A Brief Return to the Bridge Table

We interrupt our normal golf discussion to venture into the bridge world.

The games have a lot in common actually.  They are both games of errors where gambling and taking a chance can quickly cause severe problems.

I've not played a lot of competitive bridge since the divorce.  She got the bridge game.  I got my Friday nights back.

I joined David in a local small club in Hayward.  It is in a small community park on top of a hill.

There were 4 and one half tables, which causes you to sit out for 24 minutes when you play the phantom pair.

The bridge was nothing spectacular and I doubt that we broke average.  We didn't play too badly, but the great god Golonzo, who normally protects overbidders, was not on the top of that hill.

There is one cute hand that I will relate then do my best to ignore the rest.

So, left hand opponent (LHO) opens 1NT, pass by partner, RHO bids 2c.  This is Stayman that asks partner if they have a 4 card major (hearts and or spades for those who don't play).  LHO now bids 2d, showing no major.  They end up in 3nt.

Partner leads and dummy hits with 4 spades and some other cards.  LHO wins the first trick and precedes to run off 5 spade tricks.  If you play enough, there are lots of clues as to suit distributions and eye brows were being raised as the play and spades continued to hit the table.

So they end up making 4 nt.  We ask about the auction and my LHO says that she bid 2d to deny a 4 card major.  She had 5 and 5 is not 4!  So it made sense to me as a programmer, and probably the Clintons as lawyers, but in the real world Stayman might also allow, or insist, that partner show a 4 or 5 bagger!

It was the highlight of the day.  Oh, how did the board turn out for us?  Dead last as the room was in 4 spades that makes the same 10 tricks.  It was an example of how things went.

The director and some of the player were trying to  coax me back to play again.  Thanks, but no thanks, I said with a polite smile.  They were nice folks, but I've gone down the dark path already and there is no interest in doing it again.