[Rossoneri]

A couple of years ago I was playing at the Spring Fours with several friends. In the first round of the Consolation Event (Punchbowl?), we were drawn against a team consisting of a pair of Dutch internationals, a Bulgarian international and someone else we knew locally. We eventually won the 8 board match by an IMP.

I rate it as my favourite win though, not because we won by an IMP, or even the fact that we won at all, but for the fact that we really had great fun over the 8 board match as my table opponents (the Dutch pair) were really enjoying the game with a light-hearted attitude which made for a really pleasant atmosphere.

And of course, this suit combination: How would you make 3 tricks with Q8 in dummy and AT6 in hand?

At both tables, the opening lead was the J of this suit (as the other defender had bid it in the auction), and it went J, Q, K, A. Later on in the play, the same defender was on lead and led the 7, 8, 9, T and now the 6 was good

We all had a good laugh about this.

[Coelacanth]

My favorite win was probably a single board.

Regional Swiss teams playing against much more experienced opponents. (Not naming names, but one of them is the president of the ACBL.) This is the last match of the day with both teams in contention for the overalls, but needing a good result in this match.

This was the auction:

---

I was South, holding something like 1=3=4=5 with the ♦Q and maybe the ♣JT.

Partner led the ♣A and dummy came down with ♠AK tight, basically solid hearts, and some random minor suit cards. 2=6=3=2 or similar.

At trick two, partner underled his ♦AK-fifth to my queen, and I returned a club for him to ruff. Declarer had a singleton diamond, so this is the only way to set the hand. 100 vs 650 at the other table was a nice pickup.

We went on to blitz the match and my team won the 'X' strat of the A/X Swiss for my first regional win of any kind.

[ggwhiz]

antonylee, on 2012-October-04, 12:28, said:

I managed to (accidentally, I deny any voluntary wrongdoing...) set off Kit Woolsey's car alarm twice (he was playing in the GNT open final at that time) on my way out. The look on his face the second time he had to come out turn off the alarm: priceless.

As a young gun I played in a Buffalo NABC when you could still smoke at the table. Sitting E/W I passed the boards to Ted Horning and John Caruthers, dumped them on the table and caught the edge of the cardboard ashtray.

As the ashes slowly descended on them like Mt. St. Helens. I was desperately trying to clean them up a bit and the look on Caruthers face as he said "PLEASE don't help" was priceless.

[lalldonn]

I plan on repeating my favorite win in less than 2 months!

[rogerclee]

My favorite win is still my first junior team trials, so much adrenaline, don't think I've ever been that nervous about the outcome of a match, even though we were up about 60 with about 16 boards to play.

[Thiros]

Perhaps not my "favorite win," but a memorable sequence of events from a sectional back in 2006, I don't remember exactly where, but somewhere in the Bay Area, where I lived at the time.

It was an eight-round event, each round having seven boards. It was either round six or seven, and we had lost our match in the previous round, highlighted by my partner and I having badly misdefended a doubled game. Our teammates thought they had gotten a good score on that board, since they had defeated a game themselves, so when I announced the score at our table, one of them exclaimed, "Oh, f**k! Oh, f**k!" repeatedly.

In the next round, we had an early board where our opponents bid and made a cold grand. (Our teammates would stop in the small slam.) After the board, the lady on my right said, "We fixed these poor guys." I said nothing. On the very next board, we struck right back by boldly bidding a making vulnerable slam, and our counterparts would play the hand in game, so we matched their 13-IMP gain with one of our own. We ended up winning the match, 32-30, and while we didn't win the sectional, we finished quite high.

[MattieShoe]

Two come to mind... First was just a family game. We had determined we had 33 points and bid 6 spades. It turns out the 7 points we were missing were the Ace and King of spades. Both fell on the same trick and we made our six.

Second was more recent...

I typically score ~45-50% in these tournaments, but the stars must have aligned that night...

[rogerclee]

MattieShoe, on 2012-October-10, 22:59, said:

Two come to mind... First was just a family game. We had determined we had 33 points and bid 6 spades. It turns out the 7 points we were missing were the Ace and King of spades. Both fell on the same trick and we made our six.

Second was more recent...

I typically score ~45-50% in these tournaments, but the stars must have aligned that night...

Haha I saw this on reddit, well done. I ♥ the robodupes.

[EricK]

Two evenings at a local club come to mind. First was the club pairs cahampionship. Playing with my father, the cards lay our way all evening and we bid and made a number of slams including a lay down grand (2♣ 2♠ 3♣ 3♠ 5NT 7♠). We won the evening by a huge margin. The other was just a normal night at the club. Again playing with my father the cards were against us all night, and we ended up defending 20 of the 24 boards (and we should really have defended on one of the ones we played, but you know exasperating it can be to constantly get outbid!). Anyway, our defence was tight all evening and again we emerged as victors by quite a margin - which shows that it doesn't always pay to be aggressive at pairs.

[GreenMan]

We were playing in the district's NAP qualifier in flight C, which was combined with flight B because the numbers were small. First session we had an amazing 63% or some such and led both strata. Second session we struggled but stayed in contention in the overalls. It came down to the last board, which as it turned out was against the other pair with a shot at finishing first.

My partner was declaring, and at some point he could have just drawn the last trump, conceded one trick and claimed the rest to just make the contract, but after two hard sessions he was tired and forgot about the outstanding trump, and he just put his hand down saying he'd play his side-suit winners and concede the last trick. His RHO said "I have a trump still, so I can ruff a winner and we get one more trick so you're down one."

Partner looked crestfallen, but now that play had ended I could point out, "Once you ruff you're endplayed. Anything you lead back gives us the rest." Making that contract put us just barely in first place; a regional-level flight B win was our best ever at the time.

Another story: A couple of years later I was playing in the GNT flight C regional final against a team that had beaten us in the qualifying Swiss. The opponents at our table were probably the best pair in the field, though their teammates were less formidable.

After the first set as we waited for the other table to finish, I estimated that we were anywhere from 20 IMPs up to 10 IMPs down. But once we compared we were ahead by 51. The other team decided they'd rather get an early start on the trip home, so they conceded.

But here's the best part: As team captain I went to report the result to the director, and he said, "That's interesting. I bet someone that you'd win by 100. I wonder if this counts."

[Lord Molyb]

Phil, on 2012-October-03, 19:38, said:

Hasn't happened yet.

...this

not enough experience :/

[Tomi2]

MixedTeams 2011 in Poznan,

played with a young and even more unexperienced Partner than me. First of all in the swiss stage we needed a miracle to qualify for the KO, we had two good sessions in the end and so we got to the KO, unseeded, and played 32 boards against the italian stars. Madala-Rimsted was their anchor pair, Ferraro, Sementa, Duboin's wife and a sponsor played one segment each.
After finishing the last board (3NT+1) I had a look at the vugraph operator's screen, we were leading by one imp and Madala had a start that looked like two overtricks... but my teammates found a good switch to scare him and make him cashout for just...

the next round we lost by the amount of a TD decision/appeal that could well have been decided in our favor next would have been the Zimmermann team in the quaterfinals

[Fluffy]

anyway all this stories are still beaten by olegru's daughter: http://www.bridgebas...403#entry394403


I remember another one when I was 13 years old, I had played just once a couple of sessions, and my mom took me to play a 3 session tournament outside Madrid.

I don't remember the exact cards but I opened 1♥ with a 15 count, mom bid 2♣ and I just sum 15+10=25 so we have game. So I bid 3NT

To my surprise mom raised to 6NT taking this as a stronger bid than it was, worse of all, I had to play it!

LHO led a diamond and it was dissapointing to see ♠A and ♦A where missing along with some other cards. I played low diamond from dummy and was surprised to be allowed to win the trick from my stiff ♦KQ


But that didn't help even when my hearts and clubs could be solid, they could never give me enough tricks, but I envisioned something, if I could sneak a trick in spades, I could pitch my last spade on dummy's clubs, and the only loser on my hand would be ♦Q.

So far so good, I led a spade towards dummy's ♠KJx and played the king, when it scored I run clubs wich break (maybe with a finese, don't rememeber), pitching my last spade, and run my hearts condeding triumphally ♦Q in the end.

But oh wait!, something is wrong, everyone has 2 cards left when I only have 1!. Turns out I had played the whole board with just 12 cards, but lucky me, the card I was missing was ♦A. This meant that not only did 6NT make, but I was obviosly the only guy on the 120 tables to make 13 tricks playing a spade myself


I was also taught later that night that a jump to 3NT shows 19-20 HCP, perfect bid since I had 19 after all!. I think this was my first ever bid and made slam.

[Fluffy]

olegru, on 2012-October-04, 12:39, said:

Back to bridge, I definitely already shared story on my favourite trick in these forums. Sorry for repetition.
It was many years ago at the Moscow bridge club. My partner and me were pretty much beginners.
In unfavorite vulnerability I hold something like:
s. xx
h. QJ1065
d. 5
c. Qxxxx
LHO open 1 club (polish) – weak NT or strong hand; and Partner bid 2 diamonds promising 2-unspecified 5 cards suits with at least one major and 5-11 points.
After slow pass from RHO it was not difficult to imagine down how much we will go doubled vulnerable with expected spades-diamonds two-suiter in partner's hand and I passed.
Another very slow pass from LHO and RHO lead 4 of diamond.
I put my treasures on the table and played trump singleton before partner said anything. LHO gave 2 of diamonds on this trick.
Partner looked stunned. She looked at dummy, played cards, her cards. She was trying to say something but literally lost her voice. In a couple of minutes and glass of water she called TD and seriously asked if it is a bridge tournament. Getting confirmation she spreader her cards conceding all tricks except the first one.
She had something like:
s. Jx
h. Kxxxxx
d. -
c. Jxxxx
Minus 700 was a top for us.

darn, if it had been all vulnerable that first trick would had been very useful on a beginner's MP field

[Cyberyeti]

Two favourite trick wins.

You bid a thin slam at pairs that you reckon will score well just for making it. The only issue with the hand is the trump suit:

A9854

Q10762

so with a suitable sense of the theatrical, the first round of trumps goes 2-3-4-shows out.

The other I can't reconstruct, but you play in a 4-3 fit in 3♥, and after lots of ruffing and overruffing, the last 2 tricks are won by your ♥54 while an opp follows with ♥32.

[Lord Molyb]

Edit: Moved

[Codo]

Ma favourite loss:

---

I led a club to my partners suit, she cashed 3 club tricks. I discarded a high diamond- lavinthal- on the second round. On the third round of clubs, East discarded his heart. I figured out what to do and discarded my ace of hearts. My lovely partner looked at me for a while and knew what to do: I must have voided my hearts, so she played a heart for me to ruff...

She is one of the most beautiful and nices woman in Bridge in my country, but I do not play that often with her any more.

[JLOGIC]

Probably winning my first gold point with my mom in an instant matchpoint game. I know LOLPOINTS and all that but I had gotten black/red/silver and the next step in my mind seemed like gold. Winning gold points required playing a regional which seemed daunting as I had only played for maybe 2 months and people at regionals were really good.

I begged my mom to let me play in the instant matchpoint game on a school night, a special game held once a year, and we ripped off a 70 ball or something to win the gold. It is also special to me that I got my first gold with my mom.

This is why I think points are good, we can laugh at them but they give people a real sense of goals (get x # or type of points) and achievement when they accomplish those goals. At that time, getting gold points was difficult and also my goal, and to achieve it felt good and kept me wanting to play bridge more and more.

[wyman]

Finals win was fav event win, but semifinal was maybe the most exhilarating match win (scores tell the story -- down 51-3 after 1Q).

[Trinidad]

My favorite win of a trick...

My wife and I played Rainbow, a 2♦ bid showing a weak hand with a five card major and a four card minor or a strong balanced hand. I hold something like:

♠AKxxxx
♥-
♦Kxx
♣AKxx

and my wife opens 2♦ in second seat.

Now I have a few options. I can ask what her major is and then try to find out what minor she holds. But I can also ask immediately for the minor. This would have the advantage that I would get to play the hand in 6♣, protecting my ♦K. If I would ask for her major first, she would get to declare 6♣ when she shows her hearts with a 3♣ rebid. So, I made up my mind and ask for the minor. She shows me it is diamonds and I sign off in 3NT.

LHO leads a 3rd/5th ♥6 and this is what I see:

            Dummy
            ♠QJxxx
            ♥QT
            ♦QJxx
            ♣xx
♥6
            Me
            ♠AKxxxx
            ♥-
            ♦Kxx
            ♣AKxx

She has spades! We missed an ice cold 6♠ and go down in a silly 3NT contract!

Well all right, I have to play this contract. I don't believe LHO has ♥AK (He would have opened the bidding). And thinking it doesn't matter I call for the ten... and it wins the trick! RHO couldn't read his partner's 5th best and thought it was 3rd best. He decided to duck his king

I counted my tricks and saw that I had exactly 9 for my contract.

You can imagine the looks on our team mates faces when we came back with 3NT making.

Rik