Contract Bridge

A Strategic Pass

This deal occurred many years ago in the Masters Pairs championship in England. The bidding shown took place when Nico Gardener and Albert Rose, wellknown international stars, held the North-South cards.

East opened one spade on a hand with which most players, using standard methods of bidding, would pass as dealer. However, East-West were playing

Acol, which emphasizes good distribution, so East felt obliged to open the bidding.

Rose made a normal overcall of two diamonds, and West entered the fray with two hearts. North’s correct action at this point is debatable — there are possibly half a dozen different bids he could reasonably make.

But Gardener felt that he was not yet in good position to judge how high to go in diamonds, so he elected to pass! This unusual maneuver worked out extremely well when Gardener eventually inched his way into six diamonds, which West doubled and Rose made with an overtrick.

West might possibly have bid six hearts (down one) instead of doubling, even though there was no way he could expect that his partner would not take a trick after having opened the bidding.

In general, in the situation West was confronted with, it pays to go on bidding despite the fact that you’re sure to go down and the opponents have seemingly overextended themselves. The operative principle is that you should be willing to accept a relatively small loss in order to avoid a large one.

None of these comments is meant to detract in any way from Gardener, who started out with an imaginative first-round pass and was ultimately rewarded for it with 1,190 points.