August 2021 - 66

Special Contributor
George's World
T
hey say adversity builds character.
If that is true at the bridge
table, I have more character
than most. I have shot myself in the
foot more times than I can count. To
wit (what does that even mean?):
In the Grand National Teams many
years ago, I was defending against
expert Larry Robbins and had him
beat. All I had to do was keep my mouth
shut. Instead, I showed him my hand
and claimed down one. Armed with
this (un?)-authorized information,
he proceeded to endplay me in trump,
and one trick went away. When I was
bemoaning this to friend and bridge
superstar Ralph Katz, I told him it was
as if Larry could see all the cards.
The next time it happened was
against Ralph and Steve Landon at
the Cleveland Regional. I stepped into
their auction of 1NT-2 (Stayman) by
doubling for a club lead. The next thing
I knew, it went redouble on my left and
they scored up some huge number. In
the past 30 years, I have never done
that again.
So far in these stories, Ralph has been
my confidant and then my opponent,
but the next time this happened, he
was my partner. It was the quarterfinal
round of the Spingold, and I doubled
a high-level contract of 5, vulnerable.
The other team's sponsor said
redouble. My stomach lurched, and I
had terrible misgivings that I had really
stepped in it. After due consideration,
I ran. They doubled me instead and
set me 300. Had I sat for the redouble,
however, we would have been plus
1000. There's no guarantee we would
have beaten the next team, but we
would have had the opportunity.
These next two cases are both in my
top 10 bad situations that I created
myself.
66 | Bridge Bulletin | August 2021
BY GEORGE JACOBS
NOBET8888@aol.com
In the 1997 Team Trials (my first
time playing), we made it all the way to
the first final and lost by over 100 IMPs
to Nick Nickell. We made it back to
the second final and drew them again.
This time it was a different story. It
was a close match throughout, played
over two days. In the seventh set, Bob
Hamman opened the bidding with one
of a minor, and Ralph and I got to 6.
Our trump suit was K-9-x in dummy
while I held A-J-x-x-x. I could not
afford any losers. We were missing 11
HCP, and Hamman was on my left.
Knowing he had to have the queen of
trumps to open the bidding, I devised a
plan to play Bobby Wolff (on my right)
for the doubleton 10. I led the J from
hand. Let me give you a quote from The
Bridge World about that:
" Jacobs then made a play that was
designed to get into the newspapers,
one way or the other. "
Here is another quote from Richie
Schwartz, who called Ralph from an
airplane when he heard what I did
and said, " Did George see the hands? "
Bobby did have the doubleton 10, but it
was Q-10 doubleton!
We lost that match narrowly. I did
bring a court case against Hamman for
opening a 9-count, but 24 years later, it
is still pending.
In that same team trials, my most
famous blunder was born which cost
us a Spingold semifinal and almost cost
us a Reisinger victory. Playing against
Jeff Wolfson and Neil Silverman,
Ralph overcalled a minor at the three
level after Jeff had opened a weak 2.
Neil jumped to five of Ralph's minor,
showing a void in that minor and
asking for any other key cards. This
is called exclusion Blackwood. They
reached 6. Ralph led the other minor
and soon noticed that not only was
dummy not void in his suit, but it was
not even close. Both Neil and Jeff had
three cards in the suit, and we could
have cashed three tricks! Neil had a
long, running heart suit and plenty of
tricks if he could convince us not to
lead our suit. He had psyched exclusion
Blackwood.
I thought this was the coolest bid
I had ever seen until two years later,
when we were playing against Fred
Gitelman and Brad Moss in the semifinal
of the Spingold. I was having a
horrendous set and felt poorly as well. I
decided to put on my cape and psyched
exclusion. Fred, who was looking at
the trump queen, knew something
was amiss and led my " void. " Down
three when I also misplayed it by a
trick. Gone was our chance to win
the Spingold. I did it once more in the
Reisinger with similar results, but we
held on to win that one. For 20 years, I
have not done it again, but my reputation
is firmly entrenched. Fool myself
once, etc.
I cannot wait to see y'all in Austin.
August 2021

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