“Sie sind beide jung genug um sich eine Dummheit leisten zu können” (“They are young and can afford themselves a stupidity”) was the response from their professor when Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit came up with the idea of the electron spin. It almost won them a nobel prize.
Some weeks ago, I discussed the hand on the right and noticed that this was the only push board in a match at the White House Juniors. It wasn’t a flat board all over the place, look at what happened to the Dutch “Under 20” team. At the first table, EW bid the normal 6♠ and soon claimed their 12 tricks. At the other table, things took a completely different course. Screens were in use, with North and East on one side of the screen and South-West on the other.
- 2♣: Explained on both sides as a weak 2♦ or a strong hand.
- 3♦:
- North to East: Forcing, not necessarily a suit.
- South to West: natural diamonds.
- Dbl:
- East: Natural, that is, a diamond suit, as he expected 3♦ to be artificial.
- West: Majors, as he expected diamonds with north.
- 3♥:
- East: Natural suit.
- West: Preference for hearts.
- 5♣: Exclusion Blackwood (RKC not counting the ♣A).
- 5♦: 0 or 3.
Down 5, -1100, and this is how you lose 19 imp’s. After the hand, east immediately admitted that he should have introduced spades over 3♦ rather than make a vague double and also should have realized that 3♥ is a forced bid and can be made on a weak suit. Ah, well, EW are still young, they can afford a silly result sometime.
And, to show you that EW do know what they are doing, here is a hand we played against them in a practice match yesterday evening. The hand has been modified slightly from the original to stress the point.
You hold pick up this collection, not vulnerable against vulnerable opponents. 2NT shows spades and at least a limit raise. 3♥ is natural and the opponents do not have a way to show hearts and clubs at the same time, LHO could have opened a weak 2♥ or a 2 suiter with 5♥ and 4m though. 4♦ is natural and creates a forcing situation. Double of 6♣ invites you to bid on unless you really feel like defending. Your bid?
I prefer to have 4 spades for the 2NT bid, but other than that, my hand looks very offensively oriented: no club losers and a diamond fit. In short, 6♠ looked entirely reasonable, but that turned out to be wrong, as the full hand was this. A very aggressive overcall and lots of pressure from EW, pushed us over the edge.
North made the good lead of a trump, double dummy there are of course easier leads to defeat the hand but those aren’t very attractive when looking at only 13 cards. Declarer won the ♠A, double dummy the hand can be made by playing ♠AK and then a diamond to the 9, but that is not something you’ll do in practice.
Down 1, and a nice score for EW, as at several tables, NS were allowed to play a quiet 4♠: 1♠, pass, 2♠, 2NT to show a 2-suiter, 4♠, all pass, 11 easy tricks.