Remember what has happened

Beryl Pfizer, who was a radio and television producer, said, “I write down everything I want to remember. That way, instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.”

I can relate to that! One advantage of online bridge is that you can write down the cards as they are played. How many have taken advantage of that?

A key aspect of the game is remembering what happened. For example, you open one spade, lefty passes, your partner responds two diamonds (natural and game-forcing), and the next player intervenes with two hearts. What are your options?

After a two-over-one game-forcing response, either your side bids at least game or the opponents play in something doubled for penalty. So, in my example, you may pass, which is forcing. If instead you double, that is for penalty.

South did not remember the earlier auction in today’s deal from an ACBL online duplicate, and he paid a price when East defended well.

North passed on round one, and East balanced with one spade. Now, South should have rebid one no-trump, showing a balanced 18 or 19 points, but strangely he passed. Next, he should have tried two no-trump or passed out North’s two diamonds. South’s jump to three no-trump should have included a six-card diamond suit -- a source of tricks.

Reading it like that, East overtook the spade queen with his king and shifted to the heart two. In this way, the defenders took the first five tricks.