This hand was played at a match-point duplicate session and I was surprised by the many different results that occured on this board. The North-South pair were always plus. Some of the results were defensive scores. The best result was plus 800 which only happened once. The other scores were 680 (twice), 650 (twice), 350, 250, and 200 (twice).
When I held the South cards the auction went as shown. The question that needs to be addressed is why did I bid four spades instead of two or three spades? East has shown a balanced hand with 15 to 17 high card points. I have 13 high card points. That accounts for 28 to 30 of the high card points, leaving only 10 to 12 for the other two hands. If the majority of those points are in the West hand I want to make that player guess at the highest possible level. If the majority of those points are in my partner's hand I want him to know that after all I have heard, I doubt that we can make a slam.
If the remaining points are divided more or less evenly, I will make ten or eleven tricks. In fact, if you exchange the West and North hands, you will see that game can be made opposite either hand. Also, observe what happens after you overcall two or three spades. The auction will probably go pass, pass, pass, leaving you in a part score making a few overtricks.
This is not a hand to be counting points but rather, potential winners and losers. It is very good to examine the complete results after the game is over and to pay particular attention to hands like these. When you see that the majority of the field has driven to contracts that produced game scores or better, you will have a good idea of what the successful players are doing with these distributional deals.
If you are a bridge player and you have internet access, you are living during wonderful times. There is a treasure trove of resources available to the bridge community. The American Contract Bridge League's home page can be found at www.acbl.org and it contains more information than has ever been accumulated at one site. The local unit of the league has a web site at www.whistclub.org and it contains links to all of the individual bridge clubs in the greater Cleveland area.
You can also play or watch bridge on the internet at
www.bridgebase.com and this is a free site. Once you
create an account and download the software you can not only play
at any time of the day or night, but you can watch virtually
every important national and international championship event as
it unfolds. All of the sites I have mentioned here have links to
many other bridge related sites. I am amazed, on a regular
basis, of how many people, all over the world, share the
passion for this game.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com