Montevideo, June 3, 2014
Very good players participated in the 2014 edition of the South American Bridge Championships, some of them were world champions and several others, wanted to go unnoticed though, as a character from Victor Mollo (1909/1987), they couldnt.
Edit.Note: “Victor Mollo published a series of 12 books, bridge and humor, called “Bridge in the Menagerie.” In these books the author narrates amusing alternatives in the bridge tables, using some animal names, associated with adjectives to describe their characters. Some of the best known are: Hideous Hog (HH), Secretary Bird, Papa the Greek, Oscar the Owl…
One of those characters was the Rueful Rabbi (RR): a small, timid man who can barely hold his cards together and can’t always tell diamonds from hearts, but has such incredible luck that even the cards he accidentally drops (several at once, occasionally) become the right ones.
Let’s sit RR at North for the next boards…:
Board 1
 K J x x Q x x x x x J x x |
||
| Q x x K x Q x x Q 10 x x x |
x x x 10 x x K 10 x A x x |
|
| A x x A J x x A J x x x K |
The bidding:
| West | RR | East | Me |
| 1 |
|||
| Pass | 1 |
Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 3 |
Pass | 4 |
| Pass | Pass | The end | |
RR read in some book that with 6/7 pts he had to show a suit, so with no doubts he answered 1 to the 1 opening bid , over my 2 rebid, he supported with 3 and we landed in 4.
The lead was a small club, after winning with the A, East repeated the suit. I ruffed, and let run a small diamond, opps won the trick and played back a club, I ruffed again.
I continued playing a spade to the J winning the trick, two trumps A and J. When the defense won the trick with the K, dummy had not losers and I claimed the game. My opps were down in the other table.
Board 2:
| x Q 10 x K x x x Q 8 7 x x |
||
| 10 9 x J x x x x x A J x x |
J 8 x x x A x x x x x K x |
|
| A K Q x K x x x A Q x 10 9 |
The bidding:
| West | RR | East | Yo |
| Pass | 1 |
||
| Pass | 3 |
Pass | 3NT |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | |
RR didnt want to answer 1NT with a singleton so he choose to bid 3 (inverted minors), for him it was the best way to describe his hand.
We landed in a 3NT contract and the lead was a small club. East won with his K, and after a good look to the dummy he decided to switch to a spade, the 8 (2nd /4th), I won with the K and I watched West play the 10.
Now I played a heart to dummy’s 10, the board fate was decided in this movement because losing to the J, the defense was able to play its spades and arrive to the 5th trick. A heart to the Q allows other variants in the future.
East, after winning with his A returned a spade. Now I had to pitch something from dummy with 10x Kxxx Q8. A heart pitch denies the J x chance and the 8 pitch denies the squeeze…and the 4th diamond pitch denies the 3/3 chance, I choose a diamond.
I continued playing three diamond rounds and the K, the last chance now was an end play with the 10. The last three cards in West were J and J x so dummy’s Q 8 were the last two tricks.
Board 3:
| Q Q x x x x A Q J x x x x |
||
| K x x x A K Q J x x x x x |
A 10 9 x x x K J 10 x x x x |
|
| x x A x x x x x K J 10 x x |
The bidding:
| West | RR | East |
Yo |
| 3 |
Pass | 3 |
|
| 5 |
5 |
Pass | Pass |
| Pass | |||
RR opened with a 3 bid, I said 3, I was sure that our opps had a cold slam, one of them had to have a club void. When the bidding ended I thought: “No double…no trouble”. When the dummy touched the table RR hand CHANGED… his J was the spade valet…
Now RR hand was: QJ Qxx xx AQxxxx, 6 down No doubled were less than 650 or 600 (game in spades or diamonds). So another 8 IMPs for RR.
Board 4:
Next board is a true example of our heroe imagination. If you are able to hit some of the voices made by RR on the next hand, see your doctor … URGENT!.
| A J x x x A K J x x A J x |
||
| 10 x x x x x x K Q 10 x x x |
Q x x x x x Q x x x x x x |
|
| K x x Q 10 x A K J 10 x x x |
The bidding:
| West | RR | East | Yo |
| Pass | 1 |
||
| Pass | 2 |
Pass | 2 |
| Pass | 2 |
Pass | 2NT |
| Pass | 3 |
Pass | 3NT |
| Pass | 6NT | Fin | |
Curious…RR never named his spade suit, let’s see what happened:
Lead: K
As I didnt play the A, the opps played another club and the J won trick two. The play ended with a spade-diamond squeeze, scoring 1440, 10 points more than the mortals that played the major slam.
Board 5:
We had to play against some World Champs and RR brought out his arsenal of gadgets.
| A J x A Q 10 9 x x A 10 9 x |
||
| A Q J x x x x x x x x x x |
10 9 x x K 10 9 x x K x Q x |
|
| K x x x x J x x K J x x x |
In the other room the bidding was: 3 X 4 p p X p p p, two down.
Our bidding:
| West | RR | East | Yo |
| 3 |
4NT | Pass | 6 |
| Pass | Pass | 6 |
Doblo |
| Pass | Pass | Pass | |
Our RR heard about naming the two minors with a NT jump and he decided to show his hand with a 4NT jump. Four down and 800 points = 11 IMPs for RR.
When we had to play against Bocchi/ Madala the kibitzers and RR were astonished when they supported their suits at the six level…RR found a challenge to overcome in the near future.
Mano 6:
| x x A K Q x K x x x x x x |
||
| K x x x x Q J x K x x x x |
A Q x x x x x A A Q x x x |
|
| x x x J 10 x x x x x x x x |
The bidding:
| West | RR | East | Yo |
| 1 |
Doblo | 2 |
|
| Doblo | 3 |
Doblo | Pass |
| 4 |
Pass | 4 |
Pass |
| 4 |
Pass | 5 |
Pass |
| 6 |
Fin | ||
The natural calls were 4 and 5.
BBO broadcasted our Round 12 and RR opened 1 with: x A K Q J x A K x Q J x x
I answered 3NT (mini-splinter) and RR jumped to 6NT. In our system this opens the possibility to say 7NT or 7, in both cases a record! as I had:
A Q x x x 10 x x x Q 9 x x void
I said 7. The trump suit was 2-2 the final result will be something to analize in the next article.