On Tuesday afternoon, the 19th of November, myself and my partner Sheena Duffy, had a torrid time when we came up against Tony from Oz, who was partnering Rory Neary, a novice….who certainly didn’t play like a novice on the day.
First board, Board 17, Tony with 22 points opened 2 clubs. In Tony’s system, this is a bid that immediately asks for controls, ie Aces and Kings. An Ace is worth 2 and a King 1 and you show how many controls you have by bidding up the line, 2 diamonds is 0, 2 hearts is 1, 2 spades 2 and so on. I have played this with Tony myself and when you’re not used to it, it can be confusing, so I was very impressed when Rory bid 2 NT, showing either an Ace and a King OR 3 Kings. Tony, looking at his own hand knows that Rory can’t have 3 Kings, so deduces he must have the Ace of diamonds and either the King of spades OR the King of hearts. Most people would probably bid 6NT in this situation, but Tony with his long diamonds and multiple entries, goes for broke and bids 7NT…..it’s in it of course, but Rory has to play it, and he does that very well. 0 to Mary and Sheena.
In my 13 years playing bridge, I have probably played in 7 of anything 5 or 6 times, if that. I feel we are all a little bit nervous of bidding a grand slam, even when we instinctively know it’s there. So fair play to the 2 guys.
The next board, Board 18 (see hand below) wasn’t so remarkable though we still got a duck. Tony has 17 points and a solid 7 card minor. He also has the spades and the hearts stopped. Once he hears a response of 1 diamond from Rory, he immediately bids 3 NT. Again it makes…he takes the opening spade lead with his Ace, then runs 7 clubs and the Ace and King of Hearts for 10 tricks. At the other tables they make 10 tricks as well, but neither table is in game, one pair bidding 2 NT and the other 3 clubs.
As a side note, unless you can be in 6 of a minor (and this is usually difficult enough to find) NT is a far better contract….easier to play and if you can eke out an extra trick, scoring better than 5 of the minor. 3 of the minor is no good at all.
We felt Board 19 (hand is listed below) would have to be a better board, but boy were we wrong!! Sheena, playing South, opened a heart. Rory passed. With an opening hand, 4 card heart support and a singleton spade, I bid 2 diamonds as a ‘holding bid’. (I didn’t want to bid game immediately, as I felt there might be a slam on….though there is another bid I could have made here of 3 spades, which is a ‘splinter’ but Sheena and I hadn’t discussed this) Tony now overcalled spades….but if anything I felt this further strengthened my hand with my singleton.
Sheena now with a minimum hand of 13 points gave me the courtesy bid of 3 diamonds. (She can’t pass, as I have changed suit), Rory passes and I bid 4 hearts happily, knowing that Sheena is minimum. Tony, never one to be thrown out of the bidding now bids 4 spades, it comes back to me, I bid 5 hearts and Tony immediately doubles.
The lead is coming from Rory. So this novice is sitting opposite an area master who has bid spades…what would you expect him to lead…..??? A diamond , of course……why not?
To Tony’s delight and mine and Sheena’s horror, Tony gets a ruff straightaway. Then he takes his Ace of spades followed by his Ace of clubs for down 1 x. Another bottom!
When we asked Rory about it, he said he knew Sheena and I had 8 diamonds between us and he had 5 himself, so he felt Tony must be void. Great thinking and it just shows how important it is to listen to the bidding. The other Souths are in 5 hearts making (with a club lead) and 3 NT, going off with a spade lead.
We got a 4th bottom from the same 2 boyos on Board 20. Again Tony opened (I really hate when he has points) and this time Rory passed the spade opening. I don’t think he’ll mind me saying that with 9 points, he shouldn’t have passed. His bid is 1NT (6 to 9) Remember you are not promising cover in each suit with this bid; it’s simply giving your partner a point count, so they can continue bidding with a strong hand. (One exception to this is if there has been an overcall, 1 NT in that instances promises you can stop the overcalled suit)
Anyway, Tony was definitely a bit disappointed when he saw dummy and rattled off 10 tricks in no time. I must admit I was feeling a bit smug that surely WE had the 100% coming this time…not a bit of it. Neither of the other tables had got to game either and Tony made more tricks than anyone else.
4 zeros…..Sometimes I really HATE this game, especially when you haven’t done much wrong. But that’s bridge. Well done Tony and especially Rory, a novice who will surely not be one for long.
Mary Deane
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