It’s time you were introduced to our resident writers here at Bridge to Nowhere, so let’s start with our chaplain and regular declarer of hopeless contracts, St Jude. Like his ecclesiastical namesake, Jude is used to lost causes – phantom sacrifices, slams off two aces, desperation switches that give away redoubled overtricks, that kind of thing. Hoping to improve his results, Jude has recently begun casting his eyes heavenwards when his dummies hit and whispering a silent prayer that his opponents renege. This makes him the only player in the room who is actually thinking when he stares at the ceiling.
See if you can match St Jude’s judgement in this hand from a recent teams match in the Sean Stack League, played at the Regent Bridge Club in the heart of Dublin 4 (the good saint apologises if he got some of the details wrong, he had to rush off to confession after passing partner in a cue bid and he forgot to pick up the hand records). Imagine you hold the following cards as South, second to speak, non-vulnerable against vulnerable, IMPs scoring:
When Jude picked up this hand his right hand opponent opened 1NT strong. In accordance with the wishes of his partner (for the meek shall inherit the earth), he had agreed to play 2D as artificial, showing spades and another, so muttering a quick prayer he leapt in with 3D. The auction proceeded as follows:
| West | North | East | South |
| | | 1NT | 3♦ |
| 3♥ | 5♦ | 5♥ | p |
| 6♣ | p | 6♥ | ? |
|
What now? Decide what action (if any) you plan to take, and read on to see how the hand panned out.
Fidgeting with his rosary, St Jude cast his eyes to the Great Dealer in the sky, and awaited His guidance. What was God’s will for him on this hand? Should he swing the axe, expecting at least two of his three top tricks to stand up? Perhaps there were two top spade winners out for the defence, and LHO was confidently awaiting a diamond lead into his void, in which case the double should steer partner away from the obvious lead? But the auction was very revealing – especially that 6C bid! Jude could tell that West had not read his Ecclesiastes recently ("A time to keep silence, and a time to speak", Ecc.3.7). Surely he had at least twelve, possibly as many as fourteen cards in the round suits to be bidding this way? At last Jude recalled the teachings of the church – “Only Jesus saves!” – and, remembering his namesake’s devotion to lost causes, he decided to pass meekly and pay off to the opponents’ vulnerable slam.
The full deal was as follows:
| Dealer | E | | Vul | E/W | | Scoring | - | | Lead | |
| | |
|  | |
| | |
Partner led a small diamond, ruffed in the closed hand. Two top trumps then hit thetable, followed by the rest of declarer’s cards: the four spades would go on the clubs, and there were stlll trumps to spare on the table to ruff declarer’s singleton. Jude quietly wrote up -1460 on his scorecard, and hoped his team-mates had the nous to drive that four-loser hand to slam.
When it came time to score up, he was overjoyed that for once he did not have to wait for heaven to get his reward, as his counterpart at the other table, on a near-identical auction, doubled 6H (Lightner style; suggesting that partner look for an unusual lead, in this case clearly spades). In one sense he was right, as the spade was the only lead to prevent the overtrick. However, it was only a technical triumph, as +1660 against -1460 proved to be 5 IMPs to the good guys. Kudos to you if you followed Jude’s reasoning and passed; even more so if you had the courage of your convictions and saved in 7D doubled for a likely -800!
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