The Swing
The Kibitzer

My partner was to be one of our "young guns", John, a very fine player, albeit of a very scientific nature. We worked hard on our bidding system with him giving in to "more general principles" and me allowing for some very specific conventional sequences. Surprisingly, these methods lead to very few bidding misunderstandings and generally good contracts.

I really had not been pleased with my play during our qualification, the few practice matches we had played and the early rounds of the district finals, but here we were in the finals as expected.  We were playing a really good team and the first half of the match had been "nip and tuck" with our side up 11 imps. Most of our lead was due to game that we defeated with very tight defense at our table while our teammates had made it. It also seemed that the first six boards of this half were probably pushes although we had shunned a 5-3 major suit fit to play in 3NT with 29 high card points and there appeared to be only nine tricks in either game due to a five-zero break in the major where we fitted well. It was getting down to the nitty gritty with only six boards left.

On the next board we were vulnerable against not and I picked up my hand and sorted it into: ª-A ©-AKT8642 ¨-Q10832 and thought "Wow!" 

Not surprisingly, my RHO, the dealer, put out the "Stop Card" and reached deep into the bidding box. I was expecting a high level opening in a black suit and was really shocked when he placed the 4¨ card on table! I knew they were playing this as natural and had to rethink the situation. I had a good hand, but this could be a total misfit and we could go for a real number if I overcalled 4©, but there was also a very big danger in passing.  Partner could have a moderate hand with lots of black cards and mediocre hearts and then hearts would be the place to play but might be almost impossible to find if I passed – so the 4© call stood out and I placed that card on the table. Now what was going to happen?

My LHO took stock of the auction so far, looked at his hand again, and pulled out the 4ª card.  Well, that made it unlikely that there was a heart stack, but was this a save or was he bidding it to make? I got the answer after what seemed like the longest 10 seconds in the history of bridge.  John placed the 6© card on the table and now opener tanked. In the not so long ago (Bridge wise) a player who made a preemptive opening also never bid again in a competitive auction – especially after starting off at the four level, but not today. Righty placed the 6ª card on the table and there I was again with another problem!!

I tried to think of what kind of hand partner would have for his 6© call...quite possibly four trumps, although he would expect very good trumps for the vulnerable four level overcall and might have something like Queen third, second round control of spades (must be the King, because if he had a singleton they would almost surely bid 7ª should I decide to bid 7©). The diamond void seemed to be marked and he must have some values in clubs (the Ace along with length). It would seem that probably he would not hold very many spades as both opponents seemed to have length in that suit...all in all it would seem that 7© would have a good play except that I had FIVE diamonds to get rid of and I would bet the outstanding trumps were not evenly divided. Obviously a pass would be forcing, but there was almost no hand that partner would hold where he could bid 7© with any assurance and he would have to double. It would seem that we would almost surely take from four to six tricks on defense especially if we would get a couple of trump leads in, so defending was not out of the question.

There was one other thing to consider here – our teammates were playing NAMYATS of some sort, so the auction could not have been duplicated. They would probably have started with three or five diamonds (or even 1¨ as opener surely has the AK) and the bidding might not have skyrocketed in such a manner.

Ah, well, a forcing pass did not seem like the call I should make and a lot of IMPS were going to swing on what I now did. Would my call send the team to the NABC or send us home for good. The time was flying by, so I reached to make my bid...