Freak deals from home and abroad

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 16

Freak deals from home and abroad

CONTRACT BRIDGE

By-

J.R. Wignall

What, do you think, is the smallest number of high card points needed to make a grand slam? Bearing in mind that most text books assure us we should have round about 35, would you believe the record low is five? Of course you need a bit of distribution, too, as this actual deal from a recent American Contract Bridge League bulletin shows: N A J 10874 V — ♦ — A 98765432 W E A Q A K VAKQJ96 V 10 8732 54 ♦ AKIO ♦ QJ6 A Q A A K J 10 S A A 96532 V — ♦ 9875432 A — It occurred in a duplicate game in Cleveland, and one suspects the shuffling was not all it might have been. The auction was a bit unusual, too: W N E S IV 2A ■ 4NT 6A Dble 6A 7V No No 7A i Dble All Pass | East-West could make i six hearts with the greatest i of ease, but seven was a : bit high. South could not i be sure his ace of spades 1 was a sure trick against | the grand slam so he took out insurance, as he thought, against his oppo- ' nents’ contract. He .was I prepared to concede a small penalty to save a large adverse score. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. On the ace of hearts opening lead, he discarded a club from dummy as he ruffed in hand. He trumped a diamond on the table, and reentered his hand with the ace of spades ■ drawing the ; two adverse trumps, f Another diamond was ruffed, a club was trumped : by South, and a third diai mond was ruffed in dummy. ; That disposed of all the i enemy diamonds so when

the declarer had returned to his hand by trumping a club the remainder of his cards were high. East-West, in spite of their galaxy of high cards and 35 points, were quite unable to win a single trick, and the boldly bid grand slam had been made.

This story came to mind again the other day during a heat of the Quill Morris tournament when this deal appeared: N A 96532 V — ♦ KJ 109 7 6 ♦ 86 W E A AKJ74 A QlOB V AJ9S V 10 8 7 ♦A ♦ Q 85432 A K 10 4 A A S A — V KQ6432 ♦ — A QJ97532 “There ought to be a law against two voids in one hand,” said one player with deep feeling after coping with this exhibit, a sentiment echoed by most of his fellows. Or three voids. . . The Quill Morris is an event restricted to 12 pairs all of whom have won one or more local championships. Over a period of three months they play each other in a ' double round robin which at present is about half way through. At the end there will be a semi-final and final for the top four pairs. The standard of play is Quite reasonably high but few of the participants handled this deal with any great confidence. Indeed there was an amazing, and at times, embarrassing variety of results. At the first table South was allowed to play in three clubs doubled which, after some complicated and

sparkling defence, was defeated by one trick. He had every reason to be satisfied with his score of minus 200, for his opponents could have made an easy four-spade contract.

At the second table South reached five clubs after passing as dealer and again was allowed to escape for only one down. The defence, it seems, was not at its best when confronted with such violent distribution. At the third table West finished in six spades, not a bad contract on the two hands, but one that had to go down one trick on the outlandish suit breaks. This was, of course, by far the best result for a NorthSouth pair as you will soon see.

At the fourth table South reached five clubs doubled, lost control in more senses than one and conceded a penalty of 1100. The same figure was achieved by another declarer who played in three hearts doubled, also down four.

But the biggest score of all went to a valiant North who insisted on playing in five diamonds doubled, made only four tricks in trumps and conceded 2000 for seven down.