The Drunkard's Walk
The Drunkard’s Walk is a phrase used in physics to describe molecular motions. It is also the title of a book about how randomness rules our life written by Leonard Mlodinow, son of two Holocaust survivors from Buchenwald where my uncle also spent two years for the sin of being a student.
In the two Div 2 league matches between Je-Vamp - Corona Beer and Rejuvenated - Deal or No Deal last Thursday they both played the same pre-dealt boards. Board 14 is a prime example that The Drunkard’s Walk also is prevalent in bridge!
Board: 14
Dealer: East
Vul: None
North
♠ KJ96
♥ K9843
♦ 103
♣ A5
West East
♠ Q1052 ♠ A8743
♥ QJ752 ♥ A106
♦ 8 ♦ 952
♣ 1032 ♣ 86
South
♠ -
♥ -
♦ AKQJ764
♣ KQJ974
Liz Commins & David Stevenson were sober as sober can be, and knew how to deal with this monster of a hand:
West North East South
pass 4NT
pass 6♣ pass 7♦
4NT as an opening bid asks partner to show specific Aces. 5♣ is none, 5♦ the Ace of Diamonds, 5♥ the Ace of Hearts, 5♠ the Ace of Spades and 6♣ the Ace of clubs. When David showed the ♣ Ace Liz knew where to go.
Phil Taylor and Wei Che Tham had had a swig of the bottle in their sequence:
West North East South
pass 1♦
pass 1♥ pass 3♣
pass 4NT pass 5NT
pass 6NT pass 7♣
4NT was meant as quantitative. Wei intended to show two of 5 controls and a useful void (i.e. Spades) - the additional Heart void must have gone through the looking glass. Phil took it to be a grand slam invite and bid what he thought was the best contract before Wei took another swig of the bottle and guessed that partner had the ♣ Ace and they stumbled into a perfect spot.
Victor Ridding and Mary Green had had a little less of the strong stuff:
West North East South
pass 4NT
pass 6NT pass 7♦
Exactly what Mary thought 4NT was may not be entirely clear to us, but again they did get to the right place.
At the last of the 4 tables, someone had forgotten not to drink the day before the day after:
West North East South
pass 2♣
pass 2NT pass 3♦
pass 3♥ pass 6♦
pass pass dbl All Pass
Johnathan Engler opened a forcing 2♣ and Adam Wiseberg’s 2NT showed 4 controls (4 Kings or as here one ace and two Kings). 3♦ set the trump suit and Adam made a 3♥ cue bid. Don’t ask me why they bid first and second round controls indiscriminately as bidding the first round control would more often than not tell opener where the second round controls are. Bidding the second round control would not necessarily tell where the first round control is.
Now South must have been desperate to identify which Ace North had, and I don’t know what he could or could not do after Adam showed a Heart control. Nevertheless, he bid 6 ♦, and Tracey Capal wanted in on the fun.
No reason that at least one of her two aces should not make! Jonathan missed out on the chance to redouble - I doubt East/West would run. This would give 1580 and turn a 6 IMP loss into a 4 IMP gain.
I might do as well going back to study Brownian motions!
Espen Gisvold
PS
If you see a hand you think is worth mentioning please leave me a note at: Espen
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