THE BID MADE MINUTES EARLIER

Occasionally, I get strong feelings about doing something abnormal at the bridge table. The strangest occurred when I was in college. I was standing on a Euston underground station platform in London. I knew I would be playing North, starting with Board 1 and being the dealer. I decided that if I did not have a normal opening, I would bid one spade regardless! That is what I did, and it worked well; we were off and running.

It happened again on this deal. My wife and I were playing at Bridge Base Online against two robots (computercontrolled hands). She had a telephone call, and while she was talking, I decided that if it went two passes to me, I would ... do what?

Although Iwould have opened her hand, lo and behold, there were two passes, so I bid three diamonds! (Two diamonds is not a weak two-bid in our system, but I had that premonition to open three.) It was passed out.

West led the club king. I won with dummy’s ace and took a losing trump finesse. West shifted to the heart king, under which I dropped the queen. West now led his second club. I won on the board, drew trumps and drove out the heart ace. I lost two hearts, one diamond and one club.

Strangely(!), no one else opened my hand. Then West began with one spade. Often North-South stayed out of the auction and West played in two spades, which went down one. Over two spades by East, South might have made a takeout double. Here, that might have resulted in a contract of three hearts, which could have been made. However, East might have pushed on to three spades because of the nine-card fit.