Aces on Bridge — Daily Columns

The Aces on Bridge: Wednesday, 21 August, 2024


4 Comments

Iain ClimieAugust 21st, 2024 at 12:33 pm

Hi Bobby,

Change the hand slightly to give South AJxx Axx Axx Axx and the play gets interesting if East finds the D switch. West takes the DK and goes back to hearts and now where is the CK? Probably with West (although the DK might be a falsecard) but playing CA and another now fails horribly when East has CKx – Kxx is unmanageable unless East does something silly.

Also a stray thought on TOCM at T1 ifd Jim2 is on lead. Has he ever considered shuffling the cards and drawing one at random or even offering the fanned out hand and giving declarer the chance to pick one – or is there a rule against that to stop declarer expiring from laughing? Would it make any difference though? Still dire situations can need drastic measures!

Regards,

Iain

jim2August 21st, 2024 at 7:10 pm

I once was at an event where a pair sitting in our direction bid w/o looking at their cards.

IIRC, one would bid 3N if he felt like it. Perhaps they bid an unbid suit once the opponents bid and supported another, but I am unsure of that.

Iain ClimieAugust 21st, 2024 at 9:40 pm

Hi Jim2,

Any idea where they finished? I heard about a pair who decided to pass throughout a pairs session regardless – not a huge success but slightly above 50% apparently. Might be an urban myth of course.

Regards,

Iain

jim2August 22nd, 2024 at 11:41 am

Since it has been close to 60 years since those events, it should come as little surprise that such details are beyond my retrieval.

I also recall accounts of an announced “all Pass” partnership agreement at another game. IIRC, it was deemed NOT to be psychic bidding because they were not deliberate bidding things they did not have, nor were they engaged in deceptive bids.

Of course, the David Bird stories of the “Eustacian Order” do come to mind. 🙂