Bridge Play

Frank Stewart

I am on record as believing that the hyperactive competitive style many experts embrace — bidding with weak hands — may lose more than it gains. Busy bidding may assist declarer’s play.

In the Soloway Knockout Teams, the main event at the ACBL Fall NABC, a team captained by Warren Spector (Bathurst, Demuy, Hurd, Kranyak, Wolpert) prevailed. As usual, many of the teams comprised an affluent “sponsor” and a professional cast. In the final, SPECTOR defeated PALMA, a multinational squad, by 138 to 40; the match was never close.

PALMA’s East-West pair did too much bidding in today’s deal. (They were behind and trying to create swings, but when you’re losing and take wild shots, you’re most likely going to lose some more.)

West’s two diamonds allegedly showed a weak hand with length in a major. East jumped to three hearts; West was supposed to correct to spades if that was his suit. South for SPECTOR came in with a double and wound up playing at four spades.

West naturally led a heart, not a good start for the defense. Declarer won and guessed the queen of trumps, guided by the bidding. He made the game, losing two clubs and a diamond.

In the replay, amazingly enough, East-West for SPECTOR never bid. North-South got to four spades again, and West led a heart, quite reasonably after the auction at his table. Declarer won and proceeded to misguess the queen of trumps. The contract still could have been made, but declarer also failed to bring in the clubs and went down.

The winners gained 12 IMPs.