February 2015 - 66

Special Contributors

George's World
BY GEORGE JACOBS

There was a pretty amazing deal on
BBO the other night. My hand was:
♠ K 10 9 6 4 3 2 ♥ A 10 9 8 4 3 ♦- ♣-
There was no way I would stop bidding with this baby, right? Your job is
to guess how many bids I took. Hint:
The deal was played in a slam. We will
come back to this in a moment.
This past weekend, former Bridge
Bulletin editor Brent Manley came to
visit us. Stacy had booked us to play
in a Swiss team game at the All Bridge
Saints Club in LaGrange IL.
While we did not score very well,
there was a case of life imitating art.
(Not really, but that sounded cooler
than telling you I was reading "Bridge
Brilliance and Blunders" for the 100th
time last week, and that Brent had a
hand that was exactly the same as one
in the book, and that I was sitting out
that round and kibitzing Brent and
Stacy and watched him do just what
happened in the book. If you would
like to hear about it, I have to close this
first as I am certain it is grammatically
illegal to go on this long inside parentheses.)
First the book: On page 156, the
author, Richard Miller, quotes a story
from Victor Mollo about the Hideous
Hog in another hopeless notrump
contract.
♥ Q 10
♥853

♥AK92
♥J764

West, the Toucan, leads the 5 (playing MUD) and East, the Penguin, wins

66 Bridge Bulletin February 2015

NOBET8888@aol.com

the king. At trick two, he cashes the
ace, and the Toucan follows with the 8.
On the lead of the ♥2, the Hog inserts
the 7 and makes his contract.
Now the deal from the club game:
♣Q752
♣ 10 8 3

♣AKJ4

♣96
In 4♥, this was the club suit. Brent
led the 8 and Stacy won the jack. She
cashed the king and Brent had to play
the 10 so she would know who was
ruffing. Look what happened: The
remaining cards in dummy are the Q 7,
while Stacy has the A 4 and Brent has
the 3. There is a ruffing finesse against
the ace. I was fascinated by this strange
coincidence mere days after noting this
deal in the book. Luckily, the declarer
missed this spectacular play. We enjoyed this club and its hostess, Eleanor
Nuellen. We will definitely be back.
So how many times did I bid? Five,
six, eight? I never bid even though I was
the opener! Follow along with me.
Dlr: South
Vul: E-W

♠-
♥K2
♦ A K J 10 9 8 4 3
♣753
♠J
♠AQ875
♥QJ765
♥-
♦-
♦Q7652
♣KJ98642
♣ A Q 10
♠ K 10 9 6 4 3 2
♥ A 10 9 8 4 3
♦-
♣-

West

North
Steve

East

Pass
2♥ (3)
5♣
6♣ (5)

Pass
3♦
5♦
Pass

1♠
3NT
Dbl
Pass

South
Me
Pass (1)
Pass (2)
Pass
Pass (4)
Pass (6)

(1) I will have time.
(2) Glad I passed.
(3) Really glad.
(4) I was not invited.
(5) Wow!
(6) They might make seven.
So, you know my thinking. Steve
was having a little sport in third hand
favorable by passing. After all, he knew
someone had spades . East was an
honest citizen with the most normal
distribution. West chose to bid his fivecard heart suit before his seven-card
club suit.
6♣ eventually went down two tricks.
Ralph Katz was kibitzing and announced that it was the most incredible bidding he had ever seen. I spoke
with him 11 times the next day, and he
kept talking about this deal. He said
that after a high diamond lead, the slam
is cold by ruffing four diamonds and
three hearts, ending in hand, drawing
trumps and feeding me a heart. Down
to three cards, what can I do? Truly a
remarkable deal.
Is it any wonder we love the game of
bridge so much?
Ciao.
◾

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2015