, I haven't played for four years."
"No excuses. Just start playing."

And we played about 25 moves until it was time to start playing again. I was starting to lose and he offered me a draw.

On the way home, I said to my wife: "His name does sound familiar to me." When we arrive, I walk to the book shelf and find one of his books there.

This deal is hanging on our wall. It is a memory of one of the most pleasant experiences we have had in bridge. (The fact that we scored a top has very little to do with that.) A big thanks to Harold Feldheim. He must know that people have his books on a shelf, but he probably doesn't know that two palooka's have a deal that they played against him hanging on the wall of their home in The Netherlands.

Rik

[gwnn]

my first double squeeze. well I sort of forgot it but I will never forget the feeling of it. well it was sort of disappointing because it was very automatic and everybody in the club made it

[kenrexford]

Leading small, MANY years ago, from Kx in a suit contract, into dummy's suit, right after a Bulletin article mentioning this ploy. I was the only one to do it (at least effectively), as a result of which we got just enough from that top to win the Flight A Sectional, my first big win at that level.

[Flameous]

I tend to forget all the deals but I remember the first time I claimed on squeeze just a year back or so. Nothing fancy on the deal in anyway, just a simple squeeze but I claimed it on a trick 7 and I indeed had never claimed on a squeeze before, I always had to play them to the end to see if it actually worked

[Fluffy]

♠x
♥KQx
♦AJ98x
♣98xx

♠Jxxx
♥Axxx
♦Qx
♣AQJ

1♣-1♦
1NT-2♣ (stayman, 2NT shows clubs)
2♥-2NT
3♠-3NT


LHO led ♣5, RHO covered dummy's 9 with the 10 and I won the queen.

I led ♦Q getting ♦10 at my left and RHO tanked and ducked

It was now easy to count: spades 4-4 since nobody said 1♠, ♣probably 5-1, diamonds probably 1-5, making hearts 3-3. 4♥ 2♦ 2♣ its only 8 tricks, how could I make it?.

Cash 4 hearts (3 would be as good) and exit with a spade. the opponents can cash 4 spades, but whoever wins the 4th, its endplayed on his own minor: with 4 cards to go:

---

one of them must be endplayed. they get to pick.

[ArtK78]

A number of years ago I was playing in the second round of the Vanderbilt against Grant Baze's team. On the last hand of the first half my partner overbid his hand by about an ace and a king and I wound up declaring 3NT with about half the deck in high cards. My LHO had preempted in spades. After a "surprise" opening lead in an unbid suit that gave me one trick, I played the hand double dummy based on the bidding and the opponents' carding and scored 9 tricks.

As we were getting ready to start the second half, I sat down at my table and one of my first half opponents sat down on my right. Grant Baze strolls up to the table and asks my RHO what the result was on board 32. "-400 in 3NT" he said. Baze literally started to jump up and down and exclaimed "3NT? I couldn't make 7 tricks in 1NT!"

We lost the match, but I enjoyed it.

[PeterGill]

I like Trinidad/Rik's hand

My hand is on pages 7 and 8 in http://www.abf.com.a...etins/nov06.pdf.
It is too long to reproduce here.

[Hanoi5]

I do not think I remember complete hands unfortunately. But I do remember situations:

I learned to play bridge in a rather weird way which I might tell you one day about, but let-s say we played with certain weird rules: cards could be changed with the elbow, dummy kept count of trumps for declarer, etc. I had a friend who played from the -4 level up- as he never played a contract lower than that. Once I received the lead of a small trump with 4 missing including the king. The lead was from Kx and I lost the king to a second round finesse.

In my first tournament bidding went 1♦ pa 1♥ pa pa and I reopened. They had game. And they reached it.

Once I held 5 cards in the major my partner chose to bid at the 5 level over a pre-empt after my negative double and so I took him to 6. He sweated but finally he made it. He had only 3 hearts...

Once I paid 2000 in a doubled contract at the 2-lvl. I still overcall on garbage but I-ll never forget that 2000...

And many like this. I can-t say there-s a hand I remember complete un less I specifically set to remember it.

[Aberlour10]

Hanoi5, on Sep 6 2009, 02:08 PM, said:

I do not think I remember complete hands unfortunately. But I do remember situations:

Same here. After college finishing I played with a couple of friends rubber bridge on the beach, late windy afternoon, a lot of beer and fun I remember the contract was 5♦ xx..and on the second last trick a strong blast of wind blew all lying cards in the sand. The declarer claimed cool he would take 11 tricks for sure,
a lot of discussion, the Appeal Committee held a long meeting in the strand bar with more beer and fun
After so many years, if we meet occasionally, it lasts not very long till somebody says: You did not take 11 tricks!

Robert

[nigel_k]

I remember the first time I bid and made 7NT. It was junior night - my first year playing at the club as a 15 year old. We had about 16 tricks on top and all aces and kings but I was still pretty nervous. My partner was a little old lady who was looking forward to declaring the slam in our nine card heart fit and gave me a really filthy look when I bid 7NT instead.

[gnasher]

So far as I can remember I didn't play any hands well in the first ten years of my bridge-playing career.

Of the hands from the next few years after that, I like this one best:

Scoring: IMP

---

After a auction which I remember but don't intend to share, I played in 4♠ from the weak hand. They led a trump. I won, drew two more rounds and led ♥Q. When that won, I played two more rounds of hearts. LHO, who started with ♥Kxx, was endplayed to lead from his ♦A and ♣Q.

[Codo]

Some years ago, I played with a really marvellous young lady, a real eyecatcher and pretty nice.

Scoring: MP

---

I passed, we had no two suiter opening avaiable and then:

me rho cho lho
pass 1 ♥ 3♣ 3 ♠
pass 4 ♠ ap.


I lead a club to my partners sequence. On the second round, I discard a high diamond (we played lavinthal ). On the third trick declarer discard his heart loser. I discarded my ace of heart. The lady thoughts about this for several moments......and returned a heart for me to ruff.....

After some minutes of agony, I apologiszed for not leading the ace of hearts first, so that the contract is down two....

[phil_20686]

Scoring: IMP

---

I was sitting south in the last round of a local swiss event. We needed 13/20 VP's in teh last match and you have already had one bad board. This was board 3 from 8.

We has a truly terrible auction to 6s down one. With some trepidation you come to score up,

bd1) "minus 400" - Lose 13
2) Passed out - Flat
3) "minus 100" - apology already spilling out - "Gain 8"

Hang on?

for my team mates sitting e-w the bidding went
3h p 3N AP

After a low spade to the Queen RHO entered the tank and produced the K of diamonds to knock out dummies only entry. Partner took the heart finesse cashed all the hearts and south thought he was squeezed so pitched the Q of diamonds. 9 tricks made.

[ArtK78]

After reading about the last hand, I had to add another one that just came to mind.

I was playing in a two session BAM at a Sectional (yes, a 2-session BAM at a Sectional). In the afternoon session, my team had a huge score - 22 out of 28. Along the way, we had our share of fascinating scores. On one, my partner, with a strong hand opposite my nonvul 3♣ opening, jumped to 6♣. We were off an ace and the trump suit was QJTxxxx opposite A. The ♣K was singleton, so the slam rolled.

A lucky win? No! We were going to win the board even if 6♣ had gone down two! Our teammates had scored +110 at the other table! (Don't ask).

[bid_em_up]

Codo, on Sep 7 2009, 09:05 AM, said:

After some minutes of agony, I apologiszed for not leading the ace of hearts first, so that the contract is down two....

And they say Chivalry is dead....

[Trinidad]

There are two other situations from the start of my bridge career that I won't forget:

- I again played with my wife. We were favorable and she opened 3♥ on something like a 2641 hand. RHO passed and I "applied full pressure" by bidding 5♥. LHO thinks and bids 6♠. Partner passes and RHO looks unhappy and passes. I have the ♣A and a diamond void and I make a Lightner double. It goes pass-pass-Redouble. I still think it won't make and all pass. The auction was:
3♥-Pass-5♥-6♠
Pass-Pass-Dbl-Pass
Pass-RDbl-All pass

My wife leads the ♦A and gives me a ruff. I still get my ace, so we score +1000. Dummy has about a yarborough and a 0166 distribution. After the hand is over, he explodes to his partner: "If this is not an SOS redouble, what on earth is?".

- I already had 1 full year of bridge experience when I played an ACBL instant matchpoint game with a friend who was still studying Audrey Grant's club series. (For non Americans: Bridge book 1 out of a four book ACBL bridge course. At the end of the course, you play 5 card majors, a 16-18 1NT with Stayman (no transfers), strong two bids in all 4 suits, preempts at the 3 level, Blackwood and G***** and you can cue first round controls. You know how to make a simple overcall or make a takeout double when RHO opened the bidding, no negative doubles or other "fancy" stuff.)

My friend opened 1NT (16-18, as we were taught) and I was looking at 19 HCP and 5-5 in the minors. I added two points for the five card suits to my 19 and partner's minimum of 16, got a result of 37 and knew that that was enough for a grand slam. Since my friend was only in book 1 and would certainly not know G*****, I just bid 7NT.

My friend played it and saw that he had 13 tricks, unless the clubs split 5-0. He tested the clubs, played out the whole hand and all I had to do is calculate the score for 7NT making. Next hand.

The instant MP booklet said that 7NT was cold, but impossible to bid without sophisticated methods. Given that our auction was hardly sophisticated, I looked at partner's hand. He had a 5323 with 15 HCPs and had added a point for his five card suit. The rest of the room opened 1♠ (since 'you shouldn't open 1NT with a five card major'). The author also mentioned that some players will only take 12 tricks (taking 12 in 6NT was still a decent score), since many would take the "practice finesse" in hearts.

End of story: My friend hadn't even finished the first book and he won his first ACBL masterpoint. And the color was... gold. (They didn't have anything higher then. Do they now?)

Rik

[Fluffy]

I remember my first summer of bridge, with some clubs closing, we all concentrated in 1 or 2 of them and played against people whoom we would normally not play against.

We run a series of contests to find the worst play made at your table. Mine was:

2NT-p-3♦-p
3♥-X-4♥-p
p-p

I asked about the double, and RHO said: asks for a heart lead obviously. My partner bid without even looking at the double. and LHO in fact had ♥AQx, 4♥ +1 was a total average.
I was impressed that these 2 ladies understood each other so well. A year latter one of the ladies flew away with the other's husband, but probably this had nothing to do with it.


But anyway. I couldn't compete with dad playing with one of its pupils.


1♣-1NT-X-p
2♠-2NT-X-p
3♥*-3NT-X-p
....

3♥* after a long hesitation

now the pupil went into a long tank, and finally emerged with a smile, like a bulb lighted in her head.

-I finally realise what suit you wanted me to bid, she claimed. Bidding 4♦ on singleton.

[Cyberyeti]

I was playing with somebody I'd never played with before on a Friday night at the Young Chelsea in London 25 years ago. I thought I was playing standard pairs, not knowing they played butler scoring on a Friday night when this came up.

Scoring: IMP

---

The auction proceeded something like 1D-(1H)-2S-3C-5C-6C-X and not knowing I was playing butler scoring I decided if I was going to get a bottom in style and redoubled. At this point the scoring system was revealed.

A spade was led and I played the Q which was covered and I ruffed.

I only have 11 tricks if I make all my trumps separately so decided that I needed a miracle. For a start the KC had to be stiff and unable to overruff at any point. So I played diamond to the AD, cashed the AS, heart to the AH, 10H and when LHO played low, pitched my other diamond and halleluyah this held. Now it was a simple matter to cross ruff and conveniently with the hearts 5-3, and the clubs as foreseen 4-1 with a singleton K 12 tricks arrived.

The hand was made more memorable as a little later in the evening, an otherwise rational player stood on his chair and bellowed out "Who perpetrated that obscenity on board 10".