A Bidding Mess

Alec McQueen 23rd June 2026

So, here’s an interesting bidding sequence… a tangle of mistakes that got us into trouble in a variety of ways.

Partner in W passed, followed by N. Now, after that here’s how the bidding went, and afterwards we can dissect every fateful blow… 

E: 2NT

S: Pass

W: 2S

E: I lean forward quizzically… 

W: corrects to 3S

S: says: cough cough… hmmmm…. alright, we’ll let that go

N: Pass

E: thinks deeply: alert partner’s bid; 4C

S: pass

W: 5C

N: Pass

E: 5S

South: You can’t do that… 

Quick table discussion ensues, and NS agree to accept the bid. 

So, we’re in 5S by W. We make 10, one off. Not a great score. 

So, what on earth was going on during the bidding??? Let me try to explain (maybe unsuccessfully!). 

1. Pass by partner: totally understandable (but with those values, I may have been tempted to bid a S)
2. My 2NT. OK, it’s mea culpa time… I swear I had 20 HCP… even today sitting down to write this, I would have told you I had 20 HCP. But I didn’t, I had 23. A definite 2C opener, which would have resulted in a very different bidding sequence. Anyway, due to my bad sums, I bid 2NT
3. S passed, as every good 7 point hand should opposite a passed hand (or perhaps not?)
4. Now to the tricky part: partner bids 2S. An insufficient bid. I leaned forward but didn’t want to say anything…  partner recognises her error, and corrects it to 3S. S coughs a bit, considers carefully, and once satisfied that the bid was intended naturally, allows the auction to continue. [I was later told by South that the issue was whether the insufficient 2S bid was natural or artificial. If it had been artificial, then correcting it to 3S might not have been a comparable call, and there could have been restrictions on East’s later bidding.]
5. N passes, I think somewhat intrigued by what is evolving in front of him
6. OK, here’s the nub of the whole sorry mess: I am thinking (regardless of the rules here, which I am no expert in, but this is genuinely what I was thinking): OK, partner originally bid 2S, and then corrected to 3S… what does that mean? If she has spades, then she would have transferred by bidding Hs as we play transfers to majors over both 1NT and 2NT. It’s a transfer to C if I had bid 1NT and she bid 2S. But I bid 2NT… and she was then forced to bid 3S… was her thinking that she wanted to transfer to C? I didn’t know. What I should have done is forget she ever bid 2S, and treat the 3S bid per our agreement (ie no transfers to minors from 2NT). So I should have simply supported her S. But I didn’t. My thinking was WAY too clever, and perhaps a bit illegal. I thought (wrongly) that her intention was to transfer to C, so I alerted her 3S, and then bid 4C. Hmmm… in the full light of day, this was bad, and a wrong decision on a number of fronts. But that is what I did. 
7. S passes I think studying the bidding *very* carefully and wondering if his acceptance of W having S was correct or not. 
8. Partner shrugs and interprets my 4C as I want to be in C. Bids 5C. 
9. N I swear is giggling silently. He knows damn well what kind of a mess I have got myself into… but he passes
10. OK, I am in a mess. Partner has bid 5C, not unreasonably, but I now see my earlier error and I know we need to be in S. So I gamble a bit and bid 5S. 
11. South: “technically, you may not be able to do that… because of the previous insufficient bid”… but he’s being kind, and he lets us do it anyway. 
12. Partner passes, and pass by North. 

So, we’re in 5S by partner, and alas she goes off 1. But that’s not really the point. The point is the horrific bidding mess I got us into: both from a perspective of the laws of the game, but also communications between our partnership. We ended up in a reasonable contract, but only by the gracious largesse of our opponents. 

So, how many errors did we make? My 2NT miscount kicked us off, the 2S insufficient bid continued us on, my alert and 4C response was wrong, and my attempt to repair with 5S was probably illegal. Ho hum, what a litany of error… but what a learning opportunity!

Lessons learned:

• Count your points more carefully before opening 2NT.
• After an irregularity, don’t try to reconstruct what partner “meant”.
• Ignore withdrawn calls and continue from the legal auction.
• When confused, return to partnership agreements rather than inventing new meanings.
• Sometimes one small mistake creates five more.

A Bidding Mess

Alec McQueen 23rd June 2026

So, here’s an interesting bidding sequence… a tangle of mistakes that got us into trouble in a variety of ways. ..........

Diary of a Novice Part 4
Director is called

Alec McQueen 26th May 2026

I have only experienced a handful of Director calls in my short bridge career… and one interesting one happened over the weekend at the Wagga Congress.
 

It was the last board of the day: we were all tired. Partner and I were sitting NS (I was S) and the opposition bid to what felt like a pretty secure 3NT contract by E. I was sitting with 8 HCP, but 6 hearts to the J. I had an entry in C but not much else. So the Hs could be useful or they may get drowned. 

I led a H to start the ball rolling and hoped that it might be declarer’s weakness. Dummy went down, and she had A10 of H in dummy. Declarer thought for a while and said: “Ace of hearts… uh, uh, no, the 10 please.” Dummy had not moved, but partner’s hand was raised: “Director” she called. Director came over, and partner explained what happened. The Director asked declarer to go aside and they had a chat for 20 seconds, declarer came back, and then I am asked by Director to have a chat. We drift off to 10m away and Director asked me what she said. “She called for the ace of hearts, then changed her mind”. Director said: “What *exactly* did she say?” I replied: “Ace of hearts”. We go back to the table. 

Director then asks partner to go and have a chat: I was taking that to mean that there was a discrepancy between what declarer told him and what I told him. Partner comes back, and dummy says to the Director “Do you want to speak to me?” “Might as well”. While dummy was talking to the Director declarer looked at me and said “I don’t think it matters much.” It was a casual comment. But I was staring at the remaining 5 Hs in my hand and thinking “I wonder…”

When they came back Director said: “OK, I have listened to you all, and I am clear that the Ace was called and that is the card that should be played. Please proceed”. 

Declarer obviously won the first trick and proceeded to play. On the 4th or 5th round, partner manages to get in with her AD, and leads me her QH. Declarer covers it with her K (another mistake?), and proceeds to play her suits. 

It then comes to the C suit. She leads a small club from hand and I jump in quick with my A. OK, time to play my Hs. I play my J: must be a winner, I’ve seen the A, K, partners Q and the 10 already go in the first 2 rounds. There’s 5 cards left, I have 4, there’s one out… this must be good…. I play out my hearts and declarer’s demeanour gets more depressed with each H I play. I don’t think she had counted them. When I played the last H, she says to her partner “Sorry, partner, I think I stuffed this up”. 

She made 7, 2 off, non-vul, +100 for us: good score when 5NT makes. As a pair we contributed 8 IMPs to the team for that board. Well done to partner for being firm about the Director call. 

So, what do I learn from this?

1. Director calls are FUN!
2. It is important to think carefully before you speak as declarer
3. It is possible to get what looks like secure NT contracts down by a long suit even when declarer has both the A and K at their disposal.

Declarer needs to play this right. For those more expert than I: how should declarer play this to make 5NT? Maybe they have to duck the first round of Hs to maintain 2 H stoppers and then finesse the Cs as soon as they get in? S can get in once with AC, but with a H stopper left, S never gets back in. But that still leaves 3 tricks lost. Maybe take the first H trick with the K, and immediately finesse the Cs: S can get in once to play a H which loses to the A in dummy, but after that S can’t get back in (as long as declarer finesses the Cs properly). 
 

Moral of the story: more director calls needed! 

Note for Directors: this is my recollection of the words that were used during the Director’s call… it is quite possible that I am paraphrasing some words, so please don’t jump at me that Director would not have said that! 😂🤪

To see the Diary of a Novice archived articles click here.

Diary of a Novice Part 4
Director is called

Alec McQueen 26th May 2026

I have only experienced a handful of Director calls in my short bridge career… and one interesting one happened over the weekend at the Wagga Congress. ..........

Playing away

A few days ago I had the good fortune to play bridge at the Brisbane Waters Bridge Club in Woy Woy. We were up there on holiday, and I needed my bridge fix. So I contacted the club and asked if there was anyone there who could partner me for a game. Got a positive response within an hour and the afternoon’s bridge was arranged. The lovely lady who replied said: “Competition will be tough because a lot of Open players play on a Saturday. I am a novice too, but we will do our best!”. Sounded perfect. Bring it on. 

The bridge club was based at the local Community Centre and I arrived early to talk to partner about conventions. We agreed what we would play, and I learned in the discussion that actually she was the club President, and she had been playing for 10 years. Hardly a novice! So I had better bring my best game to not let her down and help us hold our own. 

The first 2 hands didn’t go so well… partner was in 2 part score contracts and went down by 1 in each. But she wasn’t frowning at me (yet!) and was mumbling that she perhaps hadn’t played them well (it turned out that both contracts were makable). 

But the next round proved interesting… my partner told me we were up against strong players. I was playing N, had 14 points and long clubs. The bidding got to 4H by E, and they were vul and we weren’t. So I thought: gotta be worth a punt to stop them getting a vul game… 5C. East looked at me sideways and tapped the table [I am hoping he was thinking… who is this guy??? 😂😂🫣]. He thinks for a while and bids 5H. Pass, pass, to me. Oh well, gotta double now. X. He looks at me again… “you’re a little bridge terrorist, aren’t you?”. Partner is looking a little rattled. I was smiling: “we’ll see”. 

Turns out everyone had at least a 7 card suit. E had an 8 card H suit, I had a 7 card C suit. But crucially there were no voids. So partner leads me a C, I make my A, and play the AS praying he didn’t have a void. He didn’t. And I have the KQ of H so we get them one off. Top board. Phew. At the end of the board he turns to me: “Well played sir! You *are* a little terrorist!” I think he was joking but I am not sure. 

We ended up over the afternoon about middle diddle… I call that holding your own: we did OK. And the Director said to me as we played our boards: you’re good at this, how long have you played? Head swells, and I promptly play a couple of bad boards. Cunning! Putting me off by compliments. I must try that. 

Playing away

A few days ago I had the good fortune to play bridge at the Brisbane Waters Bridge Club in Woy Woy. ..........

Luck in bridge; roll with the punches; Sapphire Coast Congress musings

I think it was Napoleon that declared he preferred lucky generals to good ones. Duplicate clearly minimises the luck in bridge, but it doesn’t eliminate it. Vicki and I competed in the Swiss Pairs on Saturday at the local Congress… we came 2nd last. A disappointing result even though we enjoyed ourselves at the far end of the room with some other no-hopers/unlucky pairs. 

Next day, we were in the teams event with Steph and Jane, desperately hoping not to let our team partners down. But we brought our secret weapon with us and our team won the novice section, came 12th out of 24 teams (we were all thrilled!). The stats indicated that Vicki and I placed 19th out of 48 pairs. Same people, same conventions, same experience, from 2nd last to 19th out of 48. Hmmm… how? Secret weapon. 

My opinion is that we had no luck at all on the Saturday. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong… below is an example hand where I think we were unlucky to lose over 8 IMPs. 22 of the 24 tables ended up with EW in 4S. We were NS. 4S is makeable but only 5 teams managed to get it. NS are always going to make the AK of D plus the A trumps (S). The key to making this contract is finessing south’s JS: once the 10S in W has won a trick it’s all plain sailing to make the 4S contract. Our opponents spotted this plan, it worked and they made 4S. But most didn’t. 17 of the 22 teams in 4S went down. Their opponents all collected nearly 3 IMPs. We lost 8. From just competing against opponents that saw the required play (when most didn’t). 

But on the Sunday at Congress in the Teams we seemed to have all the luck in the world… most things we did seemed to work… example below. We were EW, and our opponents were pretty useful… they finished 4th team in the comp. They bid to 6S by S, and from where I was sitting in E with 3 points, it looked very unpromising. Partner led 2H, promising an honour, so at least that’s something to work with. But with just one honour in C in my hand and their 6S contract (they must have decent shape), it looked pretty grim: I was relying on partner to come up with something. 

They ended up making 11, and we gained 13 IMPs because most NS pairs made a good S contract. We were 1 of 3 pairs to get the contract down. How did we do it? We chose the right opposition. The key to the hand is the KH in W which must be finessed to make 6S. Our opponents missed that and partner made the offside KS and the KH (which was onside) to get them down by 1: good old partner! But we were lucky: we were up against 1 of only 3 pairs that didn’t get the KH finesse. I dunno, maybe we put them off somehow? If I knew how, I would bottle it and sell it. 

As a novice player, I am learning to take both the good and bad scores with a pinch of salt. The great placings don’t mean I am suddenly good at bridge; and the (all-too-frequent) poor placings don’t mean I am not gradually improving. Bridge ability comes slowly. There are good days and there are bad days, and all that I can really hope for is that the good days slowly increase and the bad days slowly decrease. 

But the moral of the story is: choose your opponents wisely. And be lucky. 

Alec McQueen

Luck in bridge; roll with the punches; Sapphire Coast Congress musings

I think it was Napoleon that declared he preferred lucky generals to good ones. ..........

Yesterday we had 2 really interesting big hands… I played one terribly, and the other beautifully, if perhaps with more risk than maybe I should. 

The first hand I ended up as N in a pretty secure 6H, a spade was led from E and dummy came down. Counted the tricks and thought “I can make 7 here if I can win that KD”, so I played low to the K, which promptly lost to the A in W. Half way round that trick I realised the dumbness of my thinking… all those winners in dummy: I could throw my losing D in hand on them…. I don’t need that finesse at all. Duh! Making 6H is usually very satisfying, but in this case I knew that the majority of the room was going to make 7 cos they are not as dumb as me. 

The lesson I learnt was that I play as declarer too fast. I need to slow down, not get too excited, count to 10, and look at potential Plan Bs, Cs and Ds. Then I will see the flaw in my Plan A. 

But my frustration turned to delight on a subsequent hand… I picked up 17HCP, and partner opened 1NT…. gulp! Deep breaths… slowly now. Where might this go? We proceeded slowly (as one should with big hands). I was concerned that partner might drop me before game, but I engineered some forcing bids just to see what she might have. All seemed worth a punt… we had minimum 32HCP, plus I had some decent shape (5431). 4NT… partner bids 5S: but I was staring at the Q of the last bid suit… aha, don’t forget that partner does standard Blackwood… how many aces? 3: I had the other and 2 kings. To get to her 15HCP minimum we were perhaps missing a K. 

On sober reflection, I should have checked Ks with partner, but with all the As and decent shape I decided it was worth the risk… life in hands… 7NT. I have never bid that before, but there’s a first time for everything. 

I thought I was playing the hand so my heart rate was high. But no… partner opened 1NT, partner is playing… oh blimey, I hope I haven’t stuffed this up and landed partner in it! But partner played beautifully, and made the 7 quite easily. Phew!

I realised later that if partner had had the KH rather than the KD, we may have not been able to run the Ds without a finesse and it may not have made. But it was a pretty satisfying moment to bid and make 7NT.

Dumb to inspired in one afternoon. 
Alec McQueen

Yesterday we had 2 really interesting big hands… I played one terribly, and the other beautifully, if perhaps with more risk than maybe I should. ..........